The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) has joined forces with the Council of Europe (CoE) and media freedom partner agencies, in launching a new online \u201crapid reaction\u201d platform for journalists under threats.<\/p>\n
The platform would allow trusted media freedom partner agencies to post \u201calerts\u201d on a public, centralised online platform when individual journalists are in danger or their work is under threat \u2013 opening the way for swift reactions from international organisations which uphold media freedom standards, such as the Council of Europe, OSCE Media Freedom Representative, EU and UN. The platform will be launched on 4 December in Paris in a conference jointly organised by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) and the French Senate.<\/p>\n
Alerts would include factual information \u2013 vetted by the partners \u2013 on physical threats to journalists, bloggers or writers, as well as their sources, invasions of privacy or judicial intimidation of journalists through abusive use of laws on defamation, national security, or extremism. The platform would also show action taken by the Council of Europe in response, as well as regular reports and the comments of the member States concerned.<\/p>\n
Mogens Blicher Bjerrreg\u00e5rd, the EFJ President will be attending the conference and sign a \u201cmemorandum of understanding<\/a>\u201d on the creation of the new platform together with other media partner agencies, including the International Federation of Journalists, Reporters Without Borders (RWB), Article 19 and the Association of European Journalists (AEJ). The meeting with ministers from the CoE countries will also discuss how member states can protect journalists against physical attacks and against abusive use of the law, as well as on how the \u201crapid reaction\u201d platform would work in detail.<\/p>\n