In April 2016 the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe adopted a Recommendation CM/Rec(2016)4 on the protection of journalism and safety of journalists and other media actors, condemning the alarming and unacceptable level of threats to journalists and media actors in Europe and providing specific Guidelines to member states to act in the areas of prevention, protection, prosecution, promotion of information, education and awareness rising.

Recent murders of journalists in Council of Europe states, including the killings of Daphne Caruana Galizia, Dmitri Popkov, Saeed Karimian and Pavel Sheremet, demonstrate the urgent need for redoubled action. It is therefore necessary to initiate a more systematic implementation of CM/Rec(2016)4 in addition to supporting national authorities through cooperation activities and by providing responses to challenges to media freedom and safety of journalists. Given the exhaustive nature of the Guidelines, the implementation strategy will be applied in certain priority areas as a first step. Journalists, journalist associations and civil society are therefore kindly invited to examine the questionnaire below summarising the topics listed under the four pillars of the Guidelines, and to identify and rate the topics/areas that should be given priority implementation at this stage.

 Link to the questionnaire:

 Questionnaire on priority areas for the implementation of Recommendation CM/Rec(2016)4

 Please download the questionnaire and send the completed version to: [email protected]