The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), together with the Italian NGO Ossigeno per l’Informazione, called on the Maltese authorities, on Wednesday, to identify and prosecute the masterminds behind journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia‘s murder. The reporter was killed on 16 October 2017 by a powerful car bomb in Bidnija town, near her family home. Following the arrest of at least 10 suspects on Monday 4 December, brothers George and Alfred Degiorgio, together with Vincent Muscat, were finally charged with the criminal use of explosives, being involved in organised crime, and criminal conspiracy during a hearing which took place on 5 December. The charged…

PEN International, PEN Belgium/Flanders, the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF), Article 19, the Association of European Journalists (AEJ), the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), the Global Editors Network (GEN), Index on Censorship, the International Press Institute (IPI), American PEN, Danish PEN, English PEN, Norwegian PEN, Wales PEN Cymru, Reporters without Borders (RSF), and the South East Europe Media Organization (SEEMO), welcome the opportunity to deliver this statement :  Working collectively, both jointly and separately, we have an established body of work on freedom of expression in Turkey, in part predating the…

Turkey: How the EU Can Support Press Freedom ? was the subject of discussion at the European Parliament on 6 December 2017, where three journalists from Turkey spoke about press freedom in the country and how the European Union can help to tackle the situation. The event was organised by the International Press Institute (IPI) in partnership with the European Foundation for Democracy (EFD) and supported by the Consulate General of Sweden in Istanbul. As more and more journalists are being imprisoned, the support is needed and it has been clearly voiced by the Greek Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from the Progressive…

“Democracy, journalism and literacy in the era of post-truth” was the topic of a discussion at the European Parliament on 5 December 2017, held by the Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom (CMPF), Media Literacy for Citizenship (EAVI), and Italian MEPs Barbara Spinelli and Curzio Maltese. Barbara Spinelli, the rapporteur of an own-initiative report on media freedom, referred in her analysis to the unprecedented level of self-censorship among journalists referring to the  Council of Europe study”Journalist under pressure” . He report will among other deal with this, the urgent need for whistleblowers’ protection and how to tackle the effects…

The National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU) just released the outcomes of its “Ukraine’s Journalists Physical Safety Index”. The situation remains worrying in the country: from January to November, NUJU registered 85 physical attacks against journalists. In 14 cases (16%), journalists were attacked by public officials, including members of the Parliament. In 8 cases, journalists were attacked by policemen or members of the State Guard. The president of NUJU, Sergiy Tomilenko, raised the issue of increasing violence during a seminar organised by the The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Odessa, on 29 November. Tomilenko…

On 29 November 2017, the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) met with UK Labour MEP Rory Palmer, shadow rapporteur for the European Parliament Employment and Social Affairs Committee’s Opinion on a Draft Report on gender equality in the media sector in the EU. Pamela Morinière presented the EFJ perspective on gender equality in the media and introduced the latest IFJ survey results on violence against women journalists.  Rory Palmer framed the discussion around 6 main issues including the representation of women in media structures, especially in leading positions; work-life balance; working conditions and equal pay; workplace harassment; and attacks against women journalists, notably…