Journalists at Italy’s public broadcaster RAI are on strike this Monday 6 May to protest against the “stifling control” exercised over their work by Giorgia Meloni‘s government, the journalists’ union Usigrai said in a statement. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) joins its Italian affiliate, the Italian National Press Federation (FNSI), in giving its full support to the strikers. The Usigrai union has criticised political attempts “to turn RAI into a mouthpiece for the government”’. This is one of the main grievances behind the 24-hour strike that began on 6 May. Other reasons include staff shortages, the unilateral cancellation of…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) joined the undersigned partner organisations of the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) in demanding the immediate release of Andrey Gniot, a Belarusian journalist and pro-democracy activist who is being held in custody by Serbian authorities on politically motivated charges formulated by the regime of Alexander Lukashenko. Since October, Serbian courts have been deliberating upon a request to deport Gniot to Belarus. According to the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ), an independent trade union in exile, Gniot was arrested immediately upon his arrival to Serbia on October 30. He was detained based on an international arrest warrant…

The EFJ is looking for a subcontractor to provide expertise as part of the implementation of the EFJ project entitled Stand Up for Journalism.  This programme is funded by the European Commission (DG Employment). The deadline for submission of bids is Friday 14 June 2024. Find more information here

On World Press Freedom Day, the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) and the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) stand in solidarity with journalists and media workers everywhere and reaffirm our commitment to defending press freedom across Europe. Across Europe, journalists and media workers are regularly stopped from doing their job. Among EU Member States and candidate countries alone, over 1,000 media freedom violations have been documented on Mapping Media Freedom Platform. Belarus has one of the most oppressive media climates in the world. The most recent figures report 36 media professionals in Belarus are behind bars. The crucial role of…

To mark World Press Freedom Day – the theme of which this year is “Journalism in the face of the environmental crisis” – the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) pays tribute to the local journalists who play a unique role in providing critical information to the public on environmental issues, and connecting local stories to the broader climate crisis.  “On World Press Freedom Day, we emphasise that an atmosphere of security and respect must be built to allow media professionals to report accurately on the climate crisis. We need to ensure that journalists reporting on environmental and climate stories can…

On World Press Freedom Day (WPFD) 2024, the partner organisations of the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) stand in solidarity with media workers everywhere and draw attention to the deteriorating press freedom situation in Europe. Since WPFD 2023, the MFRR partners have documented more than 1,000 media freedom violations affecting over 1,500 journalists or media entities in European Union Member States and candidate countries. As the year progressed, the MFRR witnessed physical attacks, harassment online and offline, the continued use of vexatious lawsuits to stifle critical reporting, further pressure on sustainable revenue streams for independent media, government attempts to muzzle public media, and tragically…