According to several media reports, the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office has urged the Communications Ministry to hamper all media communications linked to the Gülen movement by withdrawing state means used to facilitate the broadcasts. If executed, the general request will lead to forbid specific opposition TV channels to use satellite infrastructure controlled by the state. The office’s Bureau for Crimes against the Constitutional Order sent the Ministry a written request on April 26 to target the broadcasting and publication of TV channels, radio stations, print media outlets and websites owned by the Gülen movement claiming that the US-based preacher Gülen…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) has published a special edition newsletter focusing on recruitment news in the framework of the EU funded project Rights and Jobs in Journalism. The newsletter highlights key trends, tips and best practices in recruitment and union services shared by the EFJ affiliates in the workshop held by the Danish Journalists’ Union (DJ) on 11 – 12 May in Copenhagen, Denmark. See the special edition HERE More information (including videos) will be published soon on our website http://europeanjournalists.org/rights-and-jobs-in-journalism-building-stronger-unions-in-europe/ 

A delegation of the European Federation of Journalists (composed of EFJ Steering Committee member Urs Thalmann, EFJ Director Renate Schroeder and EFJ Trainee Hélène Brédart) met with Francine Cunningham, Executive Director of the European Newspaper Publishers Association (ENPA) to discuss issues of relevance to both organisations as well as follow-up of an EFJ resolution on social dialogue in Switzerland. The EFJ representatives outlined the difficult situation for journalists in Switzerland as the publishers continue to refuse to negotiate a collective agreement in the German and Italian speaking parts of the country. Both the EFJ and ENPA agree that the struggle for the…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) and Index on Censorship are delighted to announce that Index project to map media freedom in Europe has received funding from the European Commission – one of just two projects selected. Mapping Media Freedom (#ecpmf)– launched as a pilot project in 2014 by Index on Censorship – records threats to media freedom throughout the European Union and EU candidate countries. In the last 12 months, more than 750 violations have been reported, including threats of violence, harassment, intimidation and legal penalties. The map includes threats faced by journalists and media groups at local as well…

Regarding press freedom “we are certainly embarking in a new era in Slovenia. When the criminal police was asking me questions back in 2013, my case was the first where the Slovenian State decided to prosecute a journalist for publishing allegedly classified information. Today, there are three more cases in pre-trial procedures where four colleagues are now facing similar charges referring to the articles in the criminal code which prohibits the publication of classified information”, explains Anuška Delić (investigative & data journalist at the daily Delo) in an exclusive interview in Brussels with Ricardo Gutiérrez (EFJ General Secretary). In 2011, Anuška Delić wrote…

Update (21.08.2015) – The Azerbaijani state prosecutor is asking today nine-year jail term for investigative journalist Khadija Ismayilova, on trial in Baku. The European Federation of Journalists firmly condemns this outrageous request. She should be immediately released. The trial is due to continue on August 26. The verdict could come on that day. ——————— The international support to free Khadija Ismayilova, a jailed female Azerbaijani investigative journalist, is growing around Europe and is expected to be a top embarrassing issue for the EU and Azerbaijani authorities during the first European Games to be held in Baku (Azerbaijan) from 12 to 28 June 2015.…

Günter Oettinger, EU Commissioner in charge of Digital Economy and Society, met delegates from the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) on Thursday (30/04/2015) about the plan for a reform of the EU copyright/authors’ rights legislation taking into account new technological developments.  Mogens Blicher Bjerregård (Danemark, EFJ President) took the floor to stress that “staff journalists, freelancers, press photographers, cartoonists, graphical editors and other media workers should clearly be considered as authors contributing contents for the online, audiovisual or print media industry. The EU creative industry is a big market with an annual turnover of 500 billion euros. In Denmark alone, between 4 and 5 million euros are collected…

The IFJ – EFJ has published a special edition newsletter on Turkey. The newsletter highlights key trends, tips and best practices about journalists in Turkey and the latest news about the international campaign on Set Journalism Free in Turkey. See the special edition HERE More information is available on our campaign page : http://europeanjournalists.org/campaigns/turkey-set-journalists-free/

A new documentary called Persona non grata*, directed by Tuluhan Tekelioğu and supported by the Platform for Independent Journalism (P24), puts the lights on the poor working conditions of journalists in Turkey. From the basic court reporter to the star columnists of mainstream newspapers, all journalists in the country are currently struggling between legal harassments, political pressures, increasing self-censorship, pressures to quit jobs for covering sensitive issues or pressures to avoid affiliation to a professional trade union movement. In this 41 minute documentary officially presented in Istanbul at the Swedish Consulate for World Press Freedom Day, Mustafa Kuleli (General Secretary of the…

en français / en español by Paco Audije (Spain, member of the Steering Committee of the EFJ) Today on World Press Freedom Day (#WPFD), the right to freedom of expression is again be celebrated as an inalienable European value across the continent — by the public, the media and politicians alike. But to many, this will mean little more than engaging in a well trodden mental routine. We hardly consider the difficulties that freedom of expression faces in practice. In the first part of 2015, more than a third of journalist killings in the word took place in two European…

“The annual Progress Reports produced by the European Commission does not say much about the situation of press freedom and freedom of expression in the candidate countries. Therefore, I call the Commission to better focus on those topics as we need a deeper analysis and development on those important topics, specially regarding the situation in Turkey”, said Guy Verhofstadt, member of the European Parliament and leader of the Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe of (ALDE) , during a seminar on Press Freedom in Turkey co-organized on 22/04/2015 by ALDE and the Greens. The liberal MEP’s call to…

Board members of the Journalists Union of Turkey (TGS), together with the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) and the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), organised this weekend (21-22 March 2015) in Istanbul the union’s third Strategic & Development workshop in a year. This was an opportunity for the new board (elected at the TGS Congress in December 2013) to evaluate their recruitment and development strategies, identify new areas of potential growth, reassess all ongoing projects with partners and take the necessary steps to move forward. Although Turkey’s Constitution affirms the right of workers to form labour unions “without obtaining permission”, “to possess…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) has learned today that a draft bill for the reopening of public broadcaster ERT was made available for public consultation on Monday (09/03/2015) and is expected to be submitted in a consultation committee of the Greek Parliament in the coming days. The bill calls for the re-enforcement of the work agreements that were valid up until June 11, 2013, the day when the public broadcaster was shut down, meaning that all those who were made redundant then and would still like their job back will be rehired on the time related terms of the…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) has learned today that a draft bill for the reopening of public broadcaster ERT was made available for public consultation on Monday (09/03/2015) and is expected to be submitted in a consultation committee of the Greek Parliament in the coming days. The bill calls for the re-enforcement of the work agreements that were valid up until June 11, 2013, the day when the public broadcaster was shut down, meaning that all those who were made redundant then and would still like their job back will be rehired on the time related terms of the…

On Saturday (28/02/2015), the Association des journalistes professionnels (AJP, representing the journalists in the French and German speaking part of Belgium) and the Vlaamse vereniging van journalisten (VVJ, representing the journalists in the Dutch speaking part of Belgium), both EFJ affiliates under the federal umbrella organization called AGJPB-AVBB, held their annual congress at the House of Journalists in Brussels. Unlike many other countries in Europe, AJP and VVJ are not classical trade union organisations but they are registered as non-profit professional unions. They are considered by the authorities and other civil society organisations as the legitimate representative of professional journalists and…

The growing trend of legal restrictions on journalists and media in Europe is an issue of concern raised in a meeting today (26/02/2015) with the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Nils Muižnieks, the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) and the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ). The EFJ presented an exclusive survey on the legal restrictions facing journalists and media. The discussion showed that journalists are most concerned by laws on data retention, protections of sources, anti-terrorism laws, privacy and defamation. The EFJ and its affiliates expressed concerns that such trend of legal restrictions is growing in the climate of fear…