New research published today shows that too many major lobby organisations, including financial lobbyists the City of London Corporation and Credit Suisse; major corporations such as Electrabel, Anglo American and General Motors; law firms such as Covington & Burling and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer; and lobby consultancies, are not listed in the lobby transparency register despite being active in EU lobbying.[1] The research by the Alliance for Lobbying Transparency and Ethics Regulation (ALTER-EU)[2] (in which the European Federation of Journalists is a member)  is being published on the same day as the re-launch of the Commission-Parliament joint lobby transparency register. The…

Europe needs more media pluralism. The application of the “Media Pluralism Monitor 2014”, developped by the Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom (CMPF) at the Florence European University Institute, demonstrates that there are various risks for media pluralism across nine selected countries (Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy and the United Kingdom). The results of the study are clear: “Every country has a specific weakness that creates high scores, meaning high risk”. Here are the main results (full report here): Hungary (50% of the indicators show a high risk). The MPM2014 for Hungary shows a situation of high risk for media…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), together with the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), have today demanded in a joint letter to Macedonian Prime Minister, Mr. Nicola Gruevski, the review of the Macedonian journalist Tomislav Kezarovsi’s two year jail sentence. The reporter, sentenced allegedly for revealing the identity of a witness in a murder case, was recently granted release from prison on health grounds until next 18 February, which IFJ and EFJ find insufficient. By a public letter, they called on the Macedonian authorities to reconsider Kezarovski’s innocence and to grant him the permanent release. (Photo credit: Tomislav Georgiev.)

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) and their Russian affiliate, the Russian Union of Journalists (RUJ) call for the release of imprisoned Russian journalist and blogger Sergei Reznik. He has been sentenced, on 22 January, in Rostov-on-Don, to additional three years in a penal colony. “While the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs was in Paris on January 11 to support freedom of expression, after the attack on Charlie Hebdo, we note once again that many journalists cannot exercise their duty to inform in Russia. We fully support our colleague and the RUJ, our Russian…

en français / en español / en català Journalists face an increasing challenge to secure their communications in a digital world. The protection of confidential source can be easily compromised in a world where surveillance is becoming ubiquitous. Can journalists secure their communications and protect their sources? To address the issue, the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) and the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI) has organised a four-day workship starting from 19 to 21 January in Brussels on “Cyber security for journalists”. Run by digital security expert, Dmitri Vitaliev, twenty-one journalists and union officers are given a hand-on approach to…

On Thursday, the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) organised a media lunchtime debate with the EBU, the European Broadcasting Union and ENPA, the European Association of Newspaper Publishers. The theme of the meeting was: “#JESUISCHARLIE: Publish or not to publish, that is the question.” Jean-Paul Marthoz, European adviser for the CPJ, the Committee to Protect Journalists, and member of the EJN, Ethical Journalism Network, moderated the debate. He opened the discussions by recalling that “journalists are not irresponsible. Before each publication, there’s always a debate. (…) However, today we see a difference between the online media, like Buzzfeed and the…