2025 ANNUAL IMPACT REPORT                                                                 View this email in your browser

Dear ,

We are pleased to share Media Defence's 2025 Annual Impact Report: Defending Truth.

This year's report reflects a difficult but clarifying reality: press freedom is under unprecedented and increasingly structural pressure worldwide.

With 817 active cases across 86 countries and a 133% increase in new cases since 2021, 2025 was our busiest year yet. That growth reflects not only escalating threats, but the trust journalists and partners place in our support.

Behind these numbers are journalists prosecuted for scrutinising abuses of power, newsrooms arbitrarily shut down, reporters surveilled by security forces, and some who endured beatings, enforced disappearance, or were killed.

Ninety-six per cent of the cases we supported were in environments classified as "Problematic" to "Very Serious" by the RSF World Press Freedom Index.

The impact of our legal support remains clear: 90% of the journalists surveyed in our annual journalist impact survey continued to practise journalism after their case concluded, and 100% said they would recommend our assistance to others.

We are under no illusions about what lies ahead. Authoritarianism is rising, and governments and powerful actors continue to silence public interest journalism. Our work has never felt more urgent.

Legal Trends and Key Cases

Legal pressure on journalists is becoming more sophisticated and more structural. In 2025, we responded to 284 new cases across 40 countries, providing emergency legal support to journalists and independent outlets, pursuing strategic cases, and intervening as third parties before regional and international courts to challenge the laws and practices making journalism more dangerous.

We've seen firsthand how this work makes a difference. In Colombia, the Supreme Court upheld torture convictions against former intelligence officials who persecuted investigative journalist Claudia Julieta Duque, a landmark result after years of sustained litigation.

In Albania, our expert opinion contributed to a Constitutional Court ruling that the seizure of journalist Elton Qyno's devices was unconstitutional, reaffirming the protection of journalistic sources.

And in France, charges against investigative journalist Ariane Lavrilleux were dismissed after she faced prosecution for exposing a classified intelligence operation, though the public prosecutor has appealed.

We continue to support the case of Cameroonian journalist Samuel Wazizi before the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights, arguing that his death in military custody breached Cameroon's obligations under the African Charter.

And when Tanzanian journalist Godfrey Thomas Ng'Omba was arrested on treason charges while covering election-day protests, our emergency support helped secure the dropping of all charges within two months.

Beyond individual cases, our legal team filed third-party interventions before the European Court of Human Rights challenging Georgia's Foreign Influence Law and criminal hate speech provisions in France, and submitted observations to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights on the misuse of disinformation legislation. We also joined amicus submissions challenging Peru's APCI Law, which expanded state control over NGOs and independent media outlets.

Read more about these cases and others we’ve supported:

Capacity Strengthening

Our work is sustained by a global network of lawyers on the frontlines. In 2025, 100 lawyers engaged in our capacity-building programmes through five regional Litigation Surgeries, held in Costa Rica, Namibia, Malaysia,  Jordan and online.

We also concluded the first women-focused edition of our Peer-to-Peer Legal Mentorship Programme, bringing together 22 women lawyers from Latin America, Asia-Pacific, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Europe; 75% reported increased confidence litigating freedom of expression cases. Our global alumni network now comprises 306 lawyers.

Read more about how we’re strengthening legal capacity here:

Funded Partners

Since 2009, our Funded Partner programme has supported organisations providing legal defence for journalists where it is most needed. In 2025, we awarded over £350,000 in grants to 19 partners across Europe, Latin America, Africa, Asia, and the MENA region, enabling them to litigate 427 freedom of expression related cases nationally and regionally.

Thanks to their dedication and expertise, we’re able to support journalists in places we couldn’t reach alone.

Read more about our global partnerships here: 

Help us Defend Press Freedom

In a world where governments are increasingly weaponising the law against journalism, journalists need allies. Media Defence will always be one of them, but we need backup.

In 2025, we supported 817 active cases across 86 countries. At the same time, funding for press freedom is shrinking, and the journalists and organisations that depend on it are feeling the consequences. These cuts are not abstract. They directly threaten our ability to defend journalists like Claudia Julieta Duque and Godfrey Thomas Ng'Omba.

Your support helps us stand with journalists like them around the world, so they can keep reporting the stories the rest of us rely on. We are stronger together.