The right to freedom of expression is largely declining in South-East Europe. Attacks against journalists are on the rise, followed by high impunity rates, non-transparent media financing, self-censorship and bad implementation of freedom of expression standards. Journalists and media workers are at the core of these trends and practices. In order to empower journalists to deal with increased number of challenges, Civil Rights Defenders is organising the 1 st Regional Journalists Days. The event is envisaged as an open space for discussing the challenges ahead for journalists, citizens’ journalists and media workers that are working in increasingly hostile environments. In…

The annual OSCE South East Europe Media Conference will take place in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, on 18-19 June. The annual conference will provide a platform for the sharing of best practices and to discuss current media freedom developments across the South East Europe region, with a particular focus this year on media development and sustainability, safety of journalists, legal environment for media freedom and examining sustainable solutions for public service broadcasters. The event will also host a number of side events. The EFJ GS Ricardo Gutiérrez will participate as an expert speaker on the “Safety of journalists” panel.

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 regional workshop on developing  complaint mechanisms and/or improving existing ones for Public Service Media in Western Balkans has started today, 21 February, in Tirana, Albania. The workshop brings together the program directors and editors-in-chief from the six PSM to discuss, examine and assess the role of complaint mechanisms  with European experts in the field.  What are the conditions for an effective complaint mechanism? How can complaint mechanisms improve relations with the audience and thereby  trust and quality in psm? The importance of media literacy will be highlighted with examples from the region, as it is closely related to audience…

Western Balkan’s Regional Platform for advocating media freedom and journalists’ safety, which represents more than 8000 members, calls the Appellate Court of Montenegro to reconsider the first-instance verdict of the Higher Court, which find the investigative journalist Jovo Martinovic guilty, two days ago in Podgorica.  Martinovic was sentenced to 18 months in prison for criminal offenses of creating a criminal organization and unauthorized production, possession and trafficking of narcotic drugs. The judgment is the first instance and an appeal is permitted. Martinovic spent 14 months in detention, and since January 2017 he was allowed to defend himself while at liberty.…

On 18 and 19 October in Belgrade, programme directors and editors’ in chief discussed with members of  the EFJ Broadcasting Expert Group how to best implement code of conducts and editorial guidelines for Public Service Media in Western Balkans. The workshop was implemented by the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) and is part of a two-year project “Technical Assistance to Public Service Media in the Western Balkan” led by the IFJ in cooperation with the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). The EFJ trainer Muriel Hanot, Director of the Belgian Press Council, gave a presentation about ethical standards in Belgium including the use…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) expresses deepest concerns regarding the insults and death threats targeting Dino Jahić, the editor-in-chief of the Center for Investigative Journalism of Serbia (CINS). The EFJ joined the Western Balkan’s Regional Platform for Advocating Media Freedom and Journalists’ safety in calling on the Serbian and Bosnian authorities to stop discrediting journalists and respect media pluralism as well as freedom of speech. The smear campaign against Dino Jahić started on 21 August 2018, when Milorad Dodik, president of  the Serb-dominated entity in Bosnia (Republika Srpska), accused during a press conference Dino Jahić of drawing on huge…

A new publication on editorial guidelines or codes of conduct in the public service media of the Western Balkans was drafted by Renate Schroeder, director of the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), and presented during a launching event of the EU-funded project “Technical Assistance to Public Service Media in the Western Balkans” in Tirana, Albania, in June 2018. The project is managed by the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) in close cooperation with the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), in collaboration with the EFJ, Austrian public broadcaster ORF, the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network and the Office of the Eurovision News Exchange…

One of the priorities in the Western Balkans is to transform Public Service Media from state media into a genuine service for citizens. To facilitate this reform the European Union invested 1.5 million EUR through the project “Technical Assistance to Public Service Media in the Western Balkans”, which has been promoted at a two-day kick-off conference in Tirana. The conference gathered around 60 participants including representatives of international organisations, PSM directors and senior officials, political decisionmakers and representatives of NGOs and broadcasting regulatory bodies from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo*, FYR Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia. Reminding of the negative assessments…

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 European Federation of Journalists cordially invites you to the exhibition preview “Journalists’ working conditions in the Western Balkans and Turkey ” on Tuesday 12 June, from 17h30 to 19h. The preview will take place at the Press Club Brussels and will be followed by a drink. This exhibition is organized in the framework of the “Building trust in media in South East Europe and Turkey” which receives financial support from the EU and the UNESCO. It seeks to strengthen freedom of expression, access to information, free, independent and pluralistic media, ensuring that journalists and media are key drivers for democratic,…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) is today (08/05/2018) launching a video campaign to raise awareness about the poor working conditions of journalists and media workers in the Western Balkans and Turkey as documented by the European Commission’s Enlargement package 2018 published in April 2018. Together with the support of its affiliates in the region, the EFJ is putting the focus on Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey, where working as a journalist too often means job insecurity, low wages and attacks. This campaign aims to push for better working conditions in order to support the production…

A delegation of the Western Balkans’ Regional Platform project for advocating media freedom and journalists’ safety visited Brussels on March 21st and 22nd and held meetings and consultations with the members of the European Parliament and representatives of the European Commission from the Directorate General for Neighbourhood and Enlargement negotiations (DG NEAR). Representatives of journalists’ associations and a trade union from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia presented the journalists’ safety and the media situation in their countries. They emphasised joint problems their members and other journalists face, including poor working conditions, fear for personal safety due to work,…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) has released an alert to the Council of Europe, concerning a death threat against Croatian reporter Maja Sever. Sever is a journalist from the Croatian Television (HRT, public media service), and received a threat on October 29 via Facebook in response to her story about Nigerian refugees. The private Facebook message was racially charged, stating that “if you want to live with N***ers, go live in England, France or USA, but do not promote that Freemason’s multicultural politics in Croatia”. The aggressor also called Sever a “whore” and a “Yugoslav – mason whore”, according…

The EU Commissioner for the European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn is organizing the “EU – Western Balkans Media Days”, which will be held on 9-10 November 2017 in Tirana, Albania, in the hotel The Plaza. The EFJ President Mogens Blicher Bjerregård will represent the EFJ.

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) is joining the call of the Western Balkan’s Regional Platform for Advocating Media Freedom and Journalists’ Safety in condemning the attacks and pressures on journalists, which happened in the last few days in Slavonski Brod (Croatia), Skopje (Macedonia) and Partes (Kosovo) : On Wednesday, August 23, journalists Visnja Ruzojcic from HRT and Aleksandra Primorac from the portal SBplus were physically attacked in Slavonski Brod. According to the reports of the SBplus portal, the journalists Primorac and Ruzojcic reported on the shooting, which happened during the previous night and in which one citizen was seriously injured.…