Attention shifted from symbolic gestures to actual laws meant to protect journalists and support media freedom as Europe celebrated World Press Freedom Day. In a significant turn of events, Luxembourg published its first National Action Plan for the Safety of Journalists covering 2025 to 2028. Justice Minister Elisabeth Margue unveiled the strategy, which details preventive, protective, and prosecutorial actions meant to enhance institutional safeguards for journalists.
“By building a paradigm against impunity, we protect not only journalists but also democracy itself,”
Margue said.
Luxembourg became the eleventh Council of Europe member state to adopt such a framework, joining Sweden, Switzerland, Portugal, and the United Kingdom. The action plans are part of a wider initiative launched by the Council of Europe in 2023 under the banner Journalists Matter—a five-year campaign to raise awareness and improve journalist safety across the continent.
Flutura Kusari, Legal Advisor at the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF), spoke to Brussels Morning Newspaper about the campaign’s goals and impact.
“So, the Council of Europe launched the safety campaign Journalists Matter two years ago. It will last for another three years. The whole idea is to raise awareness about safety of journalists across Europe, but the idea is to have some tangible results, and one of them is national action plans,”
She said.
“The member states of the Council of Europe are supposed to produce a document which is a national plan on how they plan to tackle safety of journalists.”
Kusari welcomed Luxembourg’s newly announced plan, describing it as “a fabulous result of this campaign.” She added that other countries have taken similar steps and expressed hope that by the end of the campaign, all member states would have national action plans in place.
However, implementation remains inconsistent, particularly in the Western Balkans. Kusari noted that all countries in the region—except Kosovo—are Council of Europe members and therefore expected to develop national plans. “As far as I know, none of these countries have safety national plans, which means they should produce [them],” she said.
“Now with regard to Albania, there is dialogue between the government and the civil society, and there are steps being taken towards this direction, but as far as I know, there isn’t any concrete result.”
Kusari emphasized the urgency of proactive measures, pointing to rising pressures on journalists.
“The question is whether this is necessary—it’s absolutely necessary, because member states should not wait for physical threats to happen. And you have in Albania online threats, you have censorship, you have various groups interfering with journalistic work,”
She said.
“So I think joining this campaign for Albania would be beneficial, especially considering the fact that they are progressing towards EU accession.”
Albania was already under observation following a recent Constitutional Court ruling in favour of investigative journalist Elton Qyno. Refusing to provide his sources after 2023 coverage on a sensitive anti-corruption issue, Qyno was searched at home, work, and car by the Special Prosecution Against Corruption and Organised Crime (SPAK). On April 22, 2025, the court ruled that Qyno’s seizure of data and electronic devices violated the European Convention on Human Rights and the Constitution of Albania. The court ordered destruction of all confiscated materials.
Standardising rights has also come a long way at the European Union level. The European Parliament recently adopted the EU Media Freedom Act, a new regulation that imposes binding requirements on member states to safeguard editorial independence and journalist safety. The legislation prohibits authorities from coercing journalists into revealing their sources through detention, office raids, or digital surveillance.
Audrius Perkauskas, Deputy Head of Unit at the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Communication Networks, Content and Technology (DG CONNECT), described the act as a key milestone.
“This legislation isn’t just about media,”
He said.
“It’s about protecting every citizen’s right to access reliable, independent information.”
The Council of Europe’s General Rapporteur on Journalists’ Security echoed these views, stating,
“The freedom of expression is not just a personal right. It is the backbone of any free society. Without it, democracy becomes an empty shell.”
At the Journalists Matter conference, held alongside World Press Freedom Day, participants agreed that while legal frameworks represent progress, their true test lies in enforcement. Without rigorous implementation, protections on paper may fail to translate into protections in practice.
“There is no free society without a free press,”
Said Tawfik Jelassi, UNESCO’s Assistant Director-General for Communication and Information, in his closing remarks. “And there is no free press if telling the truth means risking your life.”
