The Dutch Association of Journalists (NVJ) reached an agreement on Monday 18 December 2023 with the two main employers, DPG and Mediahuis, on pay rises for both freelance and employed journalists. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) welcomes the agreement, which will improve journalists’ working conditions in the Netherlands in a context of falling purchasing power caused by inflation. Work stoppages took place in recent months to put pressure on the negotiations under the slogan “Give us back our wages”. In October, some news editorial teams stopped work and took a “coffee break”, while in November, some media websites were…

The Local Media for Democracy project (LM4D) is supporting 25 small media outlets and freelance journalist groups from around Europe in the second round of funding. They will receive a total of  €667,854 funding as well as mentorship to strengthen their reach and funding models so that they can better serve their local communities. The 25 media outlets and journalist groups are from: Bulgaria (1), Czech Republic (3), France (2), Greece (1), Latvia (1), Lithuania (2), Poland (6), Portugal (3), Romania (3), Slovakia (1), Slovenia (2) and Spain (1).  The jury, whose identities are anonymous, selected initiatives that operate in…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) welcomes the adoption on Friday of the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA), the final version of which no longer refers to the possibility of spying on journalists on the basis of vague “national security” imperatives. This is a victory for all defenders of press freedom and democracy. Pending an in-depth analysis of the text of the agreement and the precise guarantees it puts forward to protect journalistic sources, the EFJ would like to thank the key players in the trilogue negotiations, European Commission Vice-President Vera Jourova, Spanish Culture Minister Ernest Urtasun, and MEPs Sabine…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) today joined the Federazione Nazionale Stampa Italiana (FNSI) in contesting injunction threats against daily Domani by undersecretary at the Italian Ministry of Labour and Social Policies Claudio Durigon. We believe that the Italian government is threatening the newspaper to hinder its activities of investigative reporting. Undersecretary Durigon reportedly threatened Domani for a third time, following an inquiry on the alleged purchase of his property in Rome at a discounted rate from agricultural social security agency ENPAIA. Domani reported on December 12 that Durigon requested a payment of 200,000 euros plus 500 euros daily until…

Today marks the kick off of the countdown for Voices, the European Festival of Journalism and Media Literacy. The event will take place at the Leopolda Station in Florence on 15-16 March 2024 and is a joint initiative of seven European organisations, led by the Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom (CMPF) at the European University Institute.  “As we live in a world where information is in abundance, but accurate news is not always easy to find, journalism and media literacy become key tools to ensure informed citizenship and democracy. This inaugural edition aims at bringing citizens, journalists and…

In an open letter, the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), Reporters Without Borders (RSF), the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and other press freedom and journalists’ organisations ask the parliament and the president to reject the government-approved cut in RTVS’s funding by 30%. The drastic drop as well as the poorly justified plan to divide the public broadcaster into separate radio and television companies risk undermining the media’s independence, running contrary to the European standards and threatening media freedom in Slovakia. Open letter to: President of the Slovak Republic Zuzana Čaputová Members of the National Council of the Slovak Republic Dear…