On the eve of World Press Freedom Day on 3 May and in the midst of the Covid-19 crisis, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), the world’s leading professional and representative organisation of journalists with more than 600,000 members in 146 countries, launched a “Global Platform for Quality Journalism” on Wednesday 29 April. The document is aimed at IFJ affiliates, its regional groups and is supported by all the trade union World Federations, representing several hundred million workers. Information must never be confined. Information must remain a public good. By bringing more than two thirds of humanity to a standstill,…

Journalists at Vedomosti, one of Russia’s most prominent business publications, have demanded the removal of editor in chief, Andrei Shmarov, for pro-Kremlin censorship. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) joins the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and the Russian Union of Journalists (RUJ) to urge Vedomosti’s ownership to protect the independence of media professionals and respect press freedom. In March, Vedomosti was sold to Konstantin Zyatkov, the publisher of Argumenty i Fakty, a weekly newspaper owned by the Moscow government, and to the businessman Alexei Golubovich, an oligarch and former top executive at the Yukos oil company. In the following…

Threats to press freedom are impeding the public’s right to know. Media restrictions, the closure of local newspapers, controlled public service media, precarity and insecurity, intimidation and violence against media workers are among the many ways press freedom is being curtailed just at the very time when the COVID-19 pandemic is threatening lives and the entire global economy. At this time journalists and quality journalism are essential. This year the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) will mark World Press Freedom Day, celebrated annually on May 3, by ringing alarm bells against the threats to press freedom and by reaffirming the vital…

The European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF) has opened the 2020 call for its Journalists-in-Residence (JiR) programme for a period of up to six months, between June 2020 and February 2021. The programme is part of the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR), which works to provide swift and efficient support to journalists under threat. The JiR programme is unique as it provides a safe haven for media professionals from the European Union Member States and Candidate Countries who are at risk and need to take a break away from a hostile working environment. Journalists and other media professionals are given temporary shelter,…

The Covid–19 pandemic has brought the world to a lockdown and revealed just how important independent media and the free flow of information are at times like these. The crisis has unveiled the many factors that can converge to repress media freedom. A freedom that is already under fire from different directions, private and public alike. On the occasion of the 2020 World Press Freedom Day, the partners of the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) invite you to a virtual discussion on how to counter the abusive strategies used by governments to limit press freedom in the current Coronavirus pandemic. When: Monday 4 May at 18:30-20:00…

On World Intellectual Property Day 2020, April 26, the European and International Federations of journalists (EFJ-IFJ) are putting the spotlight on the so-called “publishers’ right”, one of the key achievements of the EU Copyright Directive in the Digital Single Market, interviewing three copyright experts of the EFJ Authors’ Rights Experts Group (AREG). Michael Khlem,Senior advisor of the Deutsche Journalisten-Verband (DJV), the German Journalists Association, one of the largest journalists’ organizations in Europe. Olivier Da Lage, a journalist at Radio France International and board member of the Syndicat national des journalistes (SNJ), and a member of the Conseil supérieur de la…