Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps he is taking to help support and protect press freedoms in Europe.

The FCDO remains committed to the Global Media Freedom campaign launched in 2018. Through the UK's co-chairing of the Media Freedom Coalition we are working to improving media freedom domestically and internationally. Many European countries are members of the Coalition. The Coalition is taking action to defend media freedom including through statements on the deteriorating situation for media in Belarus. We also support, and encourage our European partners to support, the Global Media Defence Fund, managed by UNESCO, to which we pledged £3 million over five years. The Fund has already supported over 1600 journalists globally, including in Europe, where projects have run in Latvia, Ukraine and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

This year during our Presidency of the G7, we secured strong commitments through the Foreign Ministers' Communique, including commitments to support the Global Media Defence Fund, to coordinate action through diplomatic networks to address violations of media freedom, and to work together to address the financial crisis facing media across the world.

The UK's diplomatic network also champions media freedom, including in Europe, with Missions hosting and advocating on media freedom issues on a regular basis in those countries where media freedom is under attack.