The Luxembourg’s court of appeal convicted on Wednesday 15 March 2017 the two whistleblowers involved in the so-called LuxLeaks scandal. Antoine Deltour received a six-month suspended jail time as well as 1,500 euros fine; Raphael Halet was fined 1,000 euros. The journalist Edouard Perrin was acquitted. The general secretary of the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), Ricardo Gutiérrez, denounced from Luxembourg a contradictory judgment: « The court decision leaves a bitter taste. For the first time, Deltour was recognised as ‘whistleblower’ and Edouard Perrin as a ‘responsible journalist’, as defended by the EFJ. However, Antoine Deltour’s and Raphaël Halet’s condemnation is scandalous. It was proved that they acted in…

Barents Observer Editor Thomas Nilsen was on business trip with a delegation from the Danish Parliament´s Committee of Foreign Affairs, on 8 March 2017, when he learned that he can’t enter Russia, despite having a valid visa. When Nilsen arrived in Borisoglebsk, the cross-border point between Russia and Norway, he was told by FSB border guards that he is not allowed to enter due to security reasons. Barents Observer quoted Nilsen describing the incident: “I was told it was necessary to deny me access to Russia for the purpose of state security. The officers could not elaborate further and it was…

UPDATE (14.03.2017): The Belarusian Association of Journalists protests detentions of 18 journalists and obstruction of their professional activities by law enforcement forces. The BAJ believes that the court ruling on March 13, where journalists Halina Abakunchyk and K. Bakhvalava were found administratively liable, is unlawful and illegitimate. On March 12, protests were planned in three Belarusian cities – Babruysk, Orsha and Rahachou due to the unemployment tax, which will force people to pay approximately $200 if they are unemployed for more than six months per year. Law enforcement agencies unfolded a large-scale operation to prevent journalists from covering the events. The…

Sexist of the year award ceremony took place in Moscow on March 10. The annual ceremony was initiated six years ago by Russian feminist group “Pro Feminism”. Blogger Natalia Bitten, the founder of the award, said that the aim of the ceremony is to combat hate speech and humiliation of women. Dozens of news-makers, politicians, religious leaders, journalists and academics have been nominated for five different awards this year. The news-portal Gazeta.ru and biologist Alexander Markov won the ‘Sexist in the Media” award for the article “It is beneficial for women to be illiterate”, where the scientist claimed that from…

“Any human being, who is involved in a natural language generation (NLG) process, such as programmers or linguists, must take into account the ethical dimensions governing journalism” concluded Laurence Dierickx, a specialist in Computational Journalism, who was invited to the EFJ Digital Expert Group meeting, that took place on March 8 in Brussels. She explained that the computer scientists and start-up companies, who are heavily involved in the NLG, are not hold under the same ethical standards as journalists. Also in cases with automatically generated content, there is not always a mention that the article is written by a computer, which…

MEP Michal Boni (EPP, Poland) together with The Guardian Media Group launched a discussion ”News: fact or fake?” on March 7 in the European Parliament. During the meeting experts, moderated by a senior editor from the Guardian – Dan Roberts, discussed how the new technologies change the business model of news reporting and how the fake news and filter bubbles do impact  democracy. Michal Boni stated at the beginning of the meeting that it is important to understand how to react to fake news. He explained: “We don’t need censorship tools, instead we need to promote the better understanding of fake…

The National Council for Television and Radio Broadcasting of Ukraine revoked license of the Ukrainian broadcasting company “Radio Vesti” in Kharkiv city. The council also refused to extend the radio’s license in the capital, Kyiv. Radio Vesti, the largest national professional radio channel in the country, insists they sent the required documents on time in order to renew the licenses, which expired in February. Despite this, the National Council decided to revoke the licenses out of concerns that the ultimate beneficiary of the station was the former Minister of Revenue and Fees, Oleksandr Klymenko. Reports said that as a result,…

UPDATE (14.03.2017): Another attack against journalists happened on March 11 in Skopje. TV 24 crew was at first verbally abused and then one of their journalists Hristijan Banevski was hit in the head with a stick, during the protest “For a Unified Macedonia”. UPDATE (06.03.2017): Two more attacks against journalists took place in Macedonia after the TV crew was beaten during the protest. On March 1 Branko Trickovski was verbally abused by two young men near his home. The retired journalist is famous for his criticism of VMRO-DPMNE party. One of the attackers shouted at Trickovski and called him a traitor,…

The home of Russian journalist and human rights activist Zoya Svetova was raided by the police on February 28. According to her lawyer Anna Stavitskaya, ten investigators and two representatives of Federal Security Bureau (FSB) entered the property in the morning and searched her computer, personal papers and books. Stavitskaya believes that the raid is connected to Yukos (the oil company) case for alleged tax evasion. She explained that Russian law enforcement agencies think that the proceeds are used to fund organisations and individuals, among them Svetova. The Moscow Times columnist is known for her work on prisoners’ rights in…

The Trade Union of RTK has been actively discussing the rights of workers during the meetings with Caucus Groups in Kosovo Assembly and Speaker of the Assembly due to the RTK law being in the process of amending. The process that has been criticised by the EU office in Kosovo for not being transparent enough. However, General Director of RTK Mentor Shala wasn’t pleased with the Trade Union’s activity, in his recent Facebook post (08.02.2017) he called the Union “political ‘bacteria’ within RTK”. Furthermore Mentor Shala insulted workers and members of the Trade Union by saying that “if it wasn’t…

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) back their British affiliate, the National Union of Journalists (NUJ), in its concerns over the proposals to update the Official Secrets Act in the United Kingdom. Due to the new way of defining espionage, including “obtaining sensitive information”, as well as “passing it on”, journalists, whom are simply working on their stories, can potentially face up to 14 years in prison by receiving some secret information. These proposals completely ignore the right of journalists to disclose information in the public interest and would also punish severely whistleblowers,…

UPDATE (07.03.2017): The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) joined the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) alert submitted on the detention of Alexander Lapshin to Council of Europe platform to promote the protection of journalism and safety of journalists. He is currently located at the Detention Center of the Baku Investigative Prison Nr 1. ——————- Russian blogger Alexander Lapshin, who also holds Ukrainian and Israeli citizenships, was extradited to Azerbaijan, after the Supreme Court in Belarus decided to send him to Baku despite the objections from Moscow. The blogger, who is famous for writing about traveling, was arrested in Minsk in December…

On 1st and 2nd February, the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) and the European Broadcasting Union (EBU)  had a series of meetings with members of the European Parliament to discuss the urgency of supporting public service media and independent journalism in the accession countries. The lack of financial independence, outdated technologies as well as increasing political control, not only in Hungary and Poland but in all accession countries  affects the compatibility of public media outlets. Out of all Balkan countries only Serbia and Macedonia fully digitalised their production, although they still have most of their products in analogue format. The…

The future of the Ukrainian broadcasting company “Radio Vesti” is uncertain after the National Council for Television and Radio Broadcasting of Ukraine delays the prolongation of their licenses in Kiev and Kharkov. The company sent the required documents on time in order to renew the licenses, which will expire on February 13 and 19, 2017 respectively. Nonetheless, the National Council isn’t certain on prolongation of the licenses due to the beneficiary issues. Officially the beneficiaries of the broadcasting company are Denis Mozgovoy from Avdeevka and Tatiana Alexandrova from Donetsk, however, the National Council believes that the information is not clear…

Ukrainian journalists Mykola Semena and Roman Sushchenko are facing jail following charges by the Russian authorities of separatism and espionage, respectively. The International and European Federations of Journalists (IFJ and EFJ), together with other human rights groups, are asking for these charges to be dropped immediately. The IFJ and EFJ have joined calls from their Ukrainian affiliates, the Independent Media Trade Union of Ukraine (IMTUU) and the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU), to condemn the persecution of independent media and journalists critical of the Russian authorities, especially in the Russia-annexed Crimea. Both Semena and Sushchenko are NUJU members.…

Ringier Axel Springer announced on January 23 their plans to close French-speaking magazine L’Hebdo.  Impressum,   the largest journalists’ organisation and the Trade Union of Media and Communications Syndicom  are both deeply concerned about the potential negative impact of the decision on media pluralism, investigative journalism and the future of the media in French-speaking Switzerland. The EFJ expressed its solidarity with their Swiss affiliates and offer full support. A petition was also launched and supported by both EFJ affliates  to demand alternative financial plans to continue or return the title. @EFJEUROPE @lhebdo @IFJGlobal signez la pétition pour @lhebdo https://t.co/zhle3ihJtF — syndicom…