EFJ Focus June 2017
The EFJ newsletter, EFJ Focus, is available in English and German.
EDITORIAL
EU moving forward on journalists’ rights protection
When the EFJ was established twenty five years ago, one of its aims was to lobby EU institutions for the interests of journalists. Currently, the EFJ is making progress on influencing:
- the proposed EU copyright directive
- the protection of whistleblowers
- the consultation to provide social protection and equal rights for freelance journalists
We have built alliances with authors’ organisations to ensure the protection of authors’ rights in the EU copyright directive while maintaining our cooperation with publishers on common topics.
We pushed for EU legislation for the protection of whistleblowers with Eurocadres, a European trade union for professionals.
Across Europe, we have seen an increasing challenge on precarious work especially in the form of freelancing. Although some choose to be freelances, others are forced to do so due to austerity measures from employers.
Following several projects and lobbying efforts with the European Trade Union Confederation and media workers’ unions (FIM, FIA and UNI-MEI) on the issue of freelances and the so-called atypical workers, the European Commission finally launched several consultations to consider EU legislative action under the framework of the European Pillar of Social Rights (EPSR).
Now we will follow this momentum to lobby for social protection for all workers and their labour rights to be recognised and protected. This will be a long battle but a good start has already begun.
Mogens Blicher Bjerregård
EFJ President
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