The post-journalism era: How media closures are undermining democracy in Europe

Politico contributors Alexandra Carppi and Vanesa Valcheva of the Balkans Free Media Initiative (BFMI) believe we are entering a dangerous era of post-journalism, where truth is losing meaning and public control over power is disappearing.

Since the beginning of 2025, the oldest newsrooms in the Western Balkans - media that played a key role in building peace and democracy after the Yugoslav conflicts - have been closing one after another. But the disappearance of structures such as Al Jazeera Balkans could lead to increased repression and the destruction of accountability mechanisms, the researchers warn.

One of the key blows to the free press has been the Donald Trump administration's withdrawal of external funding: immediately after his inauguration in January, the US president froze funds from the State Department and the US Agency for International Development (USAID), finally closing the latter on 1 July. For thousands of independent media outlets around the world that depend on this support, this has resulted in layoffs, project freezes and office closures.

In March, Trump signed a directive to effectively dismantle the US Global Media Agency, which funded Voice of America and Radio Liberty, one of the few international platforms that consistently covered human rights abuses in Europe and Eurasia. Despite legal action, layoffs at these organisations continue. Al Jazeera Balkans, which operated for 14 years, has also officially ceased broadcasting.

"These media structures provided citizens with not only access to information, but also a platform for open discussion and opposition to abuses of power - especially in countries where state media have long been taken over by governments," Karppi and Valcheva emphasise.

The direct consequences of such decisions are already visible. In Serbia, where student protests erupted in November following a corruption scandal, the authorities have increased pressure on civil society. In February, police searched the offices of four organisations, accusing them of "misusing" USAID funds. This was followed by a crackdown on the BIRN investigative network and other independent experts.

The authors note that the closure of the oldest media outlets coincided with increased political instability in Kosovo, ethnic conflicts in Northern Macedonia, and escalating separatism in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

"Citizens vitally need access to accurate information, especially against the backdrop of increasing disinformation," BFMI analysts said.

In the 1990s, Western countries invested millions in the development of a free press, expecting it to guarantee sustainable peace. That's when Al Jazeera Balkans, Voice of America and Radio Liberty came into being. But, according to Carppi and Valcheva, "this experiment has failed."

"With the disappearance of Al Jazeera, we are entering an era where journalism as an institution will formally exist but will lose influence and relevance," they warn.

Information will remain available, but without consequence. Media architecture will persist - but will be devastated by distrust, donor fatigue and streams of fake news.

This transition is not just from free media to censorship. It is a turn to a new world order in which authoritarian regimes gain a complete advantage in information warfare.

The authors believe that the situation in the Balkans is a "living experiment" that shows what Europe's future might look like without independent journalism. To avoid this scenario, European institutions need to abandon crisis response and nostalgia for a "golden age of media".

"Journalism should not be seen as a by-product of democracy, but as a necessary pillar of it," Carppi and Valcheva summarise.