EFJ condemns discrediting of journalists by Slovenian PM

The Slovenian Prime Minister, Janez Janša, published on 11 May, in the government’s official website, a story about his so-called “war with the media”. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) joined its Slovenian affiliates, the Slovenian Association of Journalists (DNS) and the Union of Slovenian Journalists (SNS), in condemning this despicable attempt to discredit journalists. Janez Janša blames in his text the journalists in general: “The professional group in western civilisation that first declared itself the seventh power, then the fourth (unelected) branch of power and finally the moral judge of political correctness, is increasingly difficult to recognise today as…

Finland takes harsh action against Internet trolls

On 18 October 2018, the Helsinki District Court issued a symbolic verdict against online disinformation and hate speech. The Court’s decision makes Finland the first European country to directly fight Internet trolls, taking action against those who harass journalists through the net. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) joins its Finnish affiliate, the Union of Journalists in Finland (UJF), in welcoming the verdict as an example to be followed by other European countries to fight online defamation of journalists. The case sees as protagonist Jessikka Aro, a Finnish journalist investigating how pro-Russia disinformation is spread in Finland through social media and websites believed to be linked…

Serbian journalist Dino Jahić faced insults and death threats

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) expresses deepest concerns regarding the insults and death threats targeting Dino Jahić, the editor-in-chief of the Center for Investigative Journalism of Serbia (CINS). The EFJ joined the Western Balkan’s Regional Platform for Advocating Media Freedom and Journalists’ safety in calling on the Serbian and Bosnian authorities to stop discrediting journalists and respect media pluralism as well as freedom of speech. The smear campaign against Dino Jahić started on 21 August 2018, when Milorad Dodik, president of  the Serb-dominated entity in Bosnia (Republika Srpska), accused during a press conference Dino Jahić of drawing on huge…

Finnish public broadcaster fights online hate speech with dialogue and respect

One of six Finnish journalists have received some form of threats connected to their professional work, revealed a survey, conducted by the Union of Journalists of Finland (UJF) in 2016. Among them, topics focusing on issues related to immigration, asylum seeking and Russian interference prompt the most negative response and the highest number of attacks against journalists online. The Finnish newsrooms developed a number of measures and protocols to address the rising issue of online harassment, which proved to be successful. One of the advanced steps has been implemented by the public broadcaster Yle by introducing community management, which is…

Croatia: Court rejects charges for death threats against journalists

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) joins its affiliate the Croatian Journalists’ Association (HND) in condemning the decision of District State Attorney of Split to reject criminal charges for death threats on Facebook against journalists of Index. The rejection of charges raises concerns on protection of journalists against intimidation and harassment in Croatia, which by all means should be secured for journalists to be able to continue their work. The court decision was announced after a complaint made by Index journalists against a former veteran, who left a comment on the Facebook page of the news site, stating “these Index journalists should be…

Counter-Islamophobia Kit Project Seminar

The Counter-Islamophobia Kit project documents and critically analyses dominant Islamophobic narratives in operation, and also counter-Islamophobia narratives and related best practices employed in eight EU member states (Belgium, the UK, France, Germany, Hungary, Greece, Portugal, and the Czech Republic) in order to produce the Counter-Islamophobia Kit. This Toolkit identifies and postulates narratives, arguments, strategies and actions that will be able to directly counter Islamophobia and set guidelines on best practice aimed at countering this form of racism. The CIK Project Knowledge Exchange event aims to present the results of the Counter-Islamophobia Kit Project related to the Belgian context, as well…

Croatia: hate speech on the rise but hope for change

In January 2018 an international delegation of press freedom organisation representatives visited Zagreb for the second time in two years to observe the state of media freedom in Croatia. Now, the report is out, and these are the recommendations. After a joint mission of media freedom organisations in June 2016 produced particularly bad results, a new delegation, consisting of representatives of the South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO), the Association of European Journalists (AEJ), the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF), the European Federation of Journalists (represented by Marijana Camovic, member of the EFJ Steering Committee)…

Media Against Hate Conference calls for higher ethical standards and effective self-regulation in journalism

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) held the final conference of the 18-month campaign ”Media Against Hate” to counter hate speech in the media in Brussels, on 5-6 March 2018. The conference was attended by around 60 participants from all over Europe including journalists, community media, media regulators, journalists’ unions, IT companies and policymakers. Harlem Désir, the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media opened the conference with a keynote speech. He emphasised high ethical standards in journalism and effective self-regulation are key to combat hate speech and disinformation in the media. Mr. Désir said, ” This is a challenging…

Brussels Book Fair: hate speech and freedom of expression

The Council of Europe will be hosting a discussion/debate at the Brussels Book Fair from 22-25 February 2018. The theme of this year’s event will be hate speech and freedom of expression. The event is a round-table discussion, in French and usually involving 3 or 4 speakers, followed by questions and answers from visitors to the book fair. affichette conf 3