On 10th of July in Nicosia, the Office of the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media (RFOM) in cooperation with the Ethical Journalism Network (EJN), and several local journalists, including members of EFJ affiliates Basin-Sen and Union of Cyprus Journalists,  has published “Words That Matter“, a trilingual glossary in English, Greek, and Turkish, to list phrases and words, used by the journalists in communities, which may be taken sensitively. The glossary resulted from a common effort between the organisations to minimise hate speech in journalism, as well as trying to overcome the long-lasting tensions between Greek Cypriot and Turkish…

UPDATE 27.07.2018 An indictment was brought against the attacker of journalist Hrvoje Bajlo, former footballer Jakov Surać by the Zadar district attorney. Jakov Surać was accused of causing severe physical injuries and death threatening, considered to be crimes against life and body, and against freedom of a person by the court. The indictment also states that the attack was connected to the journalist’s work. —————————– Croatian journalist Hrvoje Bajlo was attacked on 24th of June at a parking lot in town of Zadar by a former NK Zadar football player and businessman Jakov Surać. Physical assault was preceded by insults directed towards work of Bajlo, followed by threats to…

A van was intentionally crashed into the office building of one of the largest Dutch daily newspapers De Telegraaf located in Amsterdam, at early hours of Tuesday morning, 26 June. Nobody was hurt during the crash, Dutch police stated in a tweet. It is not the first incident of this nature, as last Thursday, 21 of June, a man was arrested after an incident in the Sloterdijk area of Amsterdam, where a man fired an anti-tank weapon into a building of media organisations. The Dutch media organisations has been under threat from organised crime for some time now, with two…

The crackdown on Belarusian journalists has been intensifying, with 50 fines already issued during 2018, mostly for cooperation with foreign media, and in numerous cases, the amounts were exceeding the average salary of the country, highlighted Andrei Bastunent, the chairperson of Belarus Association of Journalists (BAJ) during a press conference in Brussels back in June 2018. The representatives of BAJ visited Brussels on 19th of June, 2018, as a part of IFJ and EBU cooperation “Media for Democratic Belarus”, to meet the European Institutions and OSCE for discussing the new amendments of the Media Law, as well as the situation of the freedom of press…

BIRN will be gathering some of the world’s best-known editors and trainers to a Romanian resort in Poiana Brasov to teach the course members investigative tips and tricks. The training will be lead by one of the best investigative editors in the US, Reuters’ Blake Morrison, a three-times finalist for the Pulitzer investigative award, together with the New York Times senior journalist Christoph Koettl; co-creator of one of the best podcast series in US and winner of an Emmy and three Peabody awards Susanne Reber; Knight International Journalism Award winner and OCCRP editor Miranda Patrucic; European Press Prize winner Bellingcats’ Christiaan Triebert; ICIJ journalist Matthew Caruana Galizia and award winning BIRN’s investigative editor, Lawrence…

Concerns on the quality and reliability of news has grown globally during the year 2017-2018, and consumers are expecting the media companies and technology companies to take action against the misinformation, while the opinions are much more mixed when it comes to government intervention in these cases. The 2018 Digital News Report, published on 14 June by the Reuters Institute for the study of journalism, reveals more interesting patterns and changes in the behaviour of news consumption globally. Growing concerns on misinformation The research shows that 54% of respondents globally are concerned about what is real or fake on internet.…

UPDATE 15.06.2018 Stefan Cvetković, the Serbian journalists reported missing on the night between 13-14 of June, has been found unhurt by the local authorities in the northern town of Bela Crkva and has been taken to the local police station, the President of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic told in a news conference. The further information on the situation is yet to be released. ———————- European and International Federations of Journalists (EFJ and IFJ) expressed a deep concern regarding the disappearance of a Serbian journalist Stefan Cvetković on the night between 13th and 14th of June 2018, as reported by the local authorities. Stefan Cvetković has been…

The life threatening conditions of journalists working in Western Balkans and Turkey is a part of everyday reporting, however, the struggle is not always about the danger, as noted by Renate Schroeder, director of the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ). The opening remarks were made at the preview of the photo exhibition “Journalists’ working conditions in Western Balkans and Turkey” on the 12th of June 2018, at the Press Club Brussels. The photographs from local photographers and photojournalists depict the reality which tends to be kept behind the lenses of reporting – ranging from being on guard on the field…

The Annual Meeting of the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) on 6 June, 2018 adopted a series of resolutions and declarations.   Resolutions & Declarations – 2018 (EN) Résolutions et déclarations – 2018 (FR) Welcome speech by EFJ President Mogens Blicher Bjerregard President speech – Steering Committee report   Photo Credit :  @sindikatmedija

Speech by Mogens Blicher Bjerregård (EFJ President) Welcome to the EFJ Annual meeting 2018. For the first time we have our annual meeting in Portugal and it is great to be here, thanks to our Portuguese colleagues to host us. Being host during difficult times is admirable. You know better than most of us how difficult the time is for our profession regarding precarious work, low payment and dismissals. I also want to emphasize that it is amazing how your union has been able – not least en terms of relevance – to develop and to meet new demands in very difficult…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) sent a letter to Gernot Blümel, Austrian Minister for the European Union (EU), Art, Culture and Media on 7 June 2018 to urge him to support the Austrian public service media (ORF). The EFJ annual meeting, which took place yesterday in Lisbon with affiliates, journalists and trade unionists from around 40 countries, unanomously adopted the resolution “On the situation of Austrian public service media with letter to the Austrian governement” calling on the Austrian government to ensure the future of the public service media. We stand in solidarity with our Austrian affiliate the Union of…

Newspaper journalists went on strike all over Germany on 28 May 2018 after the fifth round of negotiations for a collective agreement between publishers and two German journalist unions, the Deutscher Journalisten-Verband (DJV) and Deutsche Journalisten Union (dju in ver.di), in Berlin ended without a result. For the last few months, the DJV and dju in ver.di, the German affiliates of the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), have been in negotiations with the Federal Association of German Newspaper Publishers (BDZV) to improve the working conditions for around 13,000 editors at daily newspapers. The negotiations were accompanied by numerous warning strikes…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) sent a letter to the Commissioners Gabriel and Oettinger on 24 May 2018 to express our concern that freedom of expression will not be reflected in the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF). We believe that it is crucial for media freedom and media pluralism to be given a clear priority in the EU budget for the future (2021-2027). Other media freedom organisations like the ECPMF sent a letter to Commissioners Gabriel, Navracsics, Oettinger and First Vice-President of the European Commission Timmermanns. Missing Freedom of expression budget in Multiannual Financial Framework Dear Commissioner, We write to you on…

After negotiations for a collective agreement with the Norwegian Public Broadcasting (NRK), the Norwegian Union of Journalists (NJ) managed to win on all main demands on 23 May 2018 in Oslo. The 1700 journalist members of the NJ at the Norwegian Public Service Broadcasting NRK had gone on strike on 15 May 2018, after initial negotiations and mediation had not led to a new collective agreement. The public service broadcasting NRK is the largest media house in Norway, with 3400 employees. After eight days of renewed negotiations workers of the NJ and NRK came to an agreement: competence enhancement and training…

A new report about journalists’ labour rights in Europe was published by the Labour Rights Experts Group Plus (LAREG+) of the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) on May 2018. It contains national reports about journalists’ labour rights from the following countries: Albania: Without support for increased labour rights and protections for freedom of expression, trust in media cannot be increased. Bosnia & Herzegovina: It is believed that bad working conditions also affect the quality of journalism. If the pay were higher and working conditions were better, this would have a positive effect on journalism. Kosovo: Media owners should provide working…

Following the EFJ-ECPMF fact-finding mission to Estonia and Lithuania, Renate Schroeder, director of the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) met with the office of Kaja Kallas (ALDE), Yana Toom (ALDE) and the office of Indrek Tarand on 15 May 2018, all Estonian Members of the European Parliament (MEP) to discuss the findings of the report. According to the mission’s findings, the biggest problem is neither fake news nor Russian propaganda, but the economic pressure on media creating a culture of “clicktivism”. Although journalistic codes of conduct in Estonia are in place and the government refrains from regulating the media market, editorial independence and…