Twenty-five journalists from 12 countries gathered in Zagreb (Croatia) on 26 and 27 May to attend a workshop on the theme “Reporting Refugees, Migrants, Ethnicity” co-organised by the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) and the Croatian Journalists’ Association (CJA). Journalists gathered at the workshop on reporting refugees in Zagreb. #mediaagainsthate pic.twitter.com/KhrkjXHR6I — Gašper Andrinek (@Caspersek) May 26, 2017 Croatia had little contact with migrants from the Middle East until 2015. But the country is now welcoming some migrants and the media, as well as the population, are experiencing some difficulties in dealing with it. The participants, all working on migration issues in their own countries, were given…

Basin-Sen (Turkish Cypriots’s Press Workers’ Trade Union, an EFJ-IFJ affiliate) announced the signature of a new collective agreement with Northern Cyprus’ biggest online daily newspaper Kibris Postasi. “This is a very important step taken by Kibris Postasi newspaper as this gives a momentum and is seen as an example to repeat for the entire press workers. We thank the managers of the newspaper for this output and we want to thank all the journalists and media workers for standing for the social rights. As Basin-Sen, we will be working to achieve similar results through collective bargaining in other media outlets”, said Canan Onurer,…

The International and the European Federations of Journalists (IFJ-EFJ) have joined their affiliate, the Russian Union of Journalists (the RUJ), in condemning the murder of Dmitry Popkov, co-founder and editor-in-chief of local newspaper Ton-M based in Minusinsk, Krasnoyarsk Krai of Russia. Dmitri Popkov was shot dead in the town of Minusinsk on 24 May, 2017, reports Index’s Mapping Media Freedom. The regional investigative committee reported that Popkov was shot five times by an unidentified perpetrator. His body was found in the sauna in his backyard. Popkov is well known in his region since he became a regional parliament deputy for the Communist Party.…

What kind of journalism will be done in the future, what sorts of platforms will be used and where will the money come from? What will be the role of freelancers and entrepreneurs in this changing situation? Those are some of the questions that will be discussed at the Nordic Freelance Seminar on 15–16 September in Helsinki at the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Suomenlinna island. It is hosted by the Finnish Freelance Journalists Association (Suomen freelance-journalistit ry) and aimed at Nordic freelancers only. Participants will also talk about new skills freelancers and entrepreneurs should learn, the relationship between the…

Media freedom in Europe has reached a ”critical turning point” due to dramatic challenges faced by journalists, highlighted Patrick Penninckx, the Head of the Council of Europe Information Society Department in his key note speech at the EFJ Annual Meeting  on 18–19 May in Bucharest, Romania. Around 70 delegates and guests from 30 European countries attended the meeting entitled ‘Journalist under pressure’ and debated about key challenges facing journalists and their unions. The meeting, hosted by the EFJ affiliate in Romania, FAIR MediaSind, pointed out the lack of social dialogue in the media in Romania to guarantee decent working conditions for journalists…

In 2016, the Media Pluralism Monitor (MPM) examined media freedom and pluralism indicators in 28 European countries as well as in Montenegro and Turkey, two applicant countries. The Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom (CMPF) released on Friday (19/05/2017) the report which shows alarming trends, in particular when it comes to journalistic profession including working conditions, safety, protection of sources, access and the role of unions and associations in protecting journalists. The report especially emphasized that no country is free from risks when it comes to media pluralism. The risks were examined under different aspects and potential threats, related to…

The Western Balkan’s Regional Platform for Advocating Media Freedom and Journalists’ Safety(*) expressed its deepest concerns following the physical attack on May 12 against Croatian journalist Mladen Mirković in the town of Požega. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) backs its six affiliates in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia, Kosovo, Serbia and Macedonia, in calling on the authorities to swiftly investigate the case. The assaillant was Požega mayor Vedran Neferović. According to Mirković, the attack happened after the mayor invited him for a meeting at his office. He wanted to know who had written some articles published on the website the journalist is working for, 034portal.hr In a…

The General Meeting of the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) on 18 & 19 May, 2017 adopted a series of resolutions and statements.   Resolutions Statements & declarations (French version available soon)

Speech by Mogens Blicher Bjerregård (EFJ President) Journalism in Europe is facing critical times. Media and politics are in an increasing conflict across Europe. More than ever, the fundamental pillar of our democracies, credible – high quality – investigative – journalism is crucial for the citizens. Journalism including all media-workers providing content. Across Europe we have three big challenges: Safety of journalists and journalism How to counter the increasing conflict between media and politics Build social dialogue Being innovative in finding new business models Three journalists have been killed in Europe since our general meeting in Sarajevo – in Ukraine, Turkey and…

The number of independent workers is growing rapidly within the European labour market and behind what has become the standard label for self-employed professionals lies a wide range of different work scenarios. Who are the freelancers of Europe, how do they live and work in the different countries of the EU, what are their needs, expectations and how do they deal with the uncertain, precarious nature of freelance work? i-WIRE is the first Europe-wide survey of freelancers that will try to answer some of those questions. The EFJ encourages its affiliates and freelancers of Europe to fill out the questionnaire.…

On 16 May 2017, the EFJ-IFJ and partner organisations submitted the following alert to the Council of Europe’s platform for the safety and protection of journalists : On 12 May 2017, Oğuz Güven, editor-in-chief of the online edition of the daily newspaper Cumhuriyet, was detained as part of a criminal investigation led by the Bureau of Press Offences of the Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office in Istanbul. On 15 May, Güven appeared before a judge, who ordered that he be held in pre-trial detention, on “propaganda for a terrorist organisation” and “defamation against a person’s memory” charges. Both charges against the…

Eutelsat SA, the French satellite provider hosting over 6000 televisions channels, has notified on 14 April 2017 its intention “to remove” the signals of Channel News, Ronahi TV and Sterk TV, three Kurdish language television channel broadcasting from EU countries to Kurdish speaking audience in Turkey and Syria, from its transponder because “the content in which statements are made by the leaders of the terrorist organisation called as PKK/KCK”. According to EFJ sources, Eutelsat SA is acting under the pressure of RTÜK (Turkish Radio Television Supreme Council) to remove the EU-based Kurdish channels. In an urgent notice sent to the…

Updated on 16.05.2017. Malta’s Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has filed on the 10th of May 2017 a defamation case against Matthew Caruana Galizia, journalist at the International consortium of investigative journalists (ICIJ) and Pulitzer Prize winner, for revealing documents through the Panama Papers accusing Maltese Prime Minister of corruption. Joseph Muscat denied the journalist’s allegations. The European Federation of Journalists called on the minister to reconsider his legal action, highlighting the chilling effect of such an action on media freedom. Caruana Galizia is sued in relation to a series of posts and documents published on his Facebook page proving, among others, that the Prime Minister took kickbacks on the sale of Maltese passports, via his chief of staff Keith…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) and press freedom groups met yesterday (11/05/2017) with Italian MEP Barbara Spinelli, Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) Committee, who is the main rapporteur for an upcoming own initiative report on media freedom. Tom Gibson from the Committee to Protect Journalists, EFJ director Renate Schroeder, Giovanni Melogli from the International Alliance of Journalists and Julie Majerczak from Reporters Without Borders pointed out the importance of monitoring media freedom, solving the issue of self-censorship, strengthening media pluralism, boosting media literacy and finding more efficient law enforcement at European level when it comes to attacks…

Seven more days until the seventh ever EIJC & Dataharvest Conference. If you haven’t registered yet, you will want to do so soon. Here’s why. There are over one hundred sessions packed into two and a half days and spread over ten wildly interesting tracks: Cross-border, Data, Data Lab, Entrepreneurial & Funding, Online Research & Security, Tax & Finance, Algorithm Accountability, Journo-scholar collaboration and Wobbing. Check the programme here. Get your hands dirty at our hand-on Data Lab and dive into software like Excel, SQL, Python scraper, R for journalists with the help of experienced data trainers. There will be sessions for all levels: beginner, intermediate,…

The European and International Federations of Journalists (EFJ-IFJ) are strongly concerned about the judicial harassment in Turkey against journalists and media workers detained for allegedly “being member” or “doing propaganda on behalf of an illegal organisation”. The EFJ-IFJ has received a detailed report about the critical situation of the young (27) female Turkish journalist and law student Aysenur Parildak, arrested for more than 9 months, released by court on 2nd of May 2017 and immediately re-arrested the same day with new charges related to the same facts (being correspondent for Zaman newspaper). Similarly mid-April 2017, 12 journalists (Gökçe Fırat Çulhaoğlu, Yakup Çetin, Bünyamin Köseli, Cihan…