There has been a “stark deterioration of press freedom” in Europe in 2016 with conflict in Turkey and Ukraine creating especially difficult conditions for journalists.

Index on Censorship said it had seen 301 verified incidents reported to its Mapping Freedom project over the first three months of the year, including four deaths and 43 assaults. The figure is up 30% on the first quarter of 2015.

Three of the killed journalists died while reporting on conflict in Turkey, while a third, Russian culture journalist Dmitiri Tsilikin, was stabbed to death in his St Petersburg flat.

Of the 43 assaults, more than half occurred in Ukraine, Italy or Russia, with 12 in the Ukraine alone.

There were also 27 arrests recorded, with 15 in Turkey when journalists were reporting on violence or protests, with a pattern of arrest on terror charges or during anti-terror operations.

“Conflict in Turkey and eastern Ukraine along with the misuse of broad range of legislation – from limiting public broadcasters to prosecuting journalists as terrorists – have had a negative effect on press freedom across the continent,” said Mapping Media Freedom project officer Hannah Machlin.

Though the majority of arrests and violence were reported in eastern Europe, the report also records incidents where press freedom was threatened in western Europe. These included the French defence minister’s decision to launch an investigation into Le Monde following report on secret operations in Libya and the Greek government’s new restrictions on the number of national TV channels, which it is claimed were implemented at the request of the country’s creditors.

Mogens Blicher Bjerregård, president of the European Federation of Journalists, which along with Reporters Without Borders is joining forces with Index on the project, said the restrictive laws were a “worrying trend”.

“The last outcomes of the platform show clearly that media freedom is still declining in Europe,” he said. “In the name of security, after the terrorist attacks, many governments are adopting laws that can have a negative impact on press freedom.”