EFJ becomes founding member of the European Center for Press and Media Freedom #ECPMF
Representative from 20 journalists’ organisations, publishing houses, academic institutions, trade unions and media experts from many European countries have launched the European Center for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF) in Leipzig, Germany. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) is among the founding members of the ECPMF. Mogens Blicher Bjerregård (EFJ President) and Liljana Smaijlovic (UNS President, Serbian Journalists’ Union) have been elected to the 8-member Executive Board, Naser Selmani (President of the Journalists’ Association of Macedonia) was elected into the Supervisory Board.
The ECPMF is an independent non-profit European Co-operative Society (SCE). Its missions are to unite Europe’s highly fragmented media freedom community and to address media freedom violations in Europe. The aim of the Center is to mobilise support for journalists facing political and economic pressure and to act as a major contact and information point for media freedom in Europe.
For a year, the ECPMF is financially supported by the European Commission, the Media Foundation of Sparkasse Leipzig, the City of Leipzig, the German Foreign Ministry and the State Chancellery of Saxony. Project partners include Journalismfund.eu, the Institute of European Media Law (EMR), Ossigeno per l’informaziione, Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso and the South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO).
ECPMF Executive Board
– Chair: Henrik Kaufholz, Head of Scoop, Denmark
– Vice-Chair: Hans-Ulrich Jörges, Co-editor of Stern, Editor in chief for Special Affaires, Gruner+Jahr, Germany
– Dirk Voorhoof, Professor of International Media Law, Ghent University, Belgium
– Galina Arapova, Head of Mass Media Defence Initiative, Russia
– Liljana Smaijlovic, President of Serbian Journalist’s Association (member of the EFJ), Serbia
– Christoph Keese, Executive Vice President, Axel Springer SE, Germany
– Stephan Seeger, Executive Member of the Board, Media Foundation of Sparkasse Leipzig, Germany
– Mogens B. Bjerregaard, President of the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), Denmark
ECPMF Supervisory Board
– Chair: Balázs Nagy Navarro, Freelance Journalist, Hungary
– Vice-Chair: Margo Smit, Director, Dutch-Flemish Association of Investigative Journalists, VVOJ, Netherlands
– Kerstin Mey, Professor and Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Design and Media, Westminster University, United Kingdom
– Harald Langenfeld, Chair of the Executive Board, Media Foundation of Sparkasse Leipzig, Germany
– Naser Selmani, Head of the Union of Macedonian Journalists (member of the EFJ), Macedonia
– Vesselin Dimitrov, Deputy Editor in chief, Forbes, Bulgaria
– Gavin MacFadyen, Head of the Centre for Investigative Journalism, United Kingdom
– George Pleios, Professor, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece
– Esad Hecimovic, Investigative Journalist, Editor at OBN TV, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
(Photo : logo and pictures collage)
