The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) has joined an initiative launched by the journalism school attended by the French journalist Loup Bureau calling on the Vice Prime Minister and the Minster of Foreign Affairs to help free the arrested journalist in Turkey. Bureau’s fellow students at the Brussels School of Journalism and Communication (IHECS) together with the EFJ, the Professional Journalists’ Association of Belgian and other educational institutions  has written to the Belgian government today for their help to release Bureau. Bureau was arrested on Wednesday 2 August by the Turkish police following five days of detention in southeastern Sirnak…

UPDATE (15/09): Loup Bureau was released on 15 September 2017 after 51 days in custody. French journalist Loup Bureau was arrested on Wednesday 2 August by the Turkish police following five days of detention in southeastern Sirnak province on the Iraqi-Turkish border. He is detained on charges of “assisting a terror organisation”. Loup Bureau, 27, is a freelance journalist who worked for Arte, TV5 Monde, Slate. French news agency AFP reported that his charges are related to a report he had done in 2013 with the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) in Syria – considered by Ankara as a terrorist organisation…

(03.12.2014) La Fédération Européenne des Journalistes (FEJ) se joint à l’action groupée de ses syndicats-membres, les syndicats français de journalistes (SNJ, SNJ-CGT, CFDT journalistes) et le syndicat russe des journalistes (RUJ), et apporte son soutien aux journalistes travaillant sous droit local des bureaux de l’AFP en Russie et en Ukraine, dont les salaires ont été très sensiblement impactés par la chute du rouble. Les journalistes de ces bureaux ont demandé, avec l’appui des syndicats de l’AFP, une réévaluation de leurs conditions salariales avec un réajustement de la parité rouble-dollar pour faire face à la crise actuelle. La réponse de la…

The Media Freedom Rapid Response consortium partners criticise the criminal defamation lawsuit filed by Interior Minister Kalin Stoyanov against investigative journalists Atanas Chobanov and Dimitar Stoyanov of the Bureau for Investigative Reporting and Data (BIRD). The undersigned organisations believe that the lawsuit is designed to silence legitimate investigative reporting and should be immediately withdrawn. The legal action stems from the journalists’ reporting on a property deal that allegedly connected the current Minister of Interior to Martin Bozhanov, an individual known as ‘the Notary’, who was murdered earlier this year following extensive allegations of corruption against him. Kalin Stoyanov has denied…

The undersigned media freedom organisations strongly condemn Georgia’s ruling party’s renewed effort to pass a Russian-style “foreign agent” law that would threaten media freedom and civic space in the country, which received EU candidate status last year. We call on the Georgian Dream (GD) party to immediately withdraw this restrictive piece of legislation. On Wednesday, 3 April, the ruling GD party announced it would reintroduce a “foreign agent” bill, which was passed in a first hearing in 2023 but subsequently withdrawn following widespread protests and international criticism. On 8 April, the Georgian Parliament’s Bureau formally registered the bill under the…

Leaders of more than 100 news and journalists’ organisations across the world, including the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), have joined an open letter (full text below) affirming their solidarity with journalists reporting in Gaza. The letter, coordinated by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) with the support of the World Association of News Publishers (WAN-IFRA), demonstrates strong and unified support for colleagues reporting from Gaza in the deadliest conflict for journalists ever documented. “For nearly five months, journalists and media workers in Gaza – overwhelmingly, the sole source of on-the-ground reporting from within the Palestinian territory – have been…

The Russian authorities have taken intimidation of foreign correspondents to a new level: recently, the police began visiting journalists’ homes to dissuade them from covering demonstrations in Moscow by the wives of soldiers mobilised for the war in Ukraine. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) and its Russian affiliate JMWU denounce this new form of censorship. After the mass arrests of journalists covering a rally of the wifes of Russian soldiers mobilised in Ukraine near the Kremlin on 3 February, the Russian authorities have moved on to a new form of pressure, which until now they have reserved for activists:…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) today joined 17 other media freedom and journalist organisations in writing to the EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, the High Representative for the European Union on Foreign and Security Policy, urging him to call for the protection of journalists and respect for the freedom of the press amidst the Israel-Gaza war. The letter outlines the unprecedented number of journalists who died: the Israel-Gaza war one of the single worst events for the loss of journalistic life in such a short space of time. Since the beginning of the war in Gaza, the International Federation…

The European Union is set to miss a critical opportunity to demonstrate that it is on the side of those who hold power to account. The trilogue negotiations concerning the Directive expected to fight Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs) are coming to a close and the 74 undersigned organisations are sounding the alarm that, in the absence of certain key provisions, the anti-SLAPP Directive will fail to counteract the growing problem of SLAPPs in the EU. These provisions include first and foremost a strong early dismissal mechanism for all SLAPPs. If the Directive fails to ensure that all claims…

One month has passed since 24 journalists from the Russian news agency Sputnik in Istanbul and Ankara were dismissed. As members of the Journalists’ Union of Turkey (TGS), they were ready to go on strike to demand better working conditions, after negotiations on a new collective agreement failed. The strike, which has been going on for 30 days, continues. The International and European Federations of Journalists (IFJ/EFJ) reiterate their solidarity with the Turkish journalists and urge Sputnik to respect labour law and provide their employees with decent working conditions. Since the beginning of the strike on 17 August 2023, Sputnik…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) joined more than 30 global press freedom groups and news organizations in a letter to Anatoly Antonov, the Russian ambassador to the United States, calling for Evan Gershkovich’s immediate release. Ambassador Anatoly I. Antonov Embassy of the Russian Federation to the United States 2650 Wisconsin Ave., N.W. Washington, DC 20007 Via email: rusembusa@mid.ru March 30, 2023 Dear Ambassador Antonov, We, the undersigned news organizations and nongovernmental press freedom organizations, write to express our deep concern regarding your government’s detention of journalist Evan Gershkovich and the unfounded espionage charges leveled against him. Gershkovich, who works…

A Russian court on 1st February sentenced in absentia veteran journalist Alexander Nevzorov to eight years in prison for spreading so-called “false information” about Russia’s war on Ukraine. The European and International Federations of Journalism (EFJ-IFJ) join their Russian affiliate JMWU in condemning this criminalisation of journalism and call on the Russian authorities to review the ruling. Nevzorov came under pressure from authorities for alleging that Russian forces deliberately shelled a maternity hospital in Mariupol, in southern Ukraine. “Journalist Alexander Glebovich Nevzorov was found guilty (…) and sentenced to imprisonment for a period of eight years,” the press service for…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) and its affiliates in Ukraine, the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU) and the Independent Media Trade Union of Ukraine (IMTUU), joined the Global Forum for Media Development (GFMD) to support Ukrainian journalists and all international journalists, including freelancers reporting from Ukraine, by signing the Perugia Declaration for Ukraine: Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has underlined once again the essential role of independent, ethical journalism in assisting citizens to make life-or-death decisions, informing the world, and holding the powerful to account. As a powerful antidote to disinformation and propaganda that characterise hybrid warfare, and…

Human rights, media freedom and journalists’ organisations issued a statement in condemnation of invasion and attacks on the press in Ukraine and Russia. We, the undersigned organisations, stand in solidarity with the people of Ukraine, but particularly Ukrainian journalists who now find themselves at the frontlines of a large-scale European war. We unilaterally condemn the violence and aggression that puts thousands of our colleagues all over Ukraine in grave danger. We call on the international community to provide any possible assistance to those who are taking on the brave role of reporting from the war zone that is now Ukraine.…

A dozen employees at the BBC Istanbul bureau, supported by the Journalists’ Union of Turkey (TGS), have finally seen their demands met on 28 January 2022, after a historic 15-day strike.  The journalists got an annual pay rise of 32%, private individual and family health insurance, a daily 60TL lunch voucher and 1,200TL support for glasses and contact lenses.  The labour action was prompted by the skyrocketing inflation rate in the country (nearly 36%) and no adequate access to health care since the Covid-19 pandemic, after a five-month negotiation process with the BBC that was not successful.   The strike, the…

UPDATE (08/07/2021) The European and International Federations of Journalists (EFJ/IFJ) expressed again international solidarity with Belarusian journalists and their affiliate the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ) as the crackdown against critical voices continues. On 30 June, detained journalist Andrej Aliaksandraŭ was charged with high treason. If convicted, he could face up to 15 years in prison. Aliaksandraŭ, who has been in custody since January, was previously charged with “organising and preparing actions grossly disturbing public order”. Those charges were based on allegations that he helped pay the fines of journalists and protesters who were detained in last year’s anti-Lukashenko demonstrations.…