The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) together with a group of media freedom NGOs have published an open letter to the representatives of the Maltese Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) members. The letter was published ahead of a meeting of the PACE Legal Affairs and Human Rights Committee in Paris which was attended by national representatives of the Council of Europe members. It called on the Maltese government to support the findings of an investigation led by Mr. Pieter Omtzigt, the Special rapporteur appointed by PACE to investigate the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia. The letter reads,…

On May 23, Stefano Origone, an Italian journalist was beaten up by riot police officers while covering clashes among demonstrators in a rally of the far-right party CasaPound in Genoa. A video published by Origone’s employer, the Italian daily newspaper La Repubblica, shows that he was being kicked at and beaten up with batons even though he identified himself as a journalist. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) was shocked by the attack of the Italian police on Origone and called for an investigation of the attack. According to Origone, he had huddled on the ground in a foetal position without defending…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) joins its affiliate, the Croatian Journalists’ Association (CJA) in condemning the physical and verbal attacks on the German newspaper The Frankfurter Rundschau journalist Danijel Majić on 18 May 2019 at the Bleiburg memorial in Austria. Majić was attacked by Velimir Bujanec, a Croatian extreme right-wing TV-presenter and a group of other people attending the memorial.  According to The Frankfurter Rundschau, Majić was reporting from the memorial service when he was recognised by Bujanec’s supporters. When Majić was leaving, Bujanec spit at him and the crowd attending the service began to insult him and kick at him.…

On May 14, 2019, in Šijače, Bosnia and Herzegovina, a private security guard damaged the camera of Ademir Mešanović, a cameraman working for local public broadcaster RTV TK, while he was covering the eviction of families from their properties near the state-owned Kreka coal mine. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) joins its affiliate the Bosnian Herzegovinan Journalists Association (BHJA) in calling for urgent prosecution of the attack against Mesanovic. The guard of the private security service “Cobra” grabbed Mešanović’s camera and threw it in the mud, damaging the camera and preventing Mešanović from continuing his reporting, RTV TK reported.…

Ahead of the European elections taking place from 23 to 26 May, the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), has launched a Manifesto for the revival of a free and pluralistic media in Europe. Up to now, 118 candidates from ten countries showed their support for EFJ’s demands concerning the following eight topics: Media pluralism Financial sustainability & the future of journalism Investigative journalism Collective bargaining and social protection for all workers Trust and accountability through ethical journalism Authors’ rights – Fair contracts for all Strong independent public service media Safety at work: no to impunity Some parties endorsed the Manifesto…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) published on 8 May 2019 a magazine focusing on journalists’ working conditions in the Western Balkans and Turkey. The contributors are six students in journalism from the region, winner of the 2019 Journalism Students Award. The first edition was organised by the journalists’ unions and associations in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BH Journalists), Kosovo (AGK), Montenegro (TUMM), North Macedonia (SSNM), Serbia (SINOS) and Turkey (TGS), in partnership with the EFJ. The objective was to involve the young generation in the debate on working conditions in countries where journalists often face precariousness, insecurity and lack of…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) and the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) joined their affiliate, the Journalists’ Union of Athens Daily Newspapers (JUADN), in condemning the arson attack on Greek investigative journalist Mina Karamitrou’s car. The car, parked in the Athens suburb Papagou outside Karamitrou’s home, was set on fire on 14 May 2019 at about 2:30 a.m. by a flammable liquid. According to local news reports nobody was injured. Karamitrou is a well known police reporter for CNN’s Greek edition. According to the Greek news website Skai, the police has opened an investigation on the case. Up to…

Turkish Journalist Yavuz Selim Demirag was violently attacked by a group of unidentified men armed with baseball bats on May 10 in Ankara. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) strongly condemn the aggression and urge the authorities to protect press freedom. Yavuz, a critic of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and supporter of an opposition party, was attacked after appearing on a TV Show on Friday night. He was immediately sent to the hospital, his newspaper The Yenicag said. His life is not in danger, however. The assault happened in a context of growing…

The European Federation of Journalists has expressed concerns over the state of media freedom and independence in Hungary following the publication of a study showing that the majority of media in the country are pro-government. It was published on 2 May by the media monitor Mérték and investigates the level of independence of the Hungarian media, stating almost 78% of the media are pro-government. The study, commissioned by a Member of the European Parliament (MEP), Sven Giegold (the Greens), shows the far-reaching media power of the ruling Fidez-party. In November 2018 the creation of the government-related media foundation KESMA uniting…

Creative Skills Europe, the European Platform on Employment and Training in the Audiovisual and Live Performance sectors, is a project which aims at collecting information and at developing tools to help the cultural and creative sectors adjust their skills to the realities of the field. Ran by a partnership of European trade unions of (including the European Federation of Jounalists), employers’ organisations, and national skills bodies, Creative Skills Europe looks at creating national and European synergies, and at inspiring new types of actions, both at company level and in a collective way at sector level. After four thematic workshops in…

Female journalists in the French-speaking part of Belgium are leaving their jobs making a very low proportion of them in the media, said in a recent study published by the EFJ member the Belgian professional association of journalists (AJP) for the French-speaking region. “We have a very low proportion of female journalists (35%) in French-speaking Belgium”, explained Sophie Lejoly, General Depute Secretary of AJP. “However, there are more female students than male, and slightly more women entering the profession. So the reason for the low figure is that these female journalists left their jobs at some point.” The study shows…

  The EFJ together with its Austrian and German members GPA-djp and Deutscher Journalisten-Verband (DJV) declare their solidarity with the presenter of the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation (ORF) Armin Wolf, who has been under massive hostility from politicians and supporters of the far-right Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) for days. The FPÖ is a member of the Austrian government. The trigger was a live interview on ORF 2 on 23 April with FPÖ Secretary General Harald Vilimsky. He was invited as a candidate to the european parliament elections. Wolf compared a cartoon on a FPÖ election poster to one showing a…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) report “Digital Journalism & New Business Models” underpins the trends in new business models for the digital newsroom: from the British Guardian to the pioneering French Mediapart, from Sweden to Spain, we witness the increase in new funding models, in so-called entrepreneurial journalists who take care of both fundraising and the newsroom and still achieve trusted journalism with the highest editorial standards, values that ground the fourth estate in a democratic society in order to hold the powerful to account. The EFJ Digital Expert Group presents its report on “Digital Journalism & New Business…

On February 4, 2019 around 11 a.m., under the pretext of Mediapart having breached the privacy rights of Alexandre Benalla, the Paris Prosecutor’s office sent two prosecutors and three policemen to search its offices. The attempted search clearly targeted the “recording and listening devices” to uncover the sources of the last revelations, audio recordings, between Alexandre Benalla and Vincent Crase. Fabrice Arfi and Michaël Hajdenberg both heading the investigative journalism pool at Mediapart opposed the search in the absence of its President and founder, journalist Edwy Plenel. As a rule, during a preliminary enquiry, the media has the right to refuse entry…

Both in France and the UK, freelance media workers have joined forces to tackle the unlawful working practices of media owners. They demand the end of payment on publication, to be paid for all their work, not just on the basis of what has been published, only after it has been published. They also expect to receive payments promptly, instead of enduring huge delays and being left out of pocket. Media workers are under pressure from employers who are cutting editorial budgets, slashing jobs and undermining trade union organisations. Many journalists have been forced into what we call “fake freelance”…

The Belgian government passed a bill  or “Taxe Michel” forcing media workers (journalists and technicians), residing in Belgium or Belgian, to pay a mandatory €50 fee for the security screening document it delivers to authorize access to EU events. It debuted at last October’s EU Summit. The Belgian Union of Journalists (AJP) opposed the law 6 months ago to no avail. About 1000 journalists, either Belgian or residing in Belgium, will be forced to pay the fee. Belgium has now started billing journalists or their employers and the European Federation of Journalist joins the AJP ‘s recommendation to refuse to…