Ali Kişmir, the President of the Cyprus Turkish Journalists’ Union (Basin-Sen), an affiliate of the European and International Federations of Journalists (EFJ-IFJ), will stand trial on 6 October for an article published in 2020. Kişmir faces a ten-year prison sentence for “insulting and mocking” the security forces. The federations call for the charges against him to be dropped and urge the authorities to safeguard freedom of expression which is a cornerstone of democracy. In an opinion article published in 2020, the journalist described the state of his country’s politics as a “brothel”. Three years later, he will be tried for…

The European and International Federations of Journalists (EFJ-IFJ) call on the Turkish government to immediately dismiss the “disinformation law”, expected to be turned into law by the end of the week. The law was submitted to the parliament on May 27 by the governing alliance of Justice and Development Party (AKP), President Recep Tayyip Erdogan‘s Islamic party, and Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), their ultra-nationalist allies. The draft will be presented at the Parliament General Assembly this week, and is expected to be voted on and passed promptly after. Such a bill, giving very vague definitions of “disinformation” and “intent”, would, if implemented, enable the government…

On the eve of World Press Freedom Day on 3 May and in the midst of the Covid-19 crisis, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), the world’s leading professional and representative organisation of journalists with more than 600,000 members in 146 countries, launched a “Global Platform for Quality Journalism” on Wednesday 29 April. The document is aimed at IFJ affiliates, its regional groups and is supported by all the trade union World Federations, representing several hundred million workers. Information must never be confined. Information must remain a public good. By bringing more than two thirds of humanity to a standstill,…

Renewal of IFJ-EFJ Cooperation Contract Participants: Younes M’Jahed, IFJ President Mogens Blicher Bjerragaard, EFJ President Jim Boumelha, IFJ HT Martine Simonis, EFJ HT Anthony Bellanger, IFJ GS Ricardo Gutiérrez, EFJ GS

Journalists’ unions around the world endorsed on 12 June, in Tunis, a new Charter of Ethics for Journalists following months of consultations. The document builds on and reinforces the ethical standards laid down by the 1954 IFJ Declaration of Principles on the Conduct of Journalists, the most widely recognised text on journalistic ethics to date. That Declaration was drafted in Bordeaux, France, 65 years ago, and was last updated in 1986, hence the need for a new Charter adapted to current challenges facing the media. Drafted by a working group of 16 people, including representatives of the IFJ leadership, regions and…

UPDATE (29-01-2019) : Ayşe Düzkan and four other journalists were sentenced to prison because of participating in the “Editor-in-Chief on Duty” campaign with the now-closed Özgür Gündem newspaper. Today, Ayşe Düzkan went to the prosecution office and was sent to Bakırköy prison. Her friends, her colleagues and also DİSK Basın İş members were with her. She was sentenced to 1 year and 6 months in prison. But it is not certain how much time she will stay in prison yet. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) is calling the Turkish authorities to immediately release Ayse and the other journalists sentenced in the framework…

IFJ and EFJ leaders came under a tear gas attack today after Israeli soldiers fired on a peaceful assembly demanding the right to freedom of movement for Palestinian journalists, in Ramallah. The European Federation of Journalists joins IFJ in demanding answer after Israeli attack. One member of the IFJ’s Executive Committee was injured after being hit on the shoulder and many others were left choking after the attack. In an open letter to the Israeli Prime Minister, the IFJ – whose Executive Committee is meeting in Ramallah – has demanded an urgent response to the unprovoked attack on the peaceful…

80 journalists have been killed worldwide this year, including 5 in Europe, according to the International Federation of Journalists’ (IFJ) Killed List, published today. The list details the journalists and media staff killed in targeted killings, car bomb attacks and cross fire incidents around the world during 2017. Denmark: Kim Wall The Swedish freelance journalist Kim Wall was killed in Denmark in August this year. The journalist had boarded a civilian submarine with its inventor, Peter Madsen, and was researching for a feature about him and the vessel which he had built from crowdfunding. Kim Wall’s body parts were later found…

November was a difficult month again for imprisoned and prosecuted journalists in Turkey. More and more professional journalists and media workers are facing imprisonment or threats for reporting information or simply for being affiliated to specific media outlets, wrongly considered by Turkish authorities as criminal acts. On 21 November 2017, journalist Oğuz Güven, editor-in-chief of the online version of Cumhuriyet daily newspaper, was sentenced to 3 years and 1 month of imprisonment due to a temporary tweet which Mr Güven had sent and quickly deleted regarding the accidental death of a public prosecutor. Mustafa Alper, the Chief Public Prosecutor of Denizli, died…

The European and International Federations of Journalists welcome the release of two Azerbaijani journalists, Mehman Aliyev and Alexander Lapshin, on the 11th of September 2017. Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev today pardoned Russian travel blogger Alexander Lapshing. He was arrested in Minsk in December 2016 and extradited to Azerbaijan, after the Supreme Court in Belarus decided to send him to Baku despite the objections from Moscow. Lapshin was accused of illegally visiting Nagorno-Karabakh, the disputed territory between Azerbaijan and Armenia, and calling for independence of the region. The second journalist, Mehman Aliyev, editor-in-chief of the Turan news agency, has been released today from pretrial detention, on condition that he…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) has initiated a call backed by the international community, including the EBU (European Broadcasting Union), to save public service media (PSM) in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). Urgent measures need to be taken to secure adequate and sustainable funding for PSM in BiH. It has been almost a year since the previous model for collecting the licence fee – through telephone bills –  expired. The two telecoms operators in BiH, Bhtelecom and M:tel, have been voluntarily collecting the fee for PSM ever since but this is now under threat and, this month, the amount of funding collected via this…

The International and European Federation of Journalists (IFJ and EFJ) have today condemned the detention of at least 13 international and local journalists by Russian authorities during nationwide anti-corruption protests on 26 March. The demonstrations were not officially authorised in many Russian cities including Moscow and Saint-Petersburg which led to the detention of hundreds of people. Six journalists – among them two international correspondents – were detained in the capital Moscow, three in Saint-Petersburg and four more in other Russian cities. Reports added that the police also threatened and hit some reporters to prevent them from covering the demonstrations. Journalist…

The European and International Federations of Journalists are calling for action to stop the proposed merger of 21st Century Fox Inc and Sky plc, claiming it would ”undermine media plurality and be against the public interest”. The EFJ and IFJ joined forces with the National Union of Journalists in the UK and Ireland and the UK Trades Union Congress and the European TUC to welcome the decision of the European Commission to examine the bid and urged it to consider the impact on media diversity and plurality in the UK. In its submission to the investigation the IFJ called for action to…

The European and International Federation of Journalists (EFJ-IFJ) have backed calls by striking workers at one of Italy’s top financial newspapers for the editor to resign. The EFJ-IFJ joined its affiliate, the Federazione Nazionale della Stampa Italiana (FNSI), in supporting the stoppage by Il Sole 24 Ore workers which started today. The strike, backed in a vote on Friday by 90% of union members, is demanding the resignation of the paper’s editor, Roberto Napoletano, following a police raid on the paper’s headquarters and claims senior managers, including Napoletano, issued false statements about the company’s position. Reports said that Napoletano and two former…

The National Council for Television and Radio Broadcasting of Ukraine revoked license of the Ukrainian broadcasting company “Radio Vesti” in Kharkiv city. The council also refused to extend the radio’s license in the capital, Kyiv. Radio Vesti, the largest national professional radio channel in the country, insists they sent the required documents on time in order to renew the licenses, which expired in February. Despite this, the National Council decided to revoke the licenses out of concerns that the ultimate beneficiary of the station was the former Minister of Revenue and Fees, Oleksandr Klymenko. Reports said that as a result,…