On Wednesday 18, during the streaming of Barack Obama’s press conference, Facebook temporary blocked RT account on the grounds of a copyright complain. According to the social network the originally 72 hour ban happened due to the copyright notification, which they received from Current Time TV, a Russian-language media jointly owned by Radio Free Europe and the Voice of America. Russian broadcaster RT, previously known as Russia Today, claimed that they used AP direct feed, which they officially subscribed to. They believed that there might be other reasons for such actions, as this blockage wouldn’t let the media channel to…

On the tenth anniversary of the assassination of Mr Hrant Dink, EFJ-IFJ and partner organisations of the Council of Europe Platform decided to jointly submit a new case under the ‘impunity’ category in relation to the murder of the Turkish-Armenian journalist. The organisations call on the Turkish authorities to ensure that those who failed to protect the journalist and prepared false reports are brought to justice through an open and transparent judicial process. Read the alert here.   On 19 January 2007, Hrant Dink, the Turkish-Armenian journalist and founder of Agos newspaper, was shot dead at 15:05 on the street in front…

On 19 January, an indictment has been issued for hate crime against Ivan Goluban, arrested since November 2016, following threats by text message to CJA president Saša Leković. Goluban has been detained following his arrestation as the judge considered that he could potentially repeat the harassment against Leković. He is facing up to 5 years in jail. In October 2016, the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) denounced the increase of hate speech and direct threats towards journalists in Croatia in an article explaining how Saša Leković escaped a serious road accident after his car appeared to have been tempered with.…

A demonstration of solidarity gathered 250 people on Wednesday 18 January 2017 in Lille, in front of the French newspaper La Voix du Nord‘s headquarters, to protest against the managers’ social plan foreseeing a 25% reduction in staff workers. La Voix du Nord‘s owner, the Belgian media group Rossel, announced in early January its plan to cut 178 jobs, including 72 journalists, while the company recorded a profit margin of 5 million EUR in 2015. Union representatives are meeting on Thursday (19/01/2017) morning the French minister of Culture Audrey Azoulay as well as the French minister of Labour Myriam El Khomri to put pressure on…

This article signed by the Vice President of the EFJ Nadezda Azhgikhina was initially published in The Nation weekly magazine in the United States. It is reprinted here with the author’s permission. It’s Not Too Late for an Honest Russian-American Dialogue https://t.co/v9jk5xk7gM — The Nation (@thenation) January 17, 2017 During Russia’s extended Christmas holidays, in a town near Moscow, an unemployed man stabbed his potential employer for political reasons during a friendly meal. The employer, who owns a gas station, said that Russians live poorly because of low productivity—that is, a US worker has to work 30 minutes to earn…

Journalismfund.eu’s European cross-border grant programme allocates grants to transnational teams of European journalists who work together on a cross-border investigation. Applications can be submitted on our website until 11.59 pm Brussels time on Wednesday 1 February 2017. Read more EIJC17 & Dataharvest From Friday 19 until Sunday morning 21 May it’s on, again. The seventh edition of the European Investigative Journalism Conference and Dataharvest will take place in Mechelen, Belgium. It’s the most relevant learning and networking event for people operating on the crossroads of investigative journalism, public data and innovative visualisations. Be there. Register and pay here.

The European Federation of Journalists supports its member in Germany, the Deutscher Journalisten-Verband  in requesting  fair accreditation to journalists who wish to attend the European Parliament’s Europe of Nations and Freedom group) conference in Koblenz on 21 January . The meeting,  is to be attended by leaders of Germany’s right-wing populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) as well as Marine Le Pen, who heads up France’s National Front. The leader of the Dutch Freedom Party Geert Wilders and the chief of Italy’s Northern League Matteo Salvini are due to speak at the conference. According to information of the Deutscher Journalisten-Verband, several  journalists who…

On 12 January, the National Radio and TV Council (NRTC) of Ukraine voted unanimously to cease the retransmission of the Russian TV Channel Dozhd (Rain), following TV reports showing Crimea as part of Russia. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) joins today the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatović in condemning this decision, which will have harmful consequences for media pluralism in Ukraine. Decision of @NacRada to stop broadcasting @tvrain DozhdTV very demaging for media pluralism in #Ukraine https://t.co/cdT4mmMLna @OSCE_RFoM — Dunja Mijatovic (@Dunja_Mijatovic) January 12, 2017 According to a press release posted on the council’s website,…

The Journalists’ Trade Union of Azerbaijan published a report on social conditions of journalists in the country in 2016. Overall 51 media outlets took part in the survey, among them national newspapers, information agencies, news portals and TV channels. One of the big issues stated in the report was the lack of individual labour contracts in Azerbaijan.  The media companies prefer to sign short-period contracts, in the best cases 60% of employees had labour contracts, whereas 40-45% had no legally binding documents and relied on verbal agreements. The application of health insurance is extremely low (less than 5% ). The…