The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) has joined its partners in the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) in expressing dismay at Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Janša’s disparaging tweet about Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatović. On 6 June 2021, Prime Minister Janša said the Commissioner is “part of #fakenews network” in response to her recent memorandum on freedom of expression and media freedom in Slovenia. The Prime Minister’s tweet quoted Mitja Iršič, a public relations expert at the Ministry of Culture, who said their considerations were not properly represented and called the Commissioner’s report “biased and ill-informed.” We welcome…

In the Netherlands, more than eight in ten journalists have experienced some form of aggression of threat, according to a new study carried out by I&O research for PersVeilig and published on 5 June 2021. Almost 700 journalists in the Netherlands responded to the new survey “Aggression and threats towards journalists 2021” which assessed the level of safety of journalists in the country. The results paints a bleak picture with more than 8 journalists out of 10 reporting having experienced violence or threats at some point in the course of their work. Four years ago, the figure was already high,…

In a Memorandum published today, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatović, calls on the Slovenian authorities to put a stop to the marked deterioration of freedom of expression and of the media in the country. The Commissioner warns that some steps taken by the Slovenian government in recent months risk undermining the ability of independent voices to speak freely. She stresses that hostile public discourse, as well as smear campaigns and intimidation targeting civil society activists and those who express critical opinions, harm free expression and can have a chilling effect on media freedom. The Commissioner…

Two Azerbaijani journalists and an official were killed today by a landmine explosion in the Kalbajar region, west of Nagorno-Karabakh. Four others were injured in the incident, which saw a truck blown up by an anti-tank mine at about 11am local time, Azerbaijan’s interior ministry and the office of the prosecutor general said in a statement. The three victims were identified as Maharram Ibrahimov, a reporter working for state news agency AzerTag, Siraj Abishov, a cameraman for Azerbaijan state television AzTV, and local official Arif Aliyev. The explosion occurred when a bus carrying journalists who were on duty in the Kalbajar region…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) and its affiliate in Belarus, the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ), welcome today’s statement by the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Teresa Ribeiro urging “the public authorities in Belarus to free all journalists and other media workers who have been sentenced, arrested or detained in the country. Most of these journalists were apprehended for their reporting on public events and other political developments in the country.” “This systematic clampdown on journalists and media workers is a gross violation of the OSCE commitments related to freedom of expression and media freedom, voluntary undertaken…

The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) condemns the threats and insults by Bosnian Serb politician Milorad Dodik against journalist Tanja Topic. Currently a member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Dodik called the journalist a German agent and ‘quisling’. It is the latest in his campaign of threats and insults against journalists who is he disagrees with. ETUC defends democracy and the rights of independent journalists and a free media, and says that threats and insults against journalists, and anyone else, should have no place in the rhetoric of elected politicians. “This is a new low for Dodik and…