A N A LY S I S DEMOCRACY AND HUMAN RIGHTS A LOCKDOWN FOR INDEPENDENT MEDIA? Effects of the COVID–19 pandemic on the media landscape and press freedom in Central and Southeast Europe Working paper Vojtěch Berger, Primož Cirman, Boryana Dzhambazova, Cristina Lupu, Leonárd Máriás, Jelena Prtorić, Žarka Radoja, Bojan Stojkovski, Karolina Zbytniewska(authors), Maxim Edwards(editor) June 2020 Correspondents in nine countries – Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Romania, Bul­garia, and North Macedonia – have analysed how the pan­demic has affected their work environment. Lockdowns have caused print media sales and advertising revenue to collapse. Media with wealthy benefactors or state support are better placed to survive impending economic hardships. Various emergency laws and provisions allowed govern­ments increased control over public information. In several cases, these enabled officials to evade scrutiny and attack journalists whose reporting challenged official statistics and the effectiveness of crisis measures.