CLUB RULES.

Intimidating journalists who disturb the powers that be is generally thought of as a practice worthy only of republics well below our standards. Unfortunately, though, liberticidal violence is also current in our lands.

We make this point in this special issue dedicated to the still too frequent barriers to freedom of the press, especially when these are grounded in national laws that undermine the European Union's credibility. Austria, Belgium, Finland, the Netherlands and Sweden (but also Iceland and Switzerland) are often described as star pupils. Others, and not just Hungary with its media law, maintain a patchwork of questionable arrangements that allow judicial remedies and enormous fines against journalists accused, for instance, of blasphemy when they simply denounce irregularities. The 27 are nevertheless part of a club that has rules in this respect, rules that are legally binding since 2007, namely the Charter of Fundamental Rights, of which a clear principle that underpins our democracies is recalled on the following page of this special edition. Unfortunately, it is just a principle that is interpreted in many different ways.

There is such a lack of points of reference that the European...