“What happened in Chemnitz this weekend including violent acts against media workers concerns us all,” said EFJ President Mogens Blicher Bjerregard. “It is ever more urgent in Germany and elsewhere in Europe that democratic institutions and the police protect journalists against right-wing extremists. We pledge for intense training for the police and dialogue between journalists and police to better understand each-others’ role.” Almost 10,000 people are estimated to have taken part in protests in Chemnitz on Saturday 1 September – led by members of the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, the anti-Islam Pegida movement and a large group of Hooligans– as…

The International and European Federations of Journalists request all journalists in EU member states to write to their Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) in support of the Copyright Directive. In the run-up to this vote on the Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market, on Wednesday 12 September, IFJ and EFJ are asking journalists to send a letter to the MEPs from their country in order to challenge the anti-copyright forces (Google, Facebook, etc.). Please use this model of letter: English: My MEP letter – EN French: Lettre à mon député européen – FR German: Richtlinie_zum_Urheberrecht – DE Spanish: Carta a…

Investigative journalists Trevor Birney and Barry McCaffrey were arrested on the morning of 31 August after police search was held in their houses and offices. The journalists were accused of theft of confidential documents related to the Loughinisland massacre. The laptops and possessed information were confiscated. Both journalists were released from custody on bail on the same night. Trevor Britney and Barry McCaffrey were involved in a documentary “No Stone Unturned”, which investigates the massacre of six people on 18 June 1994, when a loyalist gunmen opened fire on the customers in a bar in Loughinisland, Co Down. After shift…

Thirty students from universities of Newcastle, Gothenburg and Padova convened in Gothenburg university on 27-31 August for a one-week summer school programme on gender and media. This activity forms part of the “Advancing gender equality in the media industry” (AGEMI) project to which the EFJ is a partner. Students’ activities in Gothenburg included the development of mobile journalism stories, a series of roundtable and key notes speeches involving key media specialists and the launch of the internships programme which will allow each student to get a practical experience in an organization focusing on gender and media. “The feedbacks we received…