Introduction

In the past years, the media industry has undergone drastic changes due to the emergence of new technologies in the way news are produced and consumed as well as the structural changes driven by the economic crisis. The emergence of online journalists, social media journalists, multi-media journalists, entrepreneurial journalists and many other forms of doing journalism has not only challenged the traditional notion of being a journalist, it has also led to demands for jobs, new skills, training and protections of their professional rights.

But one thing remains the same – rights and jobs in journalism go hand in hand together; without decent pay and equal rights for journalists, quality in journalism cannot be guaranteed. Journalists’ organisations play a key role to defend the rights of journalists and equip them to rise to the challenge of the changing labour market.

Journalists’ organisations themselves also undergo changes to renew their commitment and strategies to counter new challenges.  This handbook is the result of a two-year project, Rights and Jobs in Journalism – Building stronger unions, launched by the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) to address these challenges. It contains inspiring examples from EFJ members, including

• recruitment and organising strategies to reach out to young and other types of journalists;

• development of new services and training opportunities catering for the need of different members;

• continue to defend the labour rights of journalists through collective bargaining and innovative campaigns;

• advocate the protection of the professional and social rights of all journalists, in particularly those of freelance and precarious workers, through national and European legislation;

• lobby for strong authors’ rights protection for journalists and fair contacts

It is hoped that the handbook will inspire further exchanges of good practices among EFJ members and provide themselves with tools and ideas to take further action.

We would like to thank all EFJ members who have contributed to the drafting of the handbook. We also gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the European Commission (DG Employment) for this project.

Mogens Blicher Bjerregård, President
European Federation of Journalists