On 8 March International Women’s Day, the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) calls for more vigorous actions to be made by governments and employers’ organisations to improve gender equality as the Covid crisis has deepened gender inequality.  Members of the EFJ experts groups on labour rights and freelances have looked at the working conditions of journalists during this period and noticed that working-from-home and lockdown policy has had a much greater impact on female journalists.  In Germany, according to a study from the Hans-Böckler Stiftung, women spend 1.7 hours more on work concerning family duties, since men tend to work…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) joins the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) in calling on employers, legislators and law enforcement bodies to take action to tackle violence and harassment at work. Carried out January-February 2021, the ETUC survey of women union leaders in 21 European countries found that only 16% say that employers have updated their policies to address online harassment associated with telework; 23% thought that employers did enough to tackle violence and harassment at work, including online; 16% think their national laws are strong enough to tackle violence and harassment at work, including online; 17% believe their…

Update (13 and 23/03/2021) Denis Ivashin is the 10th journalist in jail in Belarus. His address: Prison № 1. 230023, Grodna, st. Kirava, 1, Belarus. Yasep Palubiatka is the 11th journalist behind bars in Belarus. —————————- Nine journalists are behind bars just for doing their job in Belarus. All are victims of the indiscriminate repression launched by the regime of illegitimate President Lukashenko. Some are serving an unjustified harsh sentence. Others are awaiting criminal trials. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) joins the call of the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ) and invites you to send them a letter of…

The Media4Europe summit, organised on 3 March 2021 by Europe’s Media Lab (Fondation Euractiv), called for greater collaboration between media professionals and media outlets. Publishers, EU policy makers, media and journalists’ representatives, including EFJ President Mogens Blicher Bjerregard, discussed solutions to make the media sector more financially sustainable and close to citizens’ needs. The COVID-19 pandemic has shown that journalists and reliable news information are more necessary than ever. It has also tested the weaknesses and limitations of most of the European media business models. The awareness at the European level is growing: “the health of the news media sector…

The German Journalists Association (DJV) has conducted a survey on the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on Freelance journalists in Germany. About one year after the beginning of the crisis, the results show that many freelance journalists face an increasingly precarious situationl due to insufficient support. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) joins its German affiliates in drawing attention to this particularly vulnerable group of journalists and in calling for improved financial mechanisms to address this issue. Between 29 January and 19 February 2021, 1,090 freelance journalists participated in the study. It found that the average annual income of freelancers…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) is organising a series of online webinars aiming to improve media reporting on Muslims and Islam. At times, media coverage and representations have too often been discriminatory, exclusive and biased, with many important voices left unheard. The upcoming training attempts to address these issues through ethical and unbiased reporting. There are 30 spots available for journalists from EU and candidate countries or Council of Europe members. The training aims to improve the understanding of Muslims and Islam through unbiased media reporting, connecting with Muslims and religious representatives as well as diversifying the medias’ respective views…