A hundred refugees spent the night outside in a park in front of the Refugees Office in Brussels, the “capital of Europe”, on Wednesday. Commenting on these events, many media talked about a “massive influx of refugees in Belgium.” Some simply mentioned a “flood of refugees”. Others stuck to comment on “the problem of hosting refugees.” The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), an active member of the Ethical Journalism Network, reminds journalists “shall be aware of the danger of discrimination being furthered by the media, and shall do the utmost to avoid facilitating such discrimination based on, among other things,…

“For the first time in my life I saw my colleagues – photographers and journalists – crying because of the situation”. Macedonian photographer Georgi Licovski, member of the Association of Journalists of Macedonia (AJM-ZNM), an EFJ affiliate, told TIME magazine he was moved, after spending the day taking pictures at the border from Greece to Macedonia, on Friday 21 August. He added that it was also the first time he has cried while working. Hundreds of refugees trying to cross the border clashed with police lines, just a day after Macedonia closed the border. Georgi Licovski said to TIME magazine there were…

Two Italian journalists and support staff have received death threats for reporting on mafia boss Vittorio Casamonica’s funeral, which took place in Rome, on 21 August. Alessio Viscardi, an investigative reporter for the online newspaper Fanpage.it was threatened on 22 August by four people in Terzigno (40 km south of Naples), when he was looking for the airfield where the helicopter had taken off to throw rose petals on the funeral procession. The attackers took photographs of his documents and threatened to kill him. The second attack occurred on 23 August, in Rome: a team from public TV channel RAI…

Update (01/09/2015): Khadija Ismayilova has been sentenced today by Baku Court to 7,5 years in prison. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and its European organisation, the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), together with ARTICLE 19 and the Association of European Journalists (AEJ), have urged the Azerbaijani authorities to reject the Prosecutor’s request made today against the investigative journalist Khadija Ismaylova and to immediately free her. Ismayilova’s trial began in capital Baku on 7th August and has been adjourned until Wednesday 26th August, when the verdict is likely to be delivered. Following the request, the four media organisations have together submitted…

Article 19, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) and the Association of European Journalists (AEJ) today reported to the Council of Europe Platform to promote the protection of journalism the new wave of censorship targeting certain media outlets’ websites in Turkey (read our submission here). On 25 July 2015, the Ankara Gölbaşı Penal Court of Peace ruled to block 96 Kurdish websites in Turkey, many of which were news websites, after receiving a complaint from the Turkish Communications Authority that the websites were spreading terrorist propaganda. Among the blocked news websites were ANF (Ajansa Nûçeyan a…

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) have today called on the Serbian authorities to investigate the recent attack on journalist Predrag Blagojevic who was repeatedly beaten by a policeman on Saturday 15 August. The affiliates of IFJ and EFJ – the Independent Journalists’ Association (NUNS), the Journalists’ Association of Serbia (UNS) and the Journalists’ Union of Serbia (SINOS, in Serbian) have also condemned the attack and urged the authorities to investigate the case immediately. Blagojevic is the editor for the news portal, Juzne Vesti. He previously received threats while on a journalistic assignment.…

Update (20.08.2015) The European Federation of Journalists sent today a letter to Politico CEO Jim VandeHei expressing its concern about news reports suggesting that Mike Elk, Labor reporter at Politico and co-author of the Louisville Statement, has been fired. Politico confirmed, on Thursday, Mike Elk’s departure, saying it has “nothing to do with his union activities”. Supported by his union, Mike Elk replied that he is on vacation until September 1st: he considers he is still an employee of Politico. ———- Over 12,000 jobs have disappeared from the US media industry, over the last decade. But according to Pew Research Center’s count, 5,000 full-time…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) has joined the Italian organisation on Carta di Roma welcoming the new initiative launched by the Italy newspaper La Stampa to counter hate speech. The EFJ has called on media professionals to be aware of the danger of discrimination being furthered by the media through hate speech following recent debates and media coverage on “migrant crisis” in Europe. Ricardo Gutiérrez, the EFJ General Secretary said, “Journalists should dare to denounce and confront hate speech publicly. They have the ethical responsibility to counter racist and discriminatory messages and comments that incite hatred, violence or insult…

As a follow-up to the case of Željko Peratović, a freelance journalist and blogger who has been attacked at his home on May 28, 2015 in an attempted murder, the Croatian Journalists’ Association (Hrvatsko Novinarsko Drustvo, an EFJ-IFJ affiliate) is reminding the authorities with several cases of death threats and attacks on journalists which are still not resolved. “It is one year since freelancer Domagoj Margetić has been beaten up in front of his apartment in Zagreb. The Croatian State Attorney defined that attack as attempted murder but not the attacker or motifs, nor the person(s) who possibly ordered it…

Update (06.11.2015). The EFJ has joined today its Georgian affiliate, IAGJ, to express concerns related to the appointment of a new pro-government management to the Rustavi 2 TV company in Georgia, following a judiciary decision. We ask the Tbilisi City Court not to interfere on Rustavi 2’s editorial independence. ——————- The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) together with its Georgian affiliate, the Independent Association of Georgian Journalists (IAGJ), criticised today the lawsuit launched against the Georgian television channel Rustavi 2 as a threat to media freedom and pluralism in the country. On August 5, the Tbilisi City Court issued a court order freezing the…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) has joined Access Info Europe (AIE) in calling the Cypriot Government to improve its draft access to information law in order to meet international transparency standard. According to the global Right to Info Rating, the Republic of Cyprus freedom of information bill is set to become one of the worst in Europe. Access Info Europe (AIE) and the Centre for Law and Democracy (CLD) studied the draft text using the 61 indicators of the Right to Information Rating and found that Cyprus scores a dismal 57 points (out of 150) which positions itself near the buttom…

In the framework of the project “Reaching out to atypical workers” funded by the European Commission, the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) together with its affiliate, the National Union of Journalists (NUJ), in Ireland will organise a workshop on “Collective bargaining for atypcial workers” on 8 & 9 September in Dublin.  Workshop discussion summary EFJ calls for stronger rights for freelance workers Agenda The workshop is part of the joint project with partners FIA, UNI-MEI and FIM to address the challenges facing by unions in the sector to represent freelance workers and defend their rights. Key issues include: Collective bargaining…

Rasim Aliyev (31), an Azerbaijani independent journalist who was attacked and beaten by supporters of a local soccer player in retaliation for criticism posted on a Facebook page, has died of his injuries in a Baku hospital on Sunday (August 9). The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) and the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) are deeply saddened by his death. “The climate of impunity for violent acts against journalists and human rights defenders in Azerbaijan may encourage some individuals to commit such grave crimes without being punished. Journalists, like every citizen, in Azerbaijan must be free to share their personal…

The American Press Institute presented on Thursday the results of a survey of nearly 10,500 journalism and communication graduates from 22 universities across the United States. These graduates are pessimistic about the direction of news in general, but most believe their own work in the last five years has gotten better. The survey found that while just 41% of journalism graduates are employed by news organisations, sizable minorities in other fields still look at themselves as journalists: 22% work for commercial brands, 16% in education and 14% in politics and think tanks. Among the 36% employed in journalism organisations, there…

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) have demanded Turkey to drop the “terrorism charges” against 18 journalists who could face 7.5 years in prison for publishing a photo. Following a series of crackdown on online media during the past weeks in Turkey, the chief prosecutors’ office in Istanbul yesterday launched a prosecution against 18 journalists working for nine different newspapers on charges of “making propaganda for a terrorist organisation” after publishing a picture from a hostage siege that took place on 31 March 2015 in Istanbul when two terrorists from the outlawed Marxist Revolutionary…

Since the end of July, media organisations and journalists in Turkey are particularly affected by the growing armed conflict between the Turkish government and the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). Access to over 100 news and information websites including major news portals on Kurdish issues such as Dicle News Agency (DIHA), Etkin News Agency (ETHA), Özgür Gündem newspaper and Sendika.org news portal on Turkish trade unionism have been blocked in Turkey by the High Council for Telecommunications (TIB). Based on the initiative of the TGS (Journalists Union of Turkey, EFJ-IFJ affiliate), TGC (Association of Journalists in Turkey), Disk Basin-Is (Progressive Journalists Union…