European journalists seek ways to enforce fair contracts for quality journalism
In the framework of the two-years project “Rights and Jobs in Journalism”, the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) organised on 30 May its last workshop focusing on “Authors’ rights enforcement: Fair contracts for quality journalism” in Brussels.
Twenty EFJ members coming from 16 European countries attended the workshop and exchanged best practices on the protection of authors’ rights and way to ensure fair contracts for journalists. 
Participants had the opportunity to discuss practical tools in two working groups. The first one, focused on the question of how to secure fair contracts for European journalists, raising the problem of what a fair remuneration might be. In the Netherlands and in Belgium for example, a calculator system was implemented to estimate how much a journalist should get for his work. The EFJ/IFJ contract’s checklist was also discussed and suggestions were made to improve the licence terms. The second working group worked on a toolbox to protect authors’ rights materials. Suggestions were made to improve students’ education towards authors’rights as well support provided to journalists in order to challenge unfair contracts.
The head of the European Commission’s Copyright Unit Maria Martin Prat highlighted latest developments affecting journalists in the current reform of European copyright law, including on authors’ contracts and publishers’ neighboring right. Associate professor at the university of Amsterdam Lucie Guibault introduced the main findings of a study on authors’ remuneration in the print sector conducted in summer 2015 and to some EFJ affiliates have contributed to the study.
The final conference of the project will be held in Zagreb (Croatia) on 26 October 2016. It will present the key results and best practice examples from the four workshops. A handbook will be published compiling the results of the workshops during the conference.
Credit photo: EFJ
