European Federation of Journalists

Women’s Reporting Point

 

Many journalists get attacked because of their profession. But female journalists often have to face different forms of violence than men: threats of rape or sexual and abusive comments are gender-based and hit women more often. As a reaction to these specific circumstances, ECPMF has launched an alarm centre for female media workers, where they can inform the Centre about attacks against them and seek help or advice.

Threats can be reported via encrypted messaging. The emails will only be opened by female staff at ECPMF headquarters, who will take care of the cases reported. All contents will remain confidential.

ECPMF encourages all women to report attacks. Not only to seek help, but also to make the dimension of attacks against journalists visible: ECPMF will collect the cases reported in a database – with details of the woman’s identity removed in order to protect her – as basis of an analysis to show the scale of the problem across Europe.

For the Women’s Reporting Point, ECPMF is partnering with the European Federation of Journalists EFJ and its Italian branch FNSI.

ECPMF’s other reporting point for violence against media workers can be found here.

Actions

Serbian Defense Minister sacked for sexist remark

Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic announced to replace the Minister of Defense, Bratislav Gasic, following an offensive remark he made on a female journalists  from  B92 Television during a conference on 6 December. Gasic sparked outrage after a journalist from B92 Television knelt down in front of him to avoid being in the way of cameras as he spoke to a group of reporters during a visit to a factory on Sunday. He commented: “I like these female journalists who kneel down so easily.” The EFJ affiates (UNS, NUNS and SINOS) in Serbia immediately reacted to Gasic’s remark and called for him to…

European trade unions call for elimination of violence against women

To mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on 25 November, the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) has joined European trade unionists pledging to end violence against women at workplace and in society. According to the European Trade Union Congress (ETUC), the shocking facts are that One in three women have been a victim of physical and/or sexual violence. Just over 1 in 10 of those women were assaulted by someone from work – a supervisor, colleague or customer. Up to half of women in European Union countries experience unwanted sexual advances, physical contact or other forms…

EFJ calls for action to tackle harassment of female journalists

“We must support our female colleagues, defend them and make their voices heard. Harassment and abuses targeting at female journalists shall not be tolerated,” said Mogens Blicher Bjerregård, the EFJ President after the OSCE meeting on online abuses of female journalists on 17 November in Vienna. The conference has gathered international experts in the field to help increase understanding and gravity of the issue  involved best practices and possible solutions to tackle the mounting number of online threats targeting female journalists. During the meeting, experts and journalists spoke about the gravity of the issue and called for urgent action to…

EFJ delegation meets Commissioner Thyssen

Bogus self-employment contradicts EU labour standards, says Commissioner Thyssen

Marianne Thyssen, EU Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs, Skills and Labour Mobility told a delegation of the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) on 30 January that the European Commission is taking action to better prevent and deter undeclared work and bogus self-employment which contradicts EU labour standards. The EFJ raised concerns over the complete deregulation of economic and social labour relations in journalism leading to a new precarious workforce who cannot earn a living from journalism. To give concrete examples of the situation, the EFJ delegation gave copies of  recent EFJ reports on Confronting Austerity : Financial and Employment Models…