Friday 17 April marked one year since the adoption by the European Union (EU) of the Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market. World Intellectual Property Day (April 26) is another occasion for the International and European Federations of Journalists (IFJ/EFJ) and their affiliates in Europe and around the world, to celebrate this major achievement and the gains made since. We are marking this occasion by releasing an interview with three copyright experts, on the Directive’s new neighbouring right for press publications, and its key benefits for our sector and members. The Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single…

The COVID-19 outbreak has shown us how vulnerable we are to an epidemic, and how devastating the effects can be: on life, on health, on society, on our economy. It has demonstrated very clearly the importance of protecting working people (and all people) from disease, especially at the workplace. It has also shown the importance of investing in good public health care, investing in good conditions for health care workers and other frontline workers, and the need to ensure good sick pay and other provisions to protect the wages and jobs of all. For International Workers Memorial Day – 28…

Media freedom organisations have united under the umbrella of the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) and made their first contribution to the urgent debate on Corona-virus. It is urgent because there is a state of emergency to safeguard public health. But some governments are abusing this situation in order to stifle critical questions and pursue their own political agendas. At a top-level online meeting the newly launched MFRR presented its findings on this critical issue to Věra Jourová, who is the Vice President of the European Commission for Values and Transparency. The briefing of the Media Freedom Rapid Response In…

Journalists and media companies need ambitious packages to effectively face the devastating social and economic impact of the global COVID-19 crisis on the media sector. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) published on 8 April its proposals for recovery plans at the European and national levels (in English and French) and presented them to EU Commissioners Véra Jourová (DG Values and Transparency) and Thierry Breton (DG Internal Market). Journalists’ unions throughout Europe have followed with concrete measures to save journalism not only now, but also into the future. Croatia The different financial packages announced by the Croatian government have not…

Chechen president Ramzan Kadyrov has directed death threats at Russian journalist Elena Milashina for reporting about human rights violations in Chechnya under the pretext of combating the COVID-19 pandemic. The International and the European Federation of Journalists (IFJ and EFJ) join their affiliate the Russian Union of Journalists (RUJ) in expressing solidarity with Elena Milashina and calling on the Chechen leader to let journalists report freely during the COVID19 pandemic. On 12 April, Elena Milashina, an award- winning journalist for Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta, published an article describing how the Chechen Governor had responded to the pandemic. She explained that…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) welcomes the European Parliament Culture Committee’s statement calling on today the European Union to create an emergency fund for media. “Additional EU action is needed to make sure EU help reaches the ravaged media and culture sectors, say EP Culture committee members. The culture and creative sector in the EU – especially individual creators and SMEs – and the media sector are being decimated by the crisis. The European Union must therefore do more to help those struggling sectors to get back on their feet, stress the members of the European Parliament’s Culture and…