Media Freedom Poll highlights concerns over Elon Musk’s influence in Central Europe
Dr Vaclav Stetka – CRCC’s member and Reader in Comparative Political Communication –presented the key findings of the 2025 Media Freedom Poll on 12 May in Bratislava (Slovakia), at an event featuring representatives of several news organizations from Central Europe.
First launched in 2022 by the Committee for Editorial Independence, of which Vaclav Stetka is a member, the Media Freedom Poll (MFP) serves as a comprehensive annual barometer of public attitudes towards media freedom and regulation in four Central European countries: the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary. In addition to perceptions of the current state and importance of media independence, plurality, and editorial autonomy in each country, the poll also tracks public opinion on global digital platforms, regulation of social media content, and external threats to domestic information environments. The data for this year’s MFP were collected in April 2025 through a representative survey (N=4112, aged 18+) conducted by the polling company Median.
Among other findings, the survey shows that a significant majority of people across the four Central European countries support some form of regulation of problematic content on social media. Nearly 90% of respondents agree that platforms should take action against hate speech, cyberbullying, or content promoting self-harm, while 67% support action against the spread of disinformation. In a notable shift in public perception of external threats to the information environment, more people now consider the U.S. a threat (59%) than China (58%), with the largest increase in concern observed among the youngest generation (ages 18–24), where concern rose by 26 percentage points. Additionally, 56% of respondents expressed concerns over Elon Musk’s influence on domestic public opinion, with particularly high levels of concern among voters of non-populist parties. Full results are available on the MFP’s designated website, https://mediafreedompoll.com/.
The public launch of the 2025 findings was hosted by the Slovak daily SME, whose editor-in-chief Beata Balogová also took part in the panel discussion. Other panelists included journalists Márton Gergely (HVG), Veronika Munk (Dennik N), Michał Olszewski (Gazeta Wyborcza) and Martin Ehl (Hospodarske noviny); Pavol Szalai and Alexander Dworzak (Reporters without Borders), Misha Glenny (Rector of the Institute for Humanities, Vienna), Alexandra Borchardt and Tessa Szyszkowitz (Committee for Editorial Independence). Just like in previous years, the launch of the 2025 Media Freedom Poll has been covered by regional as well as international media, including Gazeta Wyborcza, Falter, IntelliNews, Aktuality.sk, Dennik N, Hospodarske noviny and others.