The Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) is deeply concerned by the lawsuit targeted at a journalist and the editor-in-chief of the Network for Investigation of Crime and Corruption (KRIK) by the director of Serbia’s Security-Information Agency (BIA). The MFRR urges the BIA director Bratislav Gasic to immediately withdraw the civil lawsuit against KRIK and to refrain from weaponising the law to intimidate media outlets investigating the nexus between crime, corruption and politics in Serbia. The SLAPP lawsuit stems from anarticle KRIK published on April 9 which reported details of wiretapped conversations played as evidence in the murder trial of criminal…

Journalists and media in Croatia are targeted by new legal threats, warned the Croatian Journalists’ Association (CJA) and Union (SNH) with five lawsuits filed against Telegram.hr portal. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) strongly condemns the widespread practices in the country, also known as SLAPPs (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation), whose objectives are to censor, intimidate and silence critics by burdening them with court proceedings. Last month, judge Zvonko Vrban, president of Osijek County Court, filed five lawsuits against the Telegram.hr portal for five articles written by journalist Drago Hedl about irregularities in the judge’s work. Vrban announced that damages…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) joined its affiliate in Croatia, the Croatian Journalists’ Association (HND), in condemning the latest verbal attacks and accusations by Prime Minister Andrej Plenković towards media and journalists after the local elections on 30 May. Shortly after the second round of local elections in Croatia last Sunday, the Prime Minister once again attacked the media, accusing them of “being paid to vilify a political camp” and of deliberately and repeatedly misnaming the HDZ’s candidate for Zagreb mayor, Davor Filipović, in debates in the first election round. Plenković also accused the media of being “mercenaries who disgust one’s…

The journalistic profession is rapidly changing as a result of the emergence of new technologies. Journalists are expected to acquire new skills and do multi-tasking. They have to be an all-in-one journalist, photographer and camera operator. At the same time, they are caught up in the 24-hours news cycle and lack the time to take part in training in order to learn new skills. Instead, most of them are learning these new skills while performing their jobs. Media companies are less and less interested in offering training for their journalists due to budget cuts. How can we solve this dilemma…

The journalist and political analyst Tanja Topić was wildly attacked and threatened by Milorad Dodik, the Chairman of the BiH state Presidency, on 24 May. He denounced her as “an agent of the German BND” and a “quisling”. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) joins its affiliate, the BH Journalists’ Association (BHJA), in condemning yet another violation to press freedom by one of the highest political officials in the country. This is not the first time Milorad Dodik is targeting journalists as “traitors”, “mercenaries” and “hostile media” or that he insulted or humiliated journalists whose reporting he disagrees with. This latest…

On 21 May, the third session of the EFJ series of webinars on improving media reporting on Muslims and Islam took place online with contributions from the journalistsJean-Paul Marthoz (Le Soir, Belgium), Shirish Kulkarni (Clwstwr, UK) and Neila Butt, Creative Diversity Lead for programs at Channel 4 in the UK. The webinar focussed on how journalists can push for more ethical reporting practices inside their newsrooms and how diverse newsrooms currently are. To watch the recording of the webinar click here. Jean-Paul Marthoz started the discussion by highlighting that there are many ways to cover Islam but we must stick…