From the 16th to the 20th of September 2023, member of the EFJ Steering Committee Anna Del Freo travelled to Ukraine. She accepted the invitation of Sergiy Tomilenko, another member of the EFJ Steering Committee and president of the National Union of Journalist of Ukraine (NUJU). She went to the country, invaded by Russia, together with Anteas Alessandria, an Italian association of volunteers that already promoted several projects to help Ukraine’s population. Thanks to the support of the association, Anna Del Freo was able to visit her colleagues, who live and work in a country at war. She also conveyed…

As the European Parliament gets set to vote on the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA) next week, 80 civil society and journalists’ associations and unions, including the European and International Federations of Journalists (EFJ-IFJ), are calling on Members of European Parliament (MEPs) to ensure meaningful protection for journalists in the regulation by including a total ban on spyware. On 3 October, the plenary of the European Parliament will vote on the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA). This regulation will create the first European legal framework to protect journalists and media service providers from intrusive surveillance technologies. 80 media, journalists, and…

A new Cooperation agreement was signed on 22 September 2023 between the Croatian Ministry of the Interior, the Croatian Association of Journalists (HND) and the Croatian Journalists’ Union (SNH). Its aim is to provide a safe working environment for journalists, by effectively addressing the potential risks they face in the course of their work. The initiative stems from the implementation of the key EU Recommendation on the safety of journalists issued on 16 September 2021. Signed at the headquarters of the Ministry of the Interior in Zagreb, the agreement comprises two protocols. The first stipulates that journalists will be guaranteed…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) today joined authors, performers and other creative workers and artists, representing several hundred thousand workers, in urging the European Union institutions to agree on a balanced regulation that not only forwards the advancement of AI technologies but also promotes original human creativity. As the negotiation of the AI Act enters its final “trilogue” stage, the undersigned organisations reiterate their position and insist on the absolute need for a human-centric approach to regulating generative AI in a way that respects fundamental rights. This approach should recognise, secure and enforce the right to control the use…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) today joined media organisations in demanding a journalist’s privilege (Article 17) over content moderation, ahead of the vote on the European Media Freedom Act scheduled next week in the European Parliament. Media freedom and journalistic integrity have not only become the plaything of individual governments in the EU in recent years. Also, very large online platforms (VLOPs), that have become key distribution channels for editorial content, are increasingly exerting influence on the media landscape and restricting media freedom and pluralism. Based on their algorithms and content moderation practices, VLOPs decide who gets to read,…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) organised on 18-19 September 2023, together with the Austrian journalist’s union GPA, a meeting with its Expert Group members. Around 40 journalists and trade unionists from 25 European countries discussed in Vienna the challenges and opportunities posed by Artificial Intelligence (AI) in journalism, and its implications for ethics, jobs and authors’ rights. “AI in journalism doesn’t mean AI does journalism.” This is the approach taken by the Austrian news agency APA, which some of the EFJ Expert Group members visited. APA has been using automated processes since 2019 for elections, then for coverage of…