Croatia: Prime minister publicly undermined journalist and union leader Maja Sever

Croatian Prime minister Andrej Plenkovic accused journalists’ union leader Maja Sever of collaborating with his political opponent ahead of a pre-election TV debate. The European and International of Journalists (EFJ/IFJ) have strongly condemned the accusations. PM Plenkovic insinuated that Sever had worked with the opposition to “prepare” his political rival, during a pre-election TV debate on 29 June on private RTL channel – which showcased the two main candidates for Prime Minister, Plenkovic for the ruling conservative Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) and Davor Bernardic for the Social Democratic Party (SDP). Sever is a long-time journalist working for the Croatian public broadcaster Hrvatska radiotelevizija (HRT) and the President of the Trade Union…

EFJ/ IFJ ask Sweden to turn down turkish request for extradition of an exiled journalist

A Turkish court has requested on 9 March the extradition of a Turkish journalist who is living in exile in Sweden for allegedly insulting two officers of the court in 2018. The news of the request to extradite Levent Kenez from Sweden was reported by nordicmonitor.com on 28 June. European and International Federations of journalists (EFJ/IFJ) join the Swedish Union of Journalists (SJ) in calling on Swedish authorities to deny the extradition request. Levent Kenez is accused of defaming a prosecutor and a judge in an article published on the Turkish-language news website TR724 on 17 February 2018, following the court’s decision…