RTL dominates Luxembourg’s media landscape. Whether through television, radio or the Internet, this group, subsidised to the tune of 10 million euros by the state (as much as state aid to all other media outlets combined), reaches the vast majority of the population every week. The Luxemburger Wort, a daily newspaper bought from the archdiocese in 2020 by a Belgian publisher, is read daily by around a quarter of the population. The second most read daily, L'Essentiel, is free. In the south of the country, Tageblatt, a media outlet owned by a left-wing labour union, is losing ground. 

Luxembourg’s parliamentary monarchy has been led by a social-Christian government since the end of 2013. When Prime Minister Luc Frieden was at the helm of the Saint-Paul media group, he tried to change the Luxemburger Wort’s editorial policies and turn it into a pro-business paper. For a long time, each party had an “obedience” newspaper, and, although these affiliations have ended, some subordination seems to persist. For the most part, the media operate independently and journalists enjoy a certain amount freedom vis-à-vis political power. 

Luxembourg law guarantees freedom of expression and the protection of sources. The government has promised media representatives that a law would be passed in 2024 guaranteeing access to public information, which has been limited in recent years because of the protection of personal data. 

The leading daily newspapers have seen a decline in subscriptions and advertising in recent years, which has forced them to reorient their activities. In the name of pluralism, a law passed in 2021 provides each journalist with 30,000 euros a year in state aid and every publication with a lump sum of 200,000 euros. But media outlets, numerous given the size of the national market, remain under pressure and the Grand Duchy’s small size encourages conflicts between the media’s work and various economic interests.

The press is widely read in Luxembourg, and the public’s level of respect for journalists is one of the highest in the European Union, according to the European Commission. Banking secrecy and tax evasion have long remained off limits in the national press. When the LuxLeaks journalistic revelations shed light on Luxembourg’s tax optimisation industry thanks to two employees of an auditing firm, one of them, Raphaël Halet, was fined by the court. In 2023, he was finally recognised as a whistleblower by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), which condemned Luxembourg for violating freedom of expression. 

Some journalists have been threatened on social media in connection with the Covid-19 pandemic or intimidated during protests against health restrictions. Although the government considered legislating on this subject, no law currently exists to condemn these actions.