Registration is now officially open for the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) Summit 2026, a flagship annual high-level event which brings together journalists, media experts, and policymakers to discuss and find solutions to the key challenges facing press freedom in Europe today.
Scheduled to take place on October 12, 2026, in the Representation of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia to the European Union (EU) in Brussels, Belgium, the Summit is hosted by the Media Freedom Rapid Response Consortium, which includes the International Press Institute (IPI), the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF), ARTICLE 19 Europe, the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), Free Press Unlimited (FPU), and Osservatorio Balcani Caucaso Transeuropa (OBCT), a department of the Centro per la Cooperazione Internazionale (CCI).
Discussions at the one-day event will focus on the financial sustainability of journalism, growing threats in the digital space, legal harassment, foreign interference, public service media, information integrity, and gendered dimensions of attacks against journalists.
The Summit will also explore how independent media can be better protected and strengthened as a cornerstone of democratic resilience and security across Europe.
It is organised in partnership with the Representation of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia to the EU and Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung.
The summit will feature a series of high-level discussions examining both longstanding and emerging challenges to media freedom. The programme will open with welcome remarks by Nathanael Liminski, Head of the State Chancellery of North Rhine-Westphalia and Minister for Federal, European, International Affairs, and the Media, and Elena Rodina, MFRR Coordinator at the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom.
An opening keynote will be delivered by Márton Gergely, Editor-in-Chief of Hungary’s independent current affairs weekly HVG and Chair of the Executive Board of the International Press Institute.
The first major panel will focus on the monetisation of journalism and the financial future of media in the digital age. The session will examine concerns that social media platforms and artificial intelligence are extracting value and revenue from journalism while independent media organisations struggle to develop sustainable business models.
Participants will also discuss issues surrounding data scraping, policy responses, and the different financial needs of mainstream media, independent outlets, freelance journalists, and innovative digital media start-ups.
The discussion will be moderated by Renate Schroeder, Director of the European Federation of Journalists, with contributions from Bojana Kostić of the Global Forum for Media Development and Dr Laura Moore of Deutsche Welle.
Another major session will examine the growing pressures facing public service media in Europe despite the protections envisaged under the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA). The panel, titled “Public Media: Challenges and Flashpoints Across Europe in a Post-EMFA Europe,” will examine developments in the Czech Republic and Lithuania, as well as ongoing reforms in Hungary.
Participants will assess the extent to which the EMFA is protecting journalistic independence and sustainable financing, and discuss what additional measures may be needed to protect independent public media from political interference.
The session will be moderated by IPI’s Jamie Wiseman, and will include representatives and experts from Czech Radio, Lithuanian National Radio and Television, and the Civil Liberties Union for Europe.
The summit will also devote significant attention to the increasingly dangerous digital environment facing journalists. A panel entitled “Threats from the Net: Journalists’ Minefields in the Digital Space” will examine online violence and harassment, cyberbullying, spyware, and other forms of digital attacks.
According to the programme, 70 per cent of cases reported through MFRR monitoring concern online violence and harassment, making the digital environment the most frequent context in which media freedom violations occur. The discussion will consider the protection offered by the European Union’s Digital Services Act and explore practical and policy responses to threats such as distributed denial-of-service attacks, spyware, and weaponised cyberbullying.
Legal harassment will also feature prominently at the summit, with a session examining Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs). The discussion will take place against the backdrop of continuing concerns about the use of lawsuits and other legal mechanisms to intimidate and silence critical journalism.
Using Italy and Moldova as case studies, the session will assess developments following the EU’s Anti-SLAPP Directive and examine what measures are proving effective in protecting journalists and strengthening democratic resilience.
Another panel, titled “The Authoritarian Playbook in Action: Foreign Agent Laws and Shrinking Space for Independent Media,” will focus on the spread of foreign agent laws and other restrictive legislation affecting media funding.
The programme notes that such laws can stigmatise journalists and media organisations, obstruct their work, undermine their financial viability and, in some circumstances, expose media actors to criminal prosecution.
Focusing on Georgia and Turkey, the discussion will examine how governments use foreign-agent rhetoric and restrictive legislation to constrain independent media and will consider how the European Union should respond.
The summit will also include a special intervention focusing on the different and often more intense forms of harassment and threats experienced by female journalists. The session will bring together Emilia Șercan, a Romanian investigative journalist and journalism lecturer, and Oleksandra Horchynska of Women in Media in Ukraine. They will discuss the gender-specific dimensions of attacks on women journalists and explore measures that can be taken to strengthen protection and resistance against such threats.
The final major panel will focus on information integrity and democratic resilience, particularly the threats posed by Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (FIMI) and transnational repression. The discussion will examine how governments and other actors use propaganda and cross-border repression to manipulate public opinion and target journalists, activists, and media professionals, including those living in exile.
Moderated by Roberta Taveri, Senior Media Freedom Programme Officer for Europe at Article 19 Europe, the panel will bring together journalists and policymakers to consider how a stronger independent media environment can contribute to democratic resilience.
The summit is expected to conclude with closing remarks after a full day of discussions.
Intending participants can register for the Summit at https://bit.ly/4zvHfcE.
The MFRR tracks, monitors, and reacts to violations of press and media freedom in EU Member States and Candidate Countries. This project provides legal and practical support, public advocacy, and information to protect journalists and media workers. The project commenced in 2020 and is co-funded by the European Commission.
