We participated in a webinar on 29 April 2026 at the occassion of the celebration of 30 years reporting by the Strasbourg based European Audiovisual Observatory on legal issues in Europe. The webinar explored the latest developments in media law across Europe and beyond, and how they have been and are reported by the Audiovisual Observatory. Indeed, the Observatory built up an exceptional wealth of knowledge, including an online database with over 10,000 articles available for consult.
As part of the Council of Europe the Audiovisual Observatory evidently closely follows and reports on European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) case law related to freedom of expression, media, journalists and internet.
These are the tools one can access for free:
- IRIS Newsletter – 30 years of free monthly reporting on legal developments in the media sector.
- IRIS MERLIN Database – a searchable tool containing short articles offering legal insights into all key audiovisual areas around the globe since 1995.
- VERBO Database – ten years of reporting on European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) case law related to freedom of expression, all in one searchable database.
During the webinar we had the occassion to highlight 10 crucial domains in which the ECtHR delivered innovative and robust case law in relation to the right to freedom of expression and information, in particular for media and journalists.
Here is the press release announcing the webinar: https://www.obs.coe.int/en/web/observatoire/-/what-are-the-latest-developments-in-media-law-across-europe-and-beyond-and-how-do-we-report-on-them-
Congratulations to the team (over the last 30 years) of the European Audiovisual Observatory and the experts/correspondents reporting for the IRIS Newsletter since 1996.