Armenia has been included on the list of countries detaining journalists for the first time, according to the Council of Europe's annual report published jointly with its partner organization, the Platform to Promote the Protection of Journalism and Safety of Journalists.

"At the end of 2025, Armenia was recorded for the first time among countries detaining journalists or other media figures. This occurred following the pre-trial detention of podcasters Vazgen Saghatelyan and Narek Samsonyan," states the document titled "Press Freedom in 2025."

The report notes that in 2025, platform partners published 344 alerts about serious threats to media freedom — a significant increase of 29% compared to 266 alerts in 2024. The highest number of alerts concerned Russia (50), Turkey (49), Georgia (35), Serbia (35) and Ukraine (27), mainly relating to territories occupied by Russia or attributed to Russian forces.

According to the report, as of December 31, 2025, 148 journalists were imprisoned in Europe, including 36 in Azerbaijan, 32 in Russia, 27 in Belarus, 26 in Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine, 24 in Turkey, 2 in Armenia, and 1 in Georgia.

Platform partners are calling on the Council of Europe, the European Commission and all 46 CE member states to uphold press freedom standards.