Press freedom watchdog group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has opened an office in Prague, its first bureau in the region which is under increasing attack from disinformation and propaganda and attacks on press freedoms.
The move aims to strengthen the non-governmental organization’s work in the eastern part of the European Union and highlight the region’s contribution to press freedom and to the right to reliable information worldwide.
The new bureau is part of the RSF strategy for international expansion. RSF now has 15 offices and sections around the world, a press release sent to Universul.net said
The inaugural event on Tuesday called “Journalism at a Tipping Point,” was held in the Czech capital as part of the Forum 2000 human rights conference, founded by anti‑communist dissident and former Czech president Vaclav Havel.
A message from the Czech president at Forum 2000
Committed to defending independent media and professional journalists, RSF invited Stephen Capus, President of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL); Martina Majicek Poliakova, Director of Strategic Development at the Czech public service broadcaster Czech Radio; Myroslava Gongadze, a former journalist for US public broadcaster Voice of America (VOA) from Ukraine and widow of journalist Georgiy Gongadze, assassinated in 2000 to speak.
The panel was chaired by RSF Director General Thibaut Bruttin and moderated by the Director of the Prague bureau, Pavol Szalai. Czech President Petr Pavel met with Thibaut Bruttin and Pavol Szalai the day before the launch and hailed the initiative.
“At a time when disinformation and propaganda are increasingly used to manipulate societies and weaken democratic institutions, the work of RSF is more vital than ever […] By hosting RSF’s first office for Central and Eastern Europe, Prague reaffirms its role as a place where freedom of expression and responsible journalism are respected and protected,” he said.
“In his manifesto “Two Thousand Words”, published in the brief interval between the lifting of state censorship and the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, Czech writer Ludvik Vaculik called for press freedom to be used as a way to find solutions to society’s most pressing problems.
RSF shares this conviction, especially as we establish a lasting presence in Central and Eastern Europe. Press freedom is not reserved for elites and must empower society as a whole to take action. Faced with the standardisation of thought that authoritarian powers, corrupt oligarchs and the online platforms dominating public debate seek to impose, we will defend press freedom and citizens’ right to be informed. And we will place Czechia — which ranks 10th in the RSF World Press Freedom Index and is home to Ferdinand Peroutka, Pavel Tigrid and Vaclav Havel — on the front line of this fight, making it a leader in solidarity for journalists under threat around the world. Some of the greatest hopes for independent press and public service information have been born here, and the country has also seen new political and legal tactics to muzzle the press. More than ever, the words of Tomas Garrigue Masaryk ring true: Democracy is not defended by violence, but by truth and discussion,” said Thibaut Bruttin, the director general of RSF.
“Czechia is a land of rich democratic tradition, a land of refuge for many exiled journalists, and strategically positioned on the geopolitical chessboard — making it an ideal springboard for RSF to expand its work in Central and Eastern European countries. The new bureau will allow us to strengthen our operations in European Union member states and in the countries seeking to join it. It will also give us the means to forge new partnerships beyond this region. At this pivotal moment for democracy in Czechia and across Europe, we solemnly call on all those who share RSF’s convictions to join us in defending press freedom,” said Pavol Szalai, Director of the RSF Prague Bureau
The RSF Prague bureau is tasked with documenting and denouncing violations of press freedom and the right to information, supporting threatened journalists, combating impunity for crimes committed against reporters, fighting the propaganda that pollutes the information space, advocating before national and international authorities for systemic solutions, and giving ethical, transparent journalism a competitive edge in Central and Eastern Europe.
Press freedom under threat in Central and Eastern Europe
In recent years, RSF has advocated for justice in the case of the killing of journalist Jan Kuciak in Slovakia (38th out of the 180 countries and territories in the 2025 RSF World Press Freedom Index); for the protection of reporters against arbitrary surveillance and violence during demonstrations in Greece (89th) and Serbia (96th); for preserving public media’s independence in Poland (31st); for coordinated European Union action against the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s “anti-model” of press freedom (68th); and for the swift and rigorous implementation of the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA), legislation that included many RSF proposals.
The recent RSF report on Russian propaganda documents the scope of this menace to Europe’s information space and calls for European sanctions against Kremlin disinformation outlets to be enforced.
Czechia rose from 40th place in the 2021 RSF Index to 10th place in 2025. As legislative elections approached this month, RSF and its Czech partners campaigned for all involved political parties to strengthen the political and legal framework ensuring journalists’ safety and media independence. Earlier this year, RSF supported the increase in the public broadcasting fee, which benefits outlets such as Czech Radio, the 13th public service media outlet in the world to obtain Journalism Trust Initiative (JTI) certification. RSF’s international initiatives have resonated strongly in this country, evidenced by the 262 Czech journalists who signed a letter in solidarity with the threatened journalists of Gaza.
Members of the advisory council of the RSF Prague bureau include Tomas Sedlacek, director of the Vaclav Havel Library, and Vera Jourova, vice-president of Charles University and former vice-president of the European Commission. This council will be expanded in the coming months.
The bureau director Pavol Szalai was awarded Slovakia’s “White Crow” prize for civic courage in 2017 and joined RSF the same year as its Slovakia correspondent before becoming Head of the European Union–Balkans Desk at the NGO’s Paris headquarters in 2020. Educated in Slovakia, Czechia, the United States and France, he worked as a journalist for the Slovak daily Sme and the European media network EURACTIV.
RSF worldwide
Celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, RSF is an independent international organization that defends and promotes press freedom and the right to information. Present on every continent, RSF has 15 offices and sections around the world — including Paris (its headquarters), Brussels, Washington, Rio de Janeiro, Taipei, Dakar, Tunis, London and now Prague — as well as sections in Germany, Austria, Spain, Finland, Sweden and Switzerland. RSF also relies on its network of correspondents and partners in more than 150 countries. This network strengthens its global action and local roots.
