To protect press and media freedom, we need an accurate picture of the forces that threaten it. To do this, we must collect and verify as much information as possible. That is why the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) has launched the ‘Report It’ campaign to create awareness and encourage everyone to play a role in documenting and reporting the many violations committed against journalists and media workers across Europe. It is wrong that such violations, abuses and aggressions have become so frequent as to be almost accepted as “situation:normal”. Through this campaign, the MFRR insists that this behaviour should…

Since 9 September 2020, a number of journalists and photographers on the island of Lesbos have been intermittently restricted from reporting from an area where thousands of refugees and asylum seekers are being held without accommodation or sanitation after fires destroyed large areas of the Moria Registration and Identification Centre. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) together with the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) partners wrote to Minister for Civil Protection, Michalis Chrisochoidis and Police Lieutenant General Karamalakis calling for all journalists to safely access the relevant sites on Lesbos, in line with Greece’s obligations under international law. Dear Minister…

On 10 August, the day after the fraudulent elections in Belarus, journalist Natalya Lubnevskaya was injured in the leg by a rubber bullet fired by security forces. She was covering demonstrations in Minsk for the newspaper “Nasha Niva”. She has just been released from hospital and is demanding justice. Natalya, 27 years old, graduated from the Institute of Journalism of the Belarusian State University five years ago. She covers news related to women and the status of women for the daily newspaper Nasha Niva. Today she gave an interview to the online media TUT.BY. “No one forced me to work…

The EFJ affiliate in Belarus, the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ), celebrates today its 25th anniversary in a particularly hostile context. The EFJ is proud of Belarusian colleagues in their struggle for media freedom and against repression and censorship. We call on all journalists’ organisations and all journalists to show solidarity with colleagues in Belarus. Use the hashtag #BAJ25RAZAM on social networks. Today BAJ celebrates the 25th anniversary of its foundation in a dramatic context. BAJ President Andrey Bastunets calls on journalists’ unions and associations in Europe to continue to inform colleagues and the public about the repeated violations of human…

A new UNESCO report highlights a sharp increase in the global number of protests during which the police and security forces violated media freedom in the first half of 2020, including in Europe. The annual report of the Council of Europe Platform for the Protection of Journalism drew the same conclusions in April, reporting numerous cases of violence in France, United Kingdom, Spain, Turkey, Albania, Azerbaijan and Russia. UNESCO’s new report, Safety of Journalists Covering Protests – Preserving Freedom of the Press During Times of Civil Unrest, points to a wider upward trend in the use of unlawful force by police…

The wave of repression against journalists continues in Belarus. On the sidelines of the demonstrations on Friday, Saturday and Sunday against the disputed president Lukashenko, eleven journalists were abusively detained by the security forces. Nine of them are still in prison today. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) demands their immediate release. The EFJ affiliate in Belarus, the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ), which continues to monitor any violation of press freedom in the country, issued today the list of detained journalists: Catarina Andreeva (Belsat), detained in Minsk on Saturday; Max Kalitovky, detained in Minsk on Saturday; Aliaxandr Vasyukovich, detained…

The European and International Federations of Journalists (EFJ-IFJ), respectively Europe’s and the world’s largest organisations of journalists, responded on 9 September to a consultation by the European Commission (EC) on the implementation of Article 17 of the EU Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market.  Article 17 of the EU Directive aims to close the “value-gap” between rights holders and online platforms and to ensure a fair share of the wealth generated by online platforms using protected works, is distributed to creative industries and their authors, including journalists. In a second submission on the article, the federations supported the…

On 8 September, a member of the Armenian National Assembly brought forward a legislative proposal on insult and defamation that aims to increase fines for publishing insults and defamatory comments in the media and social networks. The International and European Federations of Journalists (IFJ and EFJ) join their affiliate, the Union of Journalists of Armenia (UJA), in urging the parliament not to take up the proposal. The deputy speaker of the National Assembly, Alen Simonyan, proposed the bill to amend the civil code. The proposal aims to increase compensation for insult or defamation by five times, bringing damages for an…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) on Tuesday called on the member states of the Council of Europe to put an end to the repression of journalists in Belarus. 159 journalists have been detained since the fraudulent elections of 9 August. The EFJ General Secretary Ricardo Gutiérrez, who was invited to speak on press freedom by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on Tuesday in Strasbourg, called on the 47 member states of the Council of Europe to take concrete actions to end the repression of journalists in Belarus. He recalled that according to the monitoring of…

Several journalists were injured during clashes between police and demonstrators on 2 September in Sofia, Bulgaria. The European and International Federations of Journalists (EFJ) join their affiliates in Bulgaria, the Union of Bulgarian Journalists (UBJ), in condemning the police violence against journalists and protestors. The incidents took place during anti-government and anti-corruption protests in Bulgaria which escalated when the Parliament re-opened after the summer break in a new venue with the aim to limit journalists’ access. Police responded with pepper spray and gas against protestors and journalists covering the events. It was also reported that journalist Dimitar Kenarov was kicked…

For the first time since the fraudulent elections in Belarus, journalists demonstrated in front of the Interior Ministry in Minsk. They were protesting against the prolonged detention of six journalists. Police also arrested journalist Larysa Shchyrakova in Homiel and journalist Dzmitry Brushko in Minsk on Thursday. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) and the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ) demand the immediate release of journalists in detention in Belarus. A group of about 80 journalists organised a demonstration on Thursday in front of the Ministry of Interior in Minsk. They were protesting against the continued detention of six journalists who…

Jan Kuciak has been murdered again. Thursday’s verdict in the trial of the killers of Jan Kuciak and his fiancée Martina Kušnírová is like a new death sentence for the Slovak journalist. The European and International Federations of Journalists (EFJ and IFJ) denounce a decision that perpetuates impunity and call on the Slovak judiciary to re-examine the case. “This verdict is terribly shocking,” said EFJ General Secretary Ricardo Gutiérrez. “Three thugs have been convicted and it is now certain that Jan Kuciak was indeed murdered for his journalistic activity. But the person or persons who ordered the killing remain unpunished.…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), a Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) partner, today backs call for the fight for justice for Slovak investigative journalist, Ján Kuciak and his fiancée Martina Kušnírová to continue, after the Specialized Criminal Court in Pezinok returned a not-guilty verdict for alleged mastermind of their murder, Marian Kočner.  The court also acquitted Alena Zsuzsová, a Kočner confidante suspected of acting as an intermediary in the assassination plot, ruling that the evidence presented against both her and Kočner left reasonable doubt. However, the court did find the third accused Tomáš Szabó, one of the hitmen, guilty…