The European Federation of Journalists together with EMMA, the European Magazine Media Association and ENPA, the European Newspaper Publishers’ Association, acknowledge yesterday’s vote in the European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) on the Report for a Regulation on European Production and Preservation Orders for electronic information in criminal proceedings (E-Evidence Regulation). Despite the efforts by the European Parliament to address several issues contained in the European Commission’s proposal, we regret that some key amendments have been rejected. As a result, the adopted report falls short of the necessary procedural safeguards to protect press and media freedom. This is…

On 3 December, the European Commission adopted the communication Europe’s Media in the Digital Decade: An Action Plan to Support Recovery and Transformation. The Action Plan focuses on three areas of activity in the media and audiovisual sector and 10 concrete actions, to help the media sector recover from the crisis by facilitating and broadening access to financial support, by encouraging investments for the  digital transformation all on the basis that the media and news sector are not only economical but public goods central for Europe’s democracies “We are committed to help the media sector weather the current storm and challenges brought…

The Council for Mass Media in Finland published today a new report on self-regulation in the emerging era of news automation. While news automation and personalisation have become more common in recent years, it has received little attention from Press and Media Councils which have not faced major ethical problems so far. However, the report suggests that in the future self-regulatory guidance on news automation is likely to be needed.  The report introduces the present state of affairs in news automation and discusses what ethical considerations it raises. Based on a European-wide research project, the key takeaways are as follows:…

The Danish government agreed on 6 December with the majority of the parliament to stop financial cuts of 122 million euros in support of public service media over the next four years. In addition, the government proposed to increase support for the media sector by providing an additional annual budget of 20 millions euros. The minister of Culture stressed: media are important for our democracy. “This is a great day for journalism and the media in Denmark. Cuts in public service media would have caused dramatic changes in DR (the Danish Broadcasting Corporation) also resulting in many new unemployed journalists.…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) has joined calls to repeal the decision to cut funding for the Slovenia Press Agency (STA) in a row over its alleged failure to respond to what media freedom campaigners describe as reckless and unlawful information requests. The Slovenian government confirmed on 30 November a decision by its communication office (UKOM) to cut STA monthly funds for October for allegedly failing to answer information requests related to its editorial content. The EFJ joined the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and its affiliates, the Slovenian Journalists’ Association (DNS) and the Slovenian Union of Journalists (SUJ)…

The undersigned partners of the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR), including the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), today raise serious concerns over the recent decision by the Government Communication Office (UKOM) in Slovenia to suspend financing of the country’s press agency. We believe the move to temporarily halt funding from the Slovenian Press Agency (STA) will seriously jeopardise its ability to keep citizens informed during and after the COVID-19 pandemic and is the latest example of a wider effort by the current administration to undermine and stigmatise the country’s public service media. On November 30, UKOM director Uroš Urbanija communicated to…

Police prevented the work of journalists and attempted to detain the cameraman Hayk Sukiasyan of Yerkir Media TV during a protest in Yerevan, on 1 December. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) joined its affiliate, the Union of Journalists of Armenia (UJA), in strongly condemning these incidents and urges the authorities to investigate the case. Gegham Manukyan, director of the TV station’s political and media programs, said that the police had arrested Sukiasyan and put him in the car by force before being released shortly after. During the scuffle, a camera belonging to Yerkir Media was broken. A policeman said…

The European Federation of Journalist and the International Federation of Journalists welcome the confirmation from the UK government that foreign journalists traveling to the UK will be exempted from the country’s quarantine restrictions from 4 am on Saturday 5th December if they hold an IFJ International Press Card. The new rules were secured thanks to negotiations involving our affiliate, the National Union of Journalists (NUJ). NUJ General Secretary Michelle Stanistreet said: “This is welcome news for all those journalists who cross borders as part of their work, at a time when news and reporting is more important than ever. It’s a…

Věra Jourová, Vice-President of the European Commission, presented today the European Democracy Action Plan to empower citizens and build more resilient democracies across the EU. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) welcomes the Action Plan and its concrete provisions to strengthen media freedom and pluralism, but calls for stronger regulation of Tech Giants, while protecting freedom of expression. The Action Plan sets out measures to strengthen media freedom and counter disinformation in the European Union. More concretely, the Commission will recommend measures to promote safety of journalists and present an initiative to protect them from strategic lawsuits against public participation…