Two Norwegian journalists working for the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK) were arrested by Qatari authorities for 36 hours. They had been covering the poor working conditions for migrant workers in preparation for the 2022 FIFA World Cup. The European and International Federation of Journalists (EFJ-IFJ) and their Norwegian affiliate, the Norwegian Union of Journalists (NJ), strongly condemn this detention and call on the Qatari authorities to provide full explanations for the arrests and to enable free journalism. On Sunday, 21 November, journalist Halvor Ekeland and photographer Lokman Ghorbani were detained outside their hotel in Doha before their flight back to Norway. They were released…

European Federation of Journalists Labour Rights Expert Group (LAREG+) and Freelance Expert Group (FREG) met in Paris on 15 November invited by the SNJ-CGT with the objective to make bridges and coordinate better their action and work. Representatives of 20 European journalists’ organisations exchanged good practices and knowledge about collective bargaining, social dialogue as well as freelancers’ rights. The implementation of the Copyright directive and the expected new guidelines on EU competition rules for freelancers were also discussed. Read below a summary of the situation in the Balkan region, by LAREG co-chair and President of the Croatian Union of Journalists…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) joined partners of the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) today to call on the Polish government to respect and facilitate the free flow of information by allowing journalists access to the border with Belarus to report on the humanitarian situation. We also urge Polish police and military personnel to refrain from arbitrary detentions and intimidation of media workers working in the area around the restricted zone. Since early September, journalists have been unable to report from inside a three-kilometre-wide stretch of land along the Belarusian border placed under a state of emergency. The measure limits…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) joined partners of the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) today in urging the Greek government to immediately provide clarity over allegations that a state intelligence agency conducted surveillance on journalist Stavros Malichudis and the investigative media organisation Solomon, which focuses on refugees and migration in Greece. The revelationspublished by Greek newspaper Efimerida ton Syntakton (EFSYN), which indicated the government’s National Intelligence Service (EYP) had secretly been conducting monitoring of Malichudis, pose serious questions over journalistic source protection and the right to privacy in Greece, which is already facing growing questions over a decline in…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) and the Russian Journalists’ and Media Workers’ Union (JMWU) join PEN International, PEN Moscow and St Petersburg PEN in condemning the Russian authorities’ move to shut down Memorial International Society and its sister organisation Memorial Human Rights Centre, which are amongst the most prominent civil rights organisations in Russia. The EFJ urges the Russian authorities to drop the lawsuits against Memorial, and to end their crackdown on freedom of expression and association. On 11 November, the Russian Supreme Court notified Memorial International Society that prosecutors have filed a lawsuit to liquidate the civil rights…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) joined partners of the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) today express serious concern over a SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) targeted against the small independent media outlet Alterthess and its journalist Stavroula Poulimeni by a Greek gold mining executive convicted of serious environmental crimes. Our organisations note that this case again underscores the need for a swift European Union directive and Council of Europe Recommendation to protect journalists and media outlets reporting in the public interest from this kind of abusive litigation. On 19 October 2021, the cooperative journalistic website Alterthess in Thessaloniki…