European governments are using wiretaps, threats of large fines and psychiatric tests to intimidate journalists and muzzle the region's free press, according to experts.

This was announced at a conference organized by the European Parliament's Socialist group on Thursday, the EU Observer reported.

According to participants in the conference, the shortage of funds and the over-concentration of media ownership are also key problems in the sector.

The countries that came under great scrutiny were Bulgaria, Romania, France and Italy, among others.

It was announced that Bulgaria's center-right government is planning to introduce new media laws.

"These, together with widespread wiretapping of journalists and a failure to properly investigate a recent bomb explosion at the Sofia-based headquarters of the Galeria magazine were reminiscent of the country's past totalitarian regime," said Borislav Tsekov, Director of the Institute of Modern Politics in Bulgaria.

Romania was criticized for the government's plan for a "national defense strategy" under which the media would be listed as a "vulnerability" to the state.

"Romanian broadcast laws have been subject to six amendments over the past year, with up to 40% of broadcast time now reserved for the national news agency," said Ioana Avadani, Executive Director of the Center of Independent Journalism in Bucharest.

In France, the center-right Le Monde newspaper has accused the French presidency of ordering counter-intelligence agents to identify the source who leaked information about links between L'Oreal billionaire-heiress Liliane Bettencourt and Eric Woerth, former treasurer of President Nicolas Sarkozy's UMP party.

"Added to this, the fall in readership and recent wave of newspaper/television takeovers has threatened the independence of some of the country's most established news outlets," said Jean-Marie Charon, a sociologist from CNRS, a French government-funded research body.

Italy has been criticized for Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's fusion of political and media power.

"But the embattled premier could opt to further increase the size of his media empire from April 1 when a law restricting media concentration is set to expire. As prime minister, only he can decide on whether to extend the law or not," said Roberto Natale, President of the Federazione Nazionale Stampa Italiana.

Different EU initiatives have also faced criticism for the withdrawal of EUR 1.5 M, allocated by the European Parliament to investigative journalism research grants, due to dears over editorial independence.

The conference also called for concentrating on implementing legal provisions already in place, instead of introducing new EU legislation to secure media freedom.

"Creating new legislation is such a long-winded debate. We've been discussing it for 15 years. We need to focus on practical structures," said Aidan White, General Secretary of the International Federation of Journalists.

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