A pro-government newspaper based in Istanbul has blasted the Journalists’ Union of Turkey (TGS), gearing up the official narrative that labels jailed journalists as “terrorists.” “Here is the real face of the Journalists’ Union of Turkey, which flung dirt by alleging that the press cards of opposition journalists were canceled [by the government],” the Takvim daily said on its headline on January 27. Several journalists, including those that work at opposition dailies Evrensel and BirGün, had noticed last week that their pending applications for press cards renewals were rejected by the Presidency’s Communication Directorate when they checked the official body’s…

On 27 January, a delegation of journalists from the Europa Commission of the Deutscher Journalisten-Verband (DJV) together with EFJ Director Renate Schroeder met with German MEP Sabine Verheyen (EPP) the chair of the European Parliament’s Committee on Culture and Education in her national office in Aachen (Germany). Headed by its chair Steffen Heinze (Deutsche Welle), the meeting discussed many issues of importance to journalists. Verheyen addressed the increasingly precarious situation of journalists in Europe and expressed great concern about the increased violations against media freedom, the problem of disinformation and in particular the phenomenon of “deep fake”. The issue of…