The European Federation of Journalist (EFJ) has strongly condemned the assassination attempt on 6 May in Istanbul against journalist Can Dündar (editor-in-chief of Cumhuriyet daily newspaper) and the jail sentences of 5 years and 10 months for Can Dündar and 5 years for Erdem Gül for procuring, revealing and publishing state secrets. Cumhuriyet published in May 2015 footage that show Turkey’s state intelligence agency ferrying weapons into Syria in 2014, the journalists have since been accused of revealing state secrets. “This new verdict is clearly unacceptable, in contradiction with Turkey’s Constitutional Court ruling and nobody can claim of a fair trial since the court decided to hold the trial behind closed…

On May 3, World Press Freedom Day, offers an opportunity to highlight the importance of defending press freedom worldwide, as it is an essential component of any democracy. The European Magazine Media Association, in cooperation with an alliance of national, European and international media and journalist organisations, is organizing a conference, “(R)EVOLUTION OF EUROPE’S PRESS”, on 1 July 2016 in this year’s European Capital of Culture, Wroclaw, Poland. The event will bring together press publishers, politicians, journalists, academics, start-ups and technology experts to discuss a holistic view of real and potential threats for press freedom in Europe. World Press Freedom Day…

I can’t write that, it seems that more and more European journalists are saying this sentence to themselves when working for a media outlet. The refugee crisis, the Cologne attacks, the Panama papers or the new French surveillance law are some recent examples of sensitive topics that raised the question of self-censorship among journalists. The Friedrich Naumann Stiftung für die Freiheit in co-operation with the EFJ organised an event (02/05/2016) in Brussels to discuss how self-censorship affects journalists’ reporting in the European media industry.  The debate was moderated by EFJ Director Renate Schroeder, who at the outset drew the meeting’s attention to a comprehensive quantitative…

Russian Union of Journalists (RUJ), a member of the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) together with the UN Information Center in Russia had a round table discussion at the Moscow Journalist House on 28 April to celebrate the World Press Freedom Day. RUJ president Vsevolod Bogdanov stressed in his opening speech the importance of press freedom and professional solidarity. Director of UN Press Center in Russia Vladimir Kuznetsov, representative of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Russia Rashid Alluash and representative of the Commission of the Russian Federation for UNESCO Nikolay Khaustov, talked about the history and the importance of World Press Freedom Day and Guillermo Cano Award.…