By Valeriia Muskharina and Viktoria Malyovana, from the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU).  No contact. No charges. No legal status. This is what incommunicado detention looks like: enforced isolation from the world and one of the most profound forms of human suffering. For three years now, journalist Anastasiia Hlukhovska from occupied Melitopol has been held incommunicado after being abducted by Russian security forces in August 2023. For civilian detainees like Anastasiia, incommunicado detention often means more than isolation. People held this way can disappear into a system where there are no court hearings to follow, no official charges to…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) joins the International Press Institute (IPI) and and the CASE Coalition in urging Hungary’s Minister of Justice and Minister for Social Relations and Culture to ensure the adoption of a strong anti-SLAPP law and accept the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union’s request for an in-person consultation. Meaningful dialogue with expert civil society organisations in Hungary is of utmost importance. A letter was sent last Monday, 17 August, to Márta Görög, Hungary’s Minister of Justice, and Zoltán Tarr, Minister for Social Relations and Culture. Read the full letter sent by IPI below:   Dear Márta Görög…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), together with the Balkan Free Media Initiative (BFMI) and Article 19 Europe, today sent a letter to the European Board of Media Services (Media Board). We reiterated serious concerns regarding the proposed sale of the Adria News Network to Alpac Capital/European Future Media Investment and formally requested immediate regulatory scrutiny under applicable European media transparency, competition and media pluralism frameworks.  New evidence reignites concerns over the impact of such a concentration on the internal market and on the editorial independence, which would benefit from an opinion by the Media Board.  Given Alpac Capital’s history…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), as part of the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) project, stands in full solidarity with the French regional daily newspaper Nice-Matin, which is currently facing a defamation lawsuit filed by Renaud Muselier, the president of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur regional council. The EFJ is calling on Renaud Muselier to drop the defamation lawsuit, failing that, it calls on the court to dismiss the case which we consider to be abusive, in retaliation to quality public-interest reporting. The EFJ also strongly condemns  the deeply concerning incident that occurred a few days ago, in which Ugo Massi,…

2025 witnessed one of the most significant institutional developments in the media sector: the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA), Regulation (EU) 2024/1083, which became fully applicable across the European Union in August 2025. One year after its implementation into national law on 8 August the overall picture falls far short of expectations. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) and its affiliates in EU Member States are closely following the often complicated implementation at national level and monitoring its developments. Together with the results of this year’s Media Pluralism Monitor, which includes insights on EMFA-related themes analysing its state of play,…

Six years on from the fraudulent Belarusian elections of 9 August 2020, the crackdown on press freedom in Belarus has intensified, with 21 journalists currently imprisoned and those in exile facing intimidation. The International and European Federations of Journalists (IFJ-EFJ) joins their affiliate, the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ), in calling for an end to the criminalisation of journalists, and for the immediate and unconditional release of all those imprisoned for doing their job. Since the fraudulent Belarusian elections on 9 August 2020, President Aleksandr Lukashenko’s regime has increased pressure on dissidents and intensified its crackdown on the press, handing out disproportionate…