This article by Emily Braganza of the U. Bristol Law School, GB, is published in Jurist:

The Civil Liberties Union for Europe published a report on Tuesday detailing the negative impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on democracy and the rule of law in 14 countries in Europe and providing recommendations for the EU.

The report detailed major infringements such as:

• • Restrictions on media freedom and political pressure on the press especially in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovenia as journalists have been targeted;
  • Detention of protestors and harassment of activists in countries such as France, Spain, Croatia and Slovakia;
  • Ineffectiveness of the judicial system through lack of resources from the government, thus creating “heavy case backlogs” that interfere with fair access to justice, especially in Italy, Ireland, Bulgaria, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia.

Read the full story here.