New online platform to change “pale and male” media content

Building bridges among journalists, students and media educators to improve gender equality in newsrooms and media content. This is what the Advancing Gender and Equality in Media Industries (AGEMI) project stands for. On 26th February, the EU-funded project launched its online platform on gender and media at the Press Club in Brussels. The web platform provides a resource bank of over 100 best practices on gender equity in media as well as free learning resources to support journalism trainers and educators in their curricula. The project itself also included a summer school and internships for 30 students across the EU.…

European whistleblowers call for a better directive

In an open letter to the European Council, Commission and Parliament, five well-known European whistleblowers speak out for changing the directive and removing barriers for safe reporting. This letter is published as the negotiations between the European institutions are entering the final stretch. The European Council, Commission and Parliament have started the trilogue phase since the end of January and one main point of discord remains: what procedure whistleblowers should follow to be granted protection against retaliation? The draft directive indicates three reporting channels: internal within the company, external to an authority, and public including through the press. In the…

AGEMI is launching new platform on gender and media

The Advancing Gender Equality in the Media Industries (AGEMI), an EU funded project, is launching its web platform to build bridges between educators, media and media students to improve gender equality in media content and in the newsrooms. The launch is taking place during a seminar organised by AGEMI at the Brussels’ Press Club in Belgium today. The AGEMI consortium is composed of the Universities of Newcastle, Padova and Gothenbörg, as well as the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) and the Permanent Conference of the Mediterranean Audiovisual Operators (COPEAM). The AGEMI platform provides a resource bank of over 100 best…

EFJ study on new business models to promote journalism

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) report “Digital Journalism & New Business Models” underpins the trends in new business models for the digital newsroom: from the British Guardian to the pioneering French Mediapart, from Sweden to Spain, we witness the increase in new funding models, in so-called entrepreneurial journalists who take care of both fundraising and the newsroom and still achieve trusted journalism with the highest editorial standards, values that ground the fourth estate in a democratic society in order to hold the powerful to account. The EFJ Digital Expert Group presents its report on “Digital Journalism & New Business…

EFJ-ETUI delivered first training on union leadership

Twenty-five trade union representatives from 20 European countries attended a two-day training organised by the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) and the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI), on 21-22 February in Barcelona, Spain. The Spanish union FSC-CCOO, one of the EFJ affiliates in Spain, hosted the worshop. Participants – whether they are current, future or potential union leaders – were asked to reflect on how to build and lead a more inclusive and diverse journalists’ trade union. Inclusive meaning diversity in profiles within it, but also innovative ways to support current forms of journalism and mobilise new categories of journalists.…

Public service media in the Western Balkans – Ensuring complaint mechanisms and audience engagement

The regional workshop on developing  complaint mechanisms and/or improving existing ones for Public Service Media in Western Balkans has started today, 21 February, in Tirana, Albania. The workshop brings together the program directors and editors-in-chief from the six PSM to discuss, examine and assess the role of complaint mechanisms  with European experts in the field.  What are the conditions for an effective complaint mechanism? How can complaint mechanisms improve relations with the audience and thereby  trust and quality in psm? The importance of media literacy will be highlighted with examples from the region, as it is closely related to audience…

The European Media Literacy Toolkit for Newsrooms – Round 2

The Vienna-based Forum Journalism and Media (fjum) and the Global Editors Network have published today the second White Paper (PDF) following the Vienna Unconference on Media Literacy organised on 23 January 2019. The European Media Literacy Toolkit for Newsrooms: Combatting misinformation and disintermediation by restoring trust in journalism is supported by the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ). The paper covers quality journalism through innovative advanced training, orientation, and networking on an international level, and the support of participants’ experts to create tools to increase and support media literacy. It also describes the objectives of the intervention, summarises the content of the masterclass, details the dynamic of the…

Call for justice and accountability of state authorities on the anniversary of the murder of Ján Kuciak

On behalf of the undersigned media freedom organisations, representing thousands of journalists and human rights activists across Europe, we urge the Slovak authorities to immediately start examining state responsibility in the failure to prevent the assassination of Ján Kuciak. Tomorrow marks a full year since Kuciak and his fiancée Martina Kušnírová were murdered in Slovakia. Kuciak was investigating cross-border corruption and links between powerful people and various mafia networks. Since February 2018, we have closely monitored press and media freedom in Slovakia. We welcome the arrests of suspects who have now been charged in connection with Kuciak’s and Kušnírová’s murder.…

Turkey: Cumhuriyet convictions a further blow to the rule of law

UPDATE: The Supreme Court  suspended the sentence and released five former employees of Cumhuriyet Newspaper Musa Kart, Güray Öz, Hakan Kara, Önder Çelik and Lawyer Mustafa Kemal Güngör on September 12. The newspaper’s former accountant, Emre Iper, was not expected to be released. ? #Cumhuriyet eski çalışanları #MusaKart, #GürayÖz, #MustafaKemalGüngör, #HakanKara ve #ÖnderÇelik bu akşam Kandıra Cezaevinden tahliye edilecek. Tutuklu tek bir gazeteci kalmayana kadar mücadeleye devam! #GazetecilikSuçDeğildir pic.twitter.com/lhmsNKRTE9 — Gazeteciler Sendikası (@TGS_org_tr) September 12, 2019     Press freedom and the rule of law in Turkey suffered yet another blow yesterday. In a detrimental ruling, an appeals court in…