The EFJ has today welcomed in Brussels a delegation composed from the Turkish Publishers Association, the Swedish Publishers’ Association, the International Publishers Association and EMHRN. The working group’s agenda was focused on the legal framework in terms of freedom to publish in Europe, examples of restrictions and bans in the EU countries, the experience of European organizations in terms of freedom to publish in the context of the Western Balkans enlargement. The working group compared strategies, discussed concrete examples of advocacy tactics and ways to monitor the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights and the Court of Justice…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) has welcomed today the report on Hungary by the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe, Mr. Nils Muižnieks, criticising the country’s bad media freedom records and calling for changes to the media law. Judit Acsay, the Vice-President of the EFJ affiliate in Hungary (MÚOSZ), says “the report accurately summarises the state of media freedom in Hungary. I hope this will put pressure on the government to push for changes.” The report published today (16/12/2014) after Mr. Muižnieks’s visit to Hungary in July 2014 has examined various aspects relating to human rights…

According to ALTER EU transparency campaigners [1], the proposal by the Juncker Commission – as part of its 2015 work plan announced today – to introduce a mandatory lobby register on the basis of an inter-institutional agreement is misleading because such an agreement will not be binding on lobbyists. A revised lobby register based on an inter-institutional agreement will lack mechanisms for verifying whether the information in the register is correct and will mean that there is no possibility to apply effective sanctions when incorrect information has been provided. This is the situation currently and a new inter-institutional agreement will…

Police forces in Turkey have today (14/12/2014) raided media outlets (Zaman newspaper and Samanyolu Television) known to be close to a US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen. At least 23 people, including journalists and television producers, have been detained so far in Istanbul and elsewhere in the country and are apparently being accused of forming a criminal organization. Commenting this new operation, the Secretary General of the Journalists Union of Turkey (TGS, an EFJ affiliate) Mustafa Kuleli reminded that “this operation is performed just a few days before the first anniversary of the bribery and corruption scandal (known as “17 December”…

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LATEST UPDATE Please join our solidarity action and send your support letter to the Azerbaijani authorities in your country. Here’s the list of the Azerbaijani embassies around the world. The EFJ affiliate, the Norwegian Union of Journalists, responded to the EFJ call and sent a letter to the Norwegian Embassy of Azerbaijan calling on the authorities to release immediately investigative journalist Khadija Ismayilova. The EFJ affiliate, SDP, the Polish Journalists Association, joined the protest and sent a letter to the Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Grzegorz Schetyna , in which they appeal for public disapproval of the proceeding by the Azerbaijani authorities. EFJ also…