Journalismfund.eu’s European cross-border grant programme allocates grants to transnational teams of European journalists who work together on a cross-border investigation. Applications can be submitted on our website until 11.59 pm Brussels time on Wednesday 1 February 2017. Read more EIJC17 & Dataharvest From Friday 19 until Sunday morning 21 May it’s on, again. The seventh edition of the European Investigative Journalism Conference and Dataharvest will take place in Mechelen, Belgium. It’s the most relevant learning and networking event for people operating on the crossroads of investigative journalism, public data and innovative visualisations. Be there. Register and pay here.

The European Federation of Journalists supports its member in Germany, the Deutscher Journalisten-Verband  in requesting  fair accreditation to journalists who wish to attend the European Parliament’s Europe of Nations and Freedom group) conference in Koblenz on 21 January . The meeting,  is to be attended by leaders of Germany’s right-wing populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) as well as Marine Le Pen, who heads up France’s National Front. The leader of the Dutch Freedom Party Geert Wilders and the chief of Italy’s Northern League Matteo Salvini are due to speak at the conference. According to information of the Deutscher Journalisten-Verband, several  journalists who…

On 12 January, the National Radio and TV Council (NRTC) of Ukraine voted unanimously to cease the retransmission of the Russian TV Channel Dozhd (Rain), following TV reports showing Crimea as part of Russia. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) joins today the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatović in condemning this decision, which will have harmful consequences for media pluralism in Ukraine. Decision of @NacRada to stop broadcasting @tvrain DozhdTV very demaging for media pluralism in #Ukraine https://t.co/cdT4mmMLna @OSCE_RFoM — Dunja Mijatovic (@Dunja_Mijatovic) January 12, 2017 According to a press release posted on the council’s website,…

The Journalists’ Trade Union of Azerbaijan published a report on social conditions of journalists in the country in 2016. Overall 51 media outlets took part in the survey, among them national newspapers, information agencies, news portals and TV channels. One of the big issues stated in the report was the lack of individual labour contracts in Azerbaijan.  The media companies prefer to sign short-period contracts, in the best cases 60% of employees had labour contracts, whereas 40-45% had no legally binding documents and relied on verbal agreements. The application of health insurance is extremely low (less than 5% ). The…

On 10 January, Greek police arrested the publisher and the director of Parapolitika newspaper, Giannis Kourtakis and Panayiotis Tzenos, following a lawsuit filed against them for libel and attempted extortion by Greek defense minister Panos Kammenos. The EFJ and the IFJ condemned today the massive police raid at Parapolitika headquarters in Athens and the detention of both newspaper executives. Publisher Giannis Kourtakis said he went voluntarily to the police headquarters after being informed about the lawsuit, while director Panagiotis Tzenos was arrested by police in his office, in Athens. Panos Kammenos filed a lawsuit against Kourtakis and Tzenos for allegedly…

UPDATE (13 April, 2017) – Blogger Mehman Huseynov’s appeal was rejected on 12 April by the Baku court of appeals, according to media reports. He was sentenced to two years in prison on defamation charges, because he accused the police of having tortured him following his arrest in January 2017. Huseynov’s lawyer Elchin Sadigov said they will file an appeal to the supreme court. Court of Appeals in Azerbaijan upholds 2 yrs sentence against Mehman Huseynov for defamation: https://t.co/E4ep7Bq1tD — CoE Media Freedom (@CoEMediaFreedom) April 12, 2017 On 9 January 2017, Mehman Huseynov, a blogger and journalist, was detained in…