Newsletters

On January 20, the Ukrainian Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports has unveiled a draft law on combating disinformation and regulating media activity.  According to the minister of Culture, Volodymyr Borodyansky, the text aims to respond to Russian disinformation. However, the journalistic community believes that this initiative is likely to be used as a tool for harassing Ukrainian journalists. In particular, the Nation Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU) warns that the law would legalise state interference in the journalistic profession and restrict media workers’ rights. The document outlines new rules on media regulation and journalistic activity. It foresees criminal…

In recent weeks, there has been an escalation in the incidences of violence by police against journalists, especially in France. There could not be a better time to establish a dialogue between the groups and to work towards stopping the violence. This is why the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF) has joined the French Union of Journalists of the Confédération générale du travail (SNJ-CGT), to launch its Press Freedom Police Codex in Paris. The codex was developed by ECPMF and partner organisations based on research conducted across Europe on the situation of journalists. ECPMF teamed up with…

The undersigned international and regional press freedom and journalism groups welcome the start of the murder trial this week against the suspected killers of Slovak journalist Ján Kuciak and his fiancée, Martina Kušnírova. The suspects on trial at the Specialized Criminal Court in Pezinok, Slovakia, include the alleged mastermind, Slovak businessman Marian Kočner, who prosecutors say ordered Kuciak’s murder in retaliation for his journalistic work. A confidante of Kočner’s, Alena Zsuzsová, is charged with having arranged the murder via a middleman, Zoltán Andruskó, who in turn contracted two alleged hitmen, cousins Tomáš Szabó and Miroslav Marček. Andruskó previously admitted guilt…

The presenter of the Italian Sanremo 2020 festival, broadcast by the Italian public television RAI, caused a wave of indignation in Italy after he praised his co-hosts with sexist comments. The presenter of the Sanremo music festival, Amedeo Umberto Rita Sebastiani, also known as Amadeus, introduced his co-hosts saying they were chosen for being “very beautiful” and referring to one of them as a “sexy icon”. He added that Francesca Sofia Novello, who is a model, is a “super beautiful” woman, and praised “her ability to be close to a great man (in reference to Valentino Rossi, her partner) by…

SEE BELOW DEADLINES TO APPLY Application form Are you a young media professional eager to gain skills, boost your career, test your ideas, and expand your network? Stars4Media is an exchange and training programme for young media professionals (“rising stars”) between cooperating media organisations, to accelerate media innovation and cross-border coverage in Europe.  Stars4Media will encourage innovation through skill-building activities between paired media organisations to test ideas, produce contents and develop initiatives around 4 strategic themes.  Who are we looking for ? Participants of this project will be young working media professionals (“rising stars”) with 2-10 years of media experience,…

The President of Albania, Ilir Meta, has vetoed a proposed law that would stifle online media following the pressure from the Association of Professional Journalists of Albania (APJA), who denounced the bill as “authoritarian”. The International and European Federation of Journalists (IFJ/EFJ) welcomed the decision, stressing that anti-defamation laws must not be used as tools to restrain press freedom. The proposed amendments to the Law on Audiovisual Media and the Law on Electronic Communications would have granted new government bodies such as the Albanian Media Authority (AMA) and Albanian Communication and Postal Authorities (AKEP), the power to instantly block media…