25 January 2024 10:00 CET Register here On 15 December 2022, the European Council granted Bosnia and Herzegovina candidate status for EU membership. While Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 accelerated the EU enlargement process, Bosnia and Herzegovina has yet to improve its environment for the media to continue on its path towards potential EU accession, as limited progress has been made since submitting its application in 2016. In this MFRR webinar, speakers will discuss the findings of a recent press freedom fact-finding mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina, highlighting the suffocating environment for independent journalists in the country and…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) will join a mission to Romania with the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR). The mission aims to take the pulse of the current state of press freedom and independent journalism as the country gears up for a super electoral year in 2024. The mission will consist of two parts: an initial online fact-finding element involving meetings with media, journalists and civil society stakeholders, followed by an in-person visit to Bucharest later in the year to meet with political leaders and state authorities. The initial element of the mission will take place over the week…

Azerbaijan is facing a worrying wave of arrests and repression against independent journalists and media outlets. Since November 2023, 10 journalists have been detained, according to Agence France Presse (AFP). The European and International Federations of Journalists (EFJ-IFJ) strongly condemn the crackdown on media freedom as new arrests have taken place in recent days. On 13 January 2024, Elnara Gasimova, a reporter with the Abzas Media investigative news site, was sentenced to a pre-trial detention until 4 April on charges of smuggling. Two days later, JAM news journalist Shahin Rzayev was arrested on charges of “petty hooliganism” and sentenced to…

Updates on some of the biggest developments and threats to media freedom and pluralism across European Union Member States throughout 2023 were submitted to the EU Commission’s annual Rule of Law Report by partner organisations of the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR). On 15 January 2024, MFRR consortium partners Free Press Unlimited (FPU), International Press Institute (IPI) and the Osservatorio Balcani Caucaso Transeuropa (OBCT) filed detailed submissions to the report on the topic of media freedom and pluralism in Hungary, Greece, Italy, Netherlands and the Czech Republic. The joint and individual submissions provide information of major developments in the media…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) expresses its anger at the unacceptable comments made towards awarded journalist Dora Kršul and the media outlet Telegram.hr by the Minister of Culture and Media of Croatia. We demand an immediate apologies and a retraction. “Malicious fake news”: those were the words used by Minister Nina Obuljen Korzinek in interviews, to talk about articles published by Telegram.hr and written by Dora Kršul. Discredit, an overused technique, is particularly worrying for the state of press freedom in a country when it comes from the Minister responsible for the media. The journalist, on 15 January, published a follow-up…

The Croatian Parliament began on 18 January 2024 reviewing amendments to the criminal code tabled by the government to criminalise the unauthorised leaking of documents from criminal proceedings. The text provides for up to three years’ imprisonment for anyone disclosing the contents of “an investigative or evidentiary document”. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) joined its affiliate, the Croatian Journalists’ Association (CJA), in calling for the proposed legislation to be dropped, as it would have alarming repercussions for journalistic sources and the right to information. While a paragraph has been added to exempt journalists from criminal liability, the proposed amendments…