French journalist Antoine Galindo was arrested on 22 February and subsequently detained in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, while on assignment for Africa Intelligence, the news platform for whom he was working. The International and the European Federations of Journalists (IFJ-EFJ) together with their French affiliates the Syndicat National des Journalistes (SNJ), the Syndicat National des Journalistes CGT (SNJ-CGT), CFDT-Journalistes and the Syndicat Général des Journalistes Force Ouvrière (SGJ-FO) condemn Galindo’s arrest and call on the Ethiopian authorities to immediately release him. They ask the French government to do everything it can to help Galindo. Following his arrest by authorities in civilian…

As the war in Ukraine enters its third year, Sergiy Tomilenko, president of the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU) and EFJ Steering Committee member reflects on two years of unwavering work and relentless determination to support journalists and media workers on the ground, with the help of international partners such as the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), and UNESCO. On 24 February, it will be two years since the war in Ukraine started and Tomilenko recalls the imperative need to raise more funds in a war that rages on, despite vanishing from the…

February 24 marks two years since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Today, the organizations of the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) reaffirm our solidarity with Ukrainian journalists and call for guarantees of their safety and full freedom to report, as well as a renewed effort to provide the necessary financial and technical support for them to continue their work. Over the past two years, Ukraine’s journalists have demonstrated incredible courage and resilience in covering the horrors of this war for their communities and the outside world, often at great personal sacrifice. We call for continued international support…

A new study released by the European Commission on “Public financing of news media in the EU”, calls for transparency, independence and pluralism from EU Member States in funding news media, both public and private. The study builds on the particular context of recent reforms regarding the financial directions taken by the Member States in supporting news media to adapt to the changes in media consumption and cope with the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.  Those evolutions need attention at the European level to guarantee the efficient functioning of democracy and media freedom, the report says. It confirms that the…

Germany is facing a major nationwide media blockade, led mainly by farmers who have demonstrated fervently against the government’s proposed subsidy cuts. Criticising the poor representation of their claims in the media, farmers have blocked access to media premises to interrupt newspaper deliveries during protests lasting hours. Since the beginning of February, farmers have targeted at least three media companies and two publishing houses across the country. The European Federations of Journalists (EFJ) call for calm discussions between farmers and the media, and regret that disruption of newspaper deliveries is being used as a means of protest. “Attacks on the press…

On the sixth anniversary of the brutal killing of investigative reporter Ján Kuciak and his fiancée Martina Kušnírová, the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) joined the undersigned organisations in renewing our call for long-awaited justice for their killings and the imperative to break the cycle of impunity. As we remember Ján and Martina, we are alarmed by increasing threats to the rule of law and media freedom in Slovakia, in particular relating to the lack of accountability for crimes, the diminished protection of public watchdogs and the stark erosion of democratic institutions. The undersigned international organisations call on the Slovak…