Impunity is when threats, attacks and crimes against journalists go unpunished. It results in a high level of fear, intimidation, censorship and self-censorship that undermines press freedom, the public right to know and leaves victims and their relatives powerless. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) joins the International Federation of Journalists’ (IFJ) campaign to #endimpunity, which aims at holding governments and de facto governments accountable for their impunity records and denouncing any crimes targeting journalists that remain unpunished. Murder is the highest form of these crimes but all attacks targeting journalists that remain unpunished must be denounced. In Europe, the EFJ…

Leading freedom of expression organisations have submitted third-party interventions in ten cases against jailed Turkish journalists to which the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has given priority status. The interventions offer detailed legal analyses of the principles at stake in the cases of the detained journalists. The cases before the ECtHR concern the detention of journalists and board members from the Cumhuriyet newspaper, along with the cases of journalists Murat Aksoy, Şahin Alpay, Ahmet and Mehmet Altan, Ali Bulaç, Ayşe Nazlı Ilıcak, Ahmet Şık, Deniz Yücel and Atilla Taş. The separate interventions include submissions from the Media Legal Defence Initiative, PEN International, ARTICLE 19, the…

The European Federation of Journalists joins its affiliate the Association of Professional Journalists of Albania (APJA) as well as the Association of Electronic Media of Albania (AEMA) and the League of Albanian Journalists (LAJ) in expressing profound indignation over the insults and the attacks done by Prime Minister of Albania, Edi Rama to the Albanian media on October 25, 2017. Following the Plenary session – where the ruling majority voted against the request to lift the parliamentarian immunity for the arrest of the former Minister of Interior, Saimir Tahiri, suspected to be linked to the activity of an Albanian-Italian narcotics trafficking…

The Athens Journalists’ Union (ESIEA) called on a 48-hour strike in all Greek media on Tuesday 24 and Wednesday 25 October to protest against the impact of cutbacks on the health care and social security organisation (EDOEAP) as well as recent job cuts across the sector. In addition, four women have been on hunger strike for more than ten days. The EFJ expresses its support to its Greek affiliate and all the journalists currently on strike. Greek journalists have been in turmoil for many months following the government’s and mass media owners’ new policy which caused the collapse of EDOEAP.…

With the adoption of Virginie Rozière‘s report today (24.10.2017) in plenary session in Strasbourg, the European Parliament is sending a strong signal to the European Commission, demanding an EU-wide legislation protecting whistleblowers across the 27 Member States. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) warmly thanks the Members of the European Parliament (MEP) who voted in favour of a full protection for whistleblowers. A total of 666 MEPs took part in the vote: 399 (60%) voted in favour of the report, 101 (15%) voted against and 166 (25%) abstained from voting. Proposed by Virginie Rozière (S&D), the report demands an EU-wide protection…

Deputy editor in chief and anchor Tatyana Felgengauer working for Ekho Moskyv radio station was stabbed in the throat on 23 October at the radio station in Moscow. The well-known journalist is not in critical condition and is said to be stable. The International and European Federations of Journalists (IFJ/EFJ) have joined their Russian affiliate, the Russian Union of Journalists (RUJ), in condemning and demanding an immediate investigation in the attack.   Reports said that the attacker used a gas which was sprayed in a face of security guards before entering Ekho Moskyv offices and bursting into a studio located…

The media segment of the trade union FSC-CCOO and the journalists’ trade union of Catalonia (SPC-FeSP) strongly condemn the threat of takeover of Catalan public media by the Spanish central government, following the measures announced on Saturday by the Prime minister Mariano Rajoy (People’s party), with the support of the two main opposition parties (Socialist party and Ciudadanos). The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) joins its affiliates FSC-CCOO and the Catalan Union of Journalists SPC-FeSP in denouncing this inacceptable political interference in dealing with public service media. This Friday, the Spanish senate could vote a series of measures in application of article 155…

The European Parliament has an opportunity to make a crucial statement tomorrow (24.10) on the protection of whistleblowers. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) and the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) urge Members of the European Parliament to make this a reality and adopt the report on “legitimate measures to protect whistleblowers acting in the public interest”. Both organizations have welcomed Virginie Rozière’s own-initiative report on the protection of whistleblowers. It recognizes the close link between investigative journalism, whistleblowers and their key contribution to informing the public, and stresses the importance of protecting the confidentiality of journalistic sources. The report also…

Thirteen international free expression and media freedom defenders filed a brief on October 20, 2017 with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) supporting a challenge by journalists and administrators from Turkey’s independent daily Cumhuriyet to their lengthy pre-trial detention on charges of allegedly supporting terrorists. Article 19, the Association of European Journalists (AEJ), the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF), the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), Human Rights Watch, Index on Censorship, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), the International Press Institute (IPI), the International Senior Lawyers Project (ISLP), the Media…

How to deal with audiences, how to create trust, how to create facts instead of fakes and what must be done for good journalism to survive. This and many other central questions around fake and facts were discussed on 16 October at the ninth Forum of the “Initiative Qualität im Journalismus (IQ)” in Berlin with about 80 media experts. Professor Tanjev Schultz said that given the speed of false news and propaganda in today’s social media, good journalism is ever more important and can only survive when it is  better than its “loud critic” offer. He explained that lack of…

Sixteen press freedom and media professional groups condemn the killing of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia and demand an immediate and independent investigation into her death. “The murder of a prominent investigative journalist in broad daylight in an EU Member State underscores the seriousness of this crime. Daphne Caruana Galizia’s work as a journalist to hold power to account and shine a light on corruption is vital to maintaining our democratic institutions. Her killing is a loss for her country and for Europe”, Hannah Machlin, project manager for Index on Censorship’s data platform Mapping Media Freedom, said. Daphne Caruana Galizia…

An European consortium comprising the Universities of Newcastle (UK), Padova (Italy) and Gothenburg (Sweden), the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) and the Permanent Conference of the Mediterranean Audiovisual Operators (COPEAM) is developing an action project to advance gender equality in media industries (AGEMI). Help us build the AGEMI project database by submitting your media best practice on gender equality! Best practices can be tutorials for students, monitoring exercises, modules to strengthen gender equality in the media, guidelines on reporting gender issues or specific issue with a gender lens, media or unions’ policies to build a gender culture in newsrooms and…

Maltese investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia has been murdered on 16 October around 3pm by a car bomb in the town of Bidnija, near her family home. The European and International Federations of Journalists condemned today this killing. Daphne Caruana Galizia, 53, was known for her investigative journalism and her blog Running Commentary, which was one of the most widely read websites in Malta. The journalist has been sued many times for her blog posts in which she revealed several corruption scandals involving Maltese politicians. The EFJ had denounced in February 2017 the freeze of her bank accounts as well as the…

The upcoming public hearing at the Court of Justice of the European Union in the case of 29 journalists (from every EU member state) against the European Parliament will take place on October 19, 2017 in Luxembourg. This important case relates to twenty-nine journalists who have filed 27 complaints with the European Court of Justice against the European Parliament which refused to give information on how members of the European Parliament (MEP) spend their allowances. The journalists asked for documents regarding the money MEPs receive on top of their salaries, including a general allowance, travel allowance, daily subsistence and funds for staffing,…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) joins its affiliate the Croatian Journalists Association (CJA) and the Western Balkan’s Regional Platform for Advocating Media Freedom and Journalists’ Safety in strongly condemning the physical attack of Index.hr portal journalist Drago Miljuš by the members of the Split police department. The journalist was standing at the public facility, outside police lines covering the police intervention at the Obojena svijetlost beach in Split (Croatia).  The intervention was related to a suicide bomber who, unfortunately, came through with his intention. One of the policemen present started driving Miljus off, first verbally and then by pushing him away. The…

The EFJ-IFJ are concerned about the rampant reproduction and making available of extracts or the entirety of journalists’ and other creators’ works online by third parties without authorisation or remuneration. Journalists’ contributions to press publications and informing citizens must be recognised and duly protected and remunerated. Their authors’ rights, namely their economic and moral rights, including the right to integrity and paternity, must be duly acknowledged. Freedom of contracts too often results in contractual arrangements where journalists are forced to sign away their rights. These so-called buy-out contracts should be outlawed and there shall be no presumption of transfer of…