The COVID-19 crisis has highlighted the systemic threats to the future survival of the media, from political interference to the search for a sustainable funding model in the digital era. The situation of independent media after COVID-19 shows similar trends in the Central and South-Eastern European region: collapse of advertising revenues, problems of distribution networks, political control over public information and political pressure on independent media with subtle methods. In this report, journalists from Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Serbia, and Slovenia are asked to report on how the pandemic has affected journalism in their countries.

Authors: Vojtěch Berger, Primož Cirman, Boryana Dzhambazova, Cristina Lupu, Leonárd Máriás, Jelena Prtorić, Žarka Radoja, Bojan Stojkovski, Karolina Zbytniewska (authors)
Editor: Maxim Edwards