Parliament committee adopts draft trade secrets directive

Following months of debates and Trilogue negotiations on the Commission’s proposal for a Trade Secrets Directive, the European Parliament Committee on Legal Affairs today has finally voted the final draft proposal on trade secrets. It improves the legal certainty as regards the exception for exercising the right to freedom of expression and information but journalists and media associations will remain vigilant. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) takes note of the generally positive amendments made to the initial draft Directive on Trade Secrets. Throughout the negotiations, the EFJ together with other media organisations’ representatives (including the European Broadcasting Union, European…

Europe shocked by life sentences demanded against journalists in Turkey

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) and the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) have been shocked by the indictment of a Turkish prosecutor demanding on 27/01/2016 during a court hearing in Istanbul “aggravated life imprisonment and imprisonment up to 30 years” for Can Dündar and Erdem Gül, two prominent journalists working for the daily Cumhuriyet in Turkey. According to Turkish media reports, the 473-page indicment against journalists read by the prosecutor İrfan Fidan was solely based on opinions and articles published by the newspaper. Can Dündar, editor in chief of Cumhuriyet and Erdem Gül, the newspaper’s bureau chief in Ankara have…