Journalists’ organisations in Germany are opposing the government’s proposal to allow telecommunication companies, social networking sites and online messaging services to hand over private data to the authorities for national security purposes. The affiliates of the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), Deutscher Journalisten-Verband (DJV) and Deutsche Journalistinnen- und Journalisten-Union (dju) in ver.di are calling their government to stop the draft law that would violate the fundamental rights of journalists to protect confidential sources, as well as the privacy rights of many citizens. The EFJ backed its affiliates by joining the call on the German government to withdraw the draft law…

On 27 May, the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) had a constructive meeting with Silvia Costa, the Chair of the European Parliament Committee on Culture and Education (CULT). Silvia Costa (S&D, Italy) who had signed the EFJ Manifesto, reiterated her strong support for its principles outlined and showed readiness to stand-up for them. As former journalist, Costa discussed with great interest on the various issues: how to improve media ownership transparency, media literacy,  training for journalists, authors’ rights, new financial models and start-ups  for journalists — all within the changing media landscape and its impact on journalists’ work as a…

The EFJ newsletter, EFJ Focus, is available in English and German. Editorial by Mogens Blicher Bjerregård, EFJ President Union capacity building is now on top of the EU agenda when it comes to media development. On 20 May, I attended the first Eastern Partnership Media Conference in Riga, Latvia, where the main topic focused on how to strengthen free and independent media in Eastern Europe and neighbouring countries. Opening the conference, the representative of the Latvian presidency, Dunja Mijatovic (OSCE) and Nils Muiznieks (Council of Europe) re-affirmed their commitment to media freedom. They highlighted the importance of creating a pluralistic and independent…