The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) calls on media in Kosovo to refrain from intensifying tensions in a health crisis. The quarantine of the city of North Mitrovica has resulted in inappropriate and unethical media coverage. The EFJ strongly denounces these discrepancies which show strong political interference in some media in Kosovo. Unsupported statements and provocative questions asked by a journalist from the Radio Television of Kosovo (RTK) while reporting live from North Mitrovica on Saturday evening’s news raised a wave of reactions in Kosovo. The remarks risk contributing in raising tensions between Serb and Albanian communities. On Friday, the…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) has congratulated the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) in the UK & Ireland, for contributing to the successful negotiation of the financial packages for freelances affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. On 26 March, the British Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, annouced that the government will pay self-employed people who are adversely affected by the coronavirus, a taxable grant worth 80 per cent of their average monthly profits over the last three years. The maximum per month will be  £2,500. The scheme will be open to anyone with an income up to £50,000, but only those who…

Serbian Prime Minister, Ana Brnabic, withdrew a planned decree that would have limited the publishing of information related to COVID-19 just to official sources on 2 April. The International and European Federation of Journalists (IFJ and EFJ) welcome the U-turn by the government and urges the authorities to respect the free flow of information and not to arrest journalists for their reports on COVID-19. The Serbian government had on 28 March passed a decree stating that only the Prime Minister or individuals authorized by the Crisis Management Taskforce could release information about the COVID-19 pandemic. A few days after, the Serbian…

Media sector (emergency) In French-speaking Belgium, a package of 3 million euros was negotiated for media outlets in financial difficulty and another 3 million euros for public health advertising space through media outlets. In Flanders, 3.8 million euros were allocated to public broadcaster VRT, and another 3.8 million euros to regional broadcasters. The Flemish Audiovisual Fund and a number of smaller players can also count on another 1.9 million euros and 500,000 euros respectively. New support package of up to 15,000€ per media outlet/self-employed with a 60% drop in turnover in the period 1 August to 30 September 2020 compared…

Media sector (emergency relief) A package of 41 million euros. It includes a Fiscal Emergency Package, lease subsidy up to 50% of the value of the lease for small and medium enterprises for April and May (maximum 12 million euros), the coverage of the value of pension contributions for salaries for April and May, up to 8 millions euros, micro-enterprises and the self-employed are eligible for financial liquidity insurance of up to 10.000€ over 24 months through some programme of the Kosovo Credit Guarantee Fund, a financial support from 130€ was granted to companies employing with contracts of at least…

Specific measures for freelancers Freelancers with an annual income of up to 50.000€ could get a bonus of 600€. The National Institute for Italian Journalists Social Security (INGPI) implemented a package of measures of 42 000€ which allowed extensions of parental leave, the right to defer contribution, a fund for solidarity loans at zero cost, an additional economic allowance of 500€ for all contraction of activities (in case of a contraction of at least 33% of the income in the quarter March-May 2020, compared of the period October-December 2019) and possibility to suspend further financing installment in progress with the…