Editing Defamation (section)

====Central and Eastern Europe====
Four countries in [[Central and Eastern Europe]] fully decriminalized defamation. An additional four abolished prison sentences for defamation convictions, although the offence remained in the criminal code.<ref name="UNESCO Central and Eastern Europe Report 2014"/>

At the same time, an emerging trend was using fines and [[sanctions (law)|sanctions]]. Civil defamation cases were increasingly used, as evidenced by the number of civil lawsuits and disproportionate fines against journalists and media critical of governments. In at least four countries, defamation laws were used by public officials, including heads of state, to restrict critical media across all platforms. [[Media (communication)|Media]] and [[civil society]] increased pressure on authorities, to stop granting public officials a higher degree of protection against defamation in the media.<ref name="UNESCO Central and Eastern Europe Report 2014"/>

Blasphemy was not a widespread phenomenon in Central and Eastern Europe, where {{clarify |text=only one |reason=Which one? Based on the 2017 OSCE Report, there were Poland, Russia, and maybe Georgia and Montenegro. Cyprus, Greece, Turkey, all had blasphemy laws, and they seem to be conveniently ignored in these UNESCO reports - both in CEE and SEE (see 2018 CEE report) statistics. This seems very inaccurate. |date=August 2023}} country still had such a provision. According to the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion & Public Life, 17 countries had laws penalizing religious hate speech.<ref name="UNESCO Central and Eastern Europe Report 2014"/>