Far-Right Attacks Threaten Artistic Freedom, Euro Screenwriters Warn
'The Best Immigrant'
Courtesy of Sony Pictures Television
-
Share on Facebook
-
Share on X
-
Google Preferred
-
Share to Flipboard
-
Show additional share options
-
Share on LinkedIn
-
Share on Pinterest
-
Share on Reddit
-
Share on Tumblr
-
Share on Whats App
-
Send an Email
-
Print the Article
-
Post a Comment
The Federation of Screenwriters in Europe issued a report on Wednesday documenting how attacks by the far-right on European public broadcasters are threatening free speech and artistic expression.
The umbrella group, which represents 31 screenwriters guilds and unions from 25 countries, says these attempts to defund or exert political control over public broadcasters has a direct impact on creatives, who are under pressure to self-censor if they want to get work.
In a 61-page report, entitled “Right to Write,” the Federation highlighted cases from across Europe where right-wing parties in power have carried out a “playbook” to systematically “delegitimize journalism, intimidates critics, concentrate media influence, weaponize regulators, politicize cultural bodies, and either defund or capture those public institutions that shape shared reality.”
Related Stories
TV
'The Pitt' Star Noah Wyle Calls for Universal Health Coverage in U.S., Talks Season 3 and Explains Why the Hit Show "Could Run Forever"
TV
French Sailors, Soviet Gangsters and Canadian Dancers Win Series Mania Forum Awards
The report cites efforts by right-wing governments in power in countries including Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, and Slovakia, to exert political control over national media by withdrawing funding, threatening to challenge or revoke broadcasting licenses and by installing loyalists in key positions of power at public broadcasters.
“Most far-right and populist parties in Europe are united in their desire to emasculate or close down public service broadcasting, or, if in power, to subordinate it to their agendas,” writes former Federation President Carolin Otto, in the forward to the report.
Many of the far-right parties across Europe, writes Otto, are trying to present and propagate a “nationalist fantasy” of “a past that never existed, of faith, family and fatherland” and are ready “to censor those stories that do not fit this frozen mythology, this static and idealized vision of the past.” Their attempts to intimate or influence public channels and funding bodies, she argues, is “an assault” on the freedom of artistic expression. Already in many cases, she notes, systems have been put in place to “limit the subjects and topics that can be addressed by writers” seeking public support, “leading to wide-spread self-censorship.”
“The key issue is it is not direct censorship,” says Denis Goulette, managing director of the Federation, speaking at a panel on the issue at the Series Mania TV festival on Wednesday. “It is something more subtle. Some stories are encouraged, and we are seeing other stories [being] quietly pushed aside.”
“This is more of a warning, that we in Europe need to be very alarmed,” says Belgian producer Helen Perquy. “We all see what is happening in the U.S., we never thought that a democracy like the U.S. could become what it is now.”
Perquy’s production company, Jonnydepony is known for such series as the sci-fi dystopian drama Arcadia and the new feel-good comedy BOHO, about a multicultural trio of female friends living in the Borgerhout district of Antwerp. European TV, she says, had been making progress towards diversity and inclusion on screen before a quiet backlash, spurred on by anti-DEI actions in the U.S.. Now European broadcasters are becoming more cautious and conservative in their commissioning, she says, dialing back efforts to promote storytelling from marginalized groups.
“I’ve been saying, the old white man is back. It’s a joke, but it’s also true,” she says.
Teddora Markova, a Bulgarian writer and co-creator and showrunner on the 2025 Series Mania-winning drama series Soviet Jeans, says she is seeing “self-censorship on every level” at European broadcasters. “Which is a straight shot to mediocracy.”
European public broadcasters, Perquy argues, need to be a counterbalance to bottom-line commercial networks and streamers, to be “bold, diverse and let many voices in.”
Public broadcasters are the main source of funding for TV fiction production in Europe, accounting for 55 percent of fiction series commissions in 2023, compared to 31 percent for commercial broadcasters and 14 percent for global streamers. In 2023, the last year for which figures are available, public broadcasters spend around € 7.2 billion ($8.3 billion) on original European content, excluding news and sports ri