The deteriorating health of journalists: a threat to democracy?

“The media sector is under attack – and it is the sector's workers who bear the brunt,” warns Rebecca Bonello Ghio of the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), which represents over 296,000 journalists across 44 countries. The EFJ has noted with concern a rising number of redundancies in both private and public service media.

The trend is Europe-wide, as the latest reports from Reporters Without Borders make clear – in Germany, France, Italy, Poland and Lithuania alike. The causes are multiple: media concentration, the disruption brought by new technologies, and the crisis gripping public broadcasters. A further problem – specific to this moment – is that the Copyright Directive does not cover content used to train artificial intelligence systems, a gap that translates into a significant loss of income for journalists and news organisations.

These pressures are compounded by physical and online threats – which in recent years have cost several journalists their lives.

Freelancing or forced-lancing?

"It's hard to speak on behalf of all journalists," says Rebecca Bonello Ghio, "but based on the conversations we've had, the issue causing the most concern is financial." The worry is shared by freelancers and salaried journalists alike, even if the implications differ.

Pay per article varies enormously across Europe. In Bulgaria the rate ranges from €70 to €200; in Croatia between €200 and €250; in Poland between €25 and €125; in Italy between €50 and €130; in Albania around €100. These figures emerged from interviews with freelancers and journalists' representatives conducted for a Voxeurop investigation into precarious journalism in Europe.

The Italian case is particularly stark. According to La Via Libera, a magazine focused on the fight against the mafia and corruption, six out of ten journalists in Italy earn less than €35,000 gross per year — and nearly half of freelancers earn less than €5,000. For Alessandra Costante of the National Federation of the Italian Press (FNSI), these figures illustrate how "precarity is the greatest gag on freedom, on the independence of information, and on Article 21 of the Italian Constitution" — the article that guarantees that right.

"Instead of 'freelancing'," says Irene Caselli, who conducted a survey of the profession as part of the TakTak project, "we should be talking about 'forced-lancing.' Being a freelancer is a choice for journalists who have no choice, because newsrooms give you no other options."

Created in 2025 in collaboration with Display Europe, the TakTak project substantiates that sense of precarity – and reveals its consequences. 60% of journalists surveyed had experienced burnout; 62% were juggling multiple jobs to make ends meet, at the expense of their work-life balance.

The picture that emerges, Caselli says, is one of "completely precarious working conditions, where journalists' main concern is their low income – compounded by the fact that it is not a stable income – and by the difficulty of achieving any work-life balance."

Caselli adds an important dimension: the precarious nature of economic models. Donations and subscriptions alone are not enough. "It is difficult to imagine that readers alone will pay for news – the risk is that they will only pay for what they want to read, watch or listen to, not to mention that only those who can afford to pay will do so." There is, she argues, "also a role for the state and a need for public, non-partisan broadcasters."

The TakTak survey matters for another reason too: it is the first Europe-wide study of freelance journalists since a 2015 report by the European Federation of Journalists. Yet a coherent pan-European conversation on rates and contracts remains elusive – there are no common regulations, no agreed pay scales, and no supervisory bodies at European level, and sometimes not even within individual countries. The press is struggling: not only because of the structural crisis gripping the industry, but because the people who work in it are facing the same difficulties as everyone else. So how do journalists themselves see the problem?

Mental health

According to a recent study produced by the EFJ in collaboration with The Self-Investigation, the stress of a highly competitive work environment and a relentless 24-hour news cycle, combined with low pay and precarity, can lead to serious mental health consequences: "burnout, some leaving the profession and, in the worst cases, journalists taking their own lives."

A study published in December 2025, titled "New journalists, already exhausted", which surveyed journalists under 30 in France and Belgium, found that "young journalists almost unanimously admit to being all too wary of the risk of exhaustion and exposure to chronic stress, and some have already experienced burnout." The evidence points to something deeper than individual hardship. Is this a structural problem?

A “predatory” industry?

“One can argue that all economic systems are predatory in some way,” says Mark Deuze, a former journalist and now a lecturer and researcher at the University of Amsterdam, “but what makes the creative or media sectors unique is that the industry exploits not only journalists’ abilities or skills but also their passion.” 

In both fields, the same elements recur: workers driven less by money than by a passion for telling stories, for the freedom this entails and – in journalism's case – for being an essential part of a healthy democracy. The paradox is all the more striking in an industry that rails against disinformation and misinformation, yet fails to adequately protect the people who produce it.

Against this backdrop, a European legal instrument is currently being drafted by the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC). The committee calls on public authorities "to take urgent protective measures against the growing insecurity of journalists, and calls for the full application of the European Media Freedom Act." It is, admittedly, only an initial step (the EESC is an advisory body) but it is also a clear signal to the Council, the Commission and the European Parliament that action is overdue.