The Western Balkan’s Regional Platform for Advocating Media Freedom and Journalists’ Safety(*) expressed its deepest concerns following the physical attack on May 12 against Croatian journalist Mladen Mirković in the town of Požega. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) backs its six affiliates in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia, Kosovo, Serbia and Macedonia, in calling on the authorities to swiftly investigate the case. The assaillant was Požega mayor Vedran Neferović. According to Mirković, the attack happened after the mayor invited him for a meeting at his office. He wanted to know who had written some articles published on the website the journalist is working for, 034portal.hr In a…

The General Meeting of the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) on 18 & 19 May, 2017 adopted a series of resolutions and statements.   Resolutions Statements & declarations (French version available soon)

Speech by Mogens Blicher Bjerregård (EFJ President) Journalism in Europe is facing critical times. Media and politics are in an increasing conflict across Europe. More than ever, the fundamental pillar of our democracies, credible – high quality – investigative – journalism is crucial for the citizens. Journalism including all media-workers providing content. Across Europe we have three big challenges: Safety of journalists and journalism How to counter the increasing conflict between media and politics Build social dialogue Being innovative in finding new business models Three journalists have been killed in Europe since our general meeting in Sarajevo – in Ukraine, Turkey and…

The number of independent workers is growing rapidly within the European labour market and behind what has become the standard label for self-employed professionals lies a wide range of different work scenarios. Who are the freelancers of Europe, how do they live and work in the different countries of the EU, what are their needs, expectations and how do they deal with the uncertain, precarious nature of freelance work? i-WIRE is the first Europe-wide survey of freelancers that will try to answer some of those questions. The EFJ encourages its affiliates and freelancers of Europe to fill out the questionnaire.…

On 16 May 2017, the EFJ-IFJ and partner organisations submitted the following alert to the Council of Europe’s platform for the safety and protection of journalists : On 12 May 2017, Oğuz Güven, editor-in-chief of the online edition of the daily newspaper Cumhuriyet, was detained as part of a criminal investigation led by the Bureau of Press Offences of the Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office in Istanbul. On 15 May, Güven appeared before a judge, who ordered that he be held in pre-trial detention, on “propaganda for a terrorist organisation” and “defamation against a person’s memory” charges. Both charges against the…

Eutelsat SA, the French satellite provider hosting over 6000 televisions channels, has notified on 14 April 2017 its intention “to remove” the signals of Channel News, Ronahi TV and Sterk TV, three Kurdish language television channel broadcasting from EU countries to Kurdish speaking audience in Turkey and Syria, from its transponder because “the content in which statements are made by the leaders of the terrorist organisation called as PKK/KCK”. According to EFJ sources, Eutelsat SA is acting under the pressure of RTÜK (Turkish Radio Television Supreme Council) to remove the EU-based Kurdish channels. In an urgent notice sent to the…