This morning, 18 January 2018, the joint Fact-Finding Mission to Serbia on media freedom and journalists’ rights commences by the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) in cooperation with the South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO) and the International Press Institute (IPI) as well as the EFJ affiliates in Serbia: the Journalists’ Association of Serbia (UNS), the Independent Journalists’ Association of Serbia (NUNS), and the Journalists’ Union of Serbia (SINOS). The two-day mission will meet with government representatives including the President of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic, the Ministry of Culture’s State Secretary, the Assistant Minister for Information and Media and the state…

The European Parliament debated on 17 January 2018 the burning issue of the so-called “fake news” and Russian propaganda on EU countries. The debate focused on fake news stories coming from unidentified people and bots, as well as well as politically-driven news from outlets such as state-owned Russia Today and Sputnik. The next European elections to take place in 2019 are likely to be the next big target for Russian propaganda, MEPs have warned. During this plenary session in Strasbourg, Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) highlighted issues including the funding and staffing of actions against misinformation and the resilience of democracies…

On January 15 and 16, 2018, an international delegation of press freedom organisation representatives visited Zagreb to observe the state of media freedom in Croatia. This was the second such visit in two years. After the fact-finding mission in June 2016 produced particularly bad results (please find here the report), the representatives of the South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO), the Association of European Journalists (AEJ), the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF), the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) and Reporters without Borders (RSF) did find a slightly more positive situation at the…