EFJ Focus April 2016
The EFJ newsletter, EFJ Focus, is available in English and in French.
Building stronger unions and quality journalism
No one will doubt the importance of high quality journalism in a democratic society especially with recent revelations from the investigative reporting of the ‘‘Panama Papers’’ and ‘‘LuxLeaks’’.
The revelations reaffirm that independent and quality journalism is a prerequisite and a fundamental pillar for democracy. This is why we need investment in journalism in order to allow journalists to do their job in an environment media freedom, decent working conditions and authors’ rights are respected.
This will be the main topic of the EFJ General Meeting in Sarajevo. As journalists’ unions, we need to develop strategies to help sustain a pluralistic and independent environment for journalists in times of change and crisis.
To do so, we must better our structure and outreach in order to continue solidarity and strengthen our voice. Because number matters when we are negotiating with employers and influencing policy-makers. Our members make EFJ stronger. This is evident in our lobbying action on recent EU Trade Secret Directive.
Our outreach also enabled us to build partnership and alliance. We established ourself as key a partner for inter-governmental organisations, European institutions as well as industry stakeholders. Last year, we became a key partner for the Council of Europe to set up the safety platform for journalists and pushed national government to take responsibility for the safety of journalists.
I hope the next EFJ Steering Committee will build on the success we have achieved and better serve our members by delivering more success and results.
Mogens Blicher Bjerregård
EFJ President
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