French weekly Le Poher had to evacuate its office on 20 February 2023 after an anonymous caller said a bomb had been placed in the office in Carhaix, France. Although no explosive device was found, this incident comes on top of several serious acts of intimidation targeting Le Poher in recent weeks. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) joins the French journalists’ unions SNJ, SNJ-CGT, and CFDT-Journalistes in expressing solidarity with the six employees, and denouncing the deleterious effects of these repeated attacks on the regional independent newspaper and its journalists. The bomb threat is the latest of a series…

Trade union representatives from 10 European countries attended the 1.5-day training in Stockholm, Sweden, on 15 and 16 February 2023 as part of the “Safety for Journalists” project. The panel discussions and training focused on online harassment, the duty of care of employers, and physical safety. The goal was to highlight good practices and find ways to involve emlployers towards employees and the role of large social media platforms. The session opened with Maja Sever, president of the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) and Croatian Journalists’ Association (HND). She stated the project aims to develop a universal risk assessment model through…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) joined today the partner organisations of the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) in expressing solidarity with Emilia Sercan and urging the end of coordinated attacks on the journalist. Today, 17 February 2023, marks one year since journalist Emilia Șercan filed a police complaint about cybercrime and violation of privacy after she discovered five stolen personal pictures taken about twenty years ago had been published on 34 porn websites. The next day, Șercan found that a Moldovan website had published an article containing the five stolen pictures and a Facebook Messenger screenshot she had provided…

Ahead of the one-year anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24 February, Sergiy Tomilenko, president of the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU), looks back on a year of relentless work, in which NUJU has supported journalists on the ground and assesses the challenges they face as the war enters its second year. In this interview with the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), Sergiy Tomilenko highlights the crucial role of the Solidarity Centers in ensuring that local and international media can report on the conflict, and the imperative need for more funds to continue supporting Ukrainian journalists.…

Russian journalist Maria Ponomarenko has been jailed for six years for posting on Telegram about a deadly attack by Russian warplanes on a theatre in Ukraine. The International and European Federations of Journalists (IFJ-EFJ) denounce this fierce repression of freedom of expression in Russia and demand the immediate release of the journalist. Maria Ponomarenko, 44, a correspondent of the RusNews channel on Youtube, was sentenced to six years in prison for comments critical of Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine, officials said, as part of an ongoing crackdown on dissent. The verdict is the latest in a series of high-profile rulings under new…

On 24 February 2023, it will be one year since Russia invaded Ukraine. The International and European Federations of Journalists (IFJ/EFJ) are launching a new fundraising campaign to support Ukrainian journalists on the ground. On this occasion, the International Federation of Journalists interviewed Xhemajl Rexha, president of the Association of Journalists of Kosovo (AJK), about the work carried through their program “Journalists in Residence – Kosovo” with the Government of Kosovo and the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECMPF) in collaboration with the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), as they are welcoming Ukrainian journalists by providing them with…