Over 150 journalists, representatives of journalists’ organisations and press councils, as well as academics, politicians, and civil society activists gathered on 17-18 March at the Solidarność Centre in Gdansk, Poland, for the second edition of the Free European Media conference. Participants, including Vera Jourova, European Commission Vice-President, Patrick Penninckx, Head of Information Society Department of the Council of Europe, presented new recommendations to support the development of free media. Thursday evening’s event on the war in Ukraine brought together Ukrainian, Russian, Belarusian and Moldovan journalists, including Andrei Bastunets, President of the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ) and Mykola Semena, delegate…

Ukrainian media outlet Hromadske has revealed today that one of its journalists, Victoria Roshchina, has been missing since 15 March 2022. The media fears that she is “a prisoner of the Russian occupiers”. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) calls for her immediate release. According to Hromadske, Victoria Roshchina had planned to go last week to Mariupol, a city that has been shelled by Russian troops for more than two weeks. On 12 March, her colleagues were unable to make contact. She was probably detained a few days later, on 15 March, by Russian forces in an unknown location. “For…

The Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) invites you to a summit taking place between 22-24 March focusing on boosting media freedom, strengthening independent media and ensuring the safety of journalists in Europe. The Summit panels will all be streamed online on the MFRR YouTube channel, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Specialised workshops for journalists, media professionals, journalist association representatives, and journalism students will take place on Zoom. Registration for the workshops is required. The MFRR Summit 2022 will open with a video message by Věra Jourová, Vice President of the European Commission for Values and Transparency, followed by a keynote address by Roberto Saviano, an Italian journalist and…