The Citizen Lab today confirmed that three European journalists, including two Italians were targeted with Paragon’s Graphite mercenary spyware. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) is calling on the governments concerned and the European Union to shed full light on these illegal spying operations which compromise democracy. On 1 February 2025, it was revealed that Italian journalist Francesco Cancellato, the editor-in-chief of Italian news outlet Fanpage, was among more than 90 individuals worldwide to have had their WhatsApp hacked using Graphite, a military-grade zero-click spyware sold by Israel-based Paragon Solutions. Citizen Lab researchers today said they found new evidence that two more…

UPDATE (18.06.2025) On 16 June, French journalist Yanis Mhamdi was released and extradited to Jordan , he said in a post on X. French journalists Omar Faiad and Yanis Mhamdi, who were on board the Madleen vessel, were arbitrarily arrested by Israeli authorities when the ship was intercepted on 8 June in international waters as it approached the shores of Gaza. While Faiad was released 24 hours after signing a series of documents, Mhamdi is still being held in custody. The International and the European Federation of Journalists (IFJ-EFJ) demand that journalists are not forced to sign any documents to secure…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) has adopted a strong resolution at its General Meeting in Budapest on 3 June 2025, calling for urgent action to tackle inequality, discrimination, and violence faced by women journalists across Europe. The resolution, tabled by the EFJ Steering Committee and its Expert Group on Gender and Diversity (GENDEG), follows new findings from a Europe-wide survey that paints a troubling picture of the realities many women journalists face today. “We need to take concrete action towards these persistent gender inequalities in the media in Europe; discrimination by gender or diversity is not only a human…

Greek journalists’ unions declared today a 24-hour nationwide strike. The action suspended news bulletins on television and radio and froze online updates. Newspapers were not published on Wednesday due to the walkout. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) fully supports the strike and the call by its Greek affiliates for better working conditions and collective labour agreements. Today’s 24-hour strike is supported by EFJ affiliates in Greece, JUADN, ESIEMTH, PFJU and PEPU-ESPIT. They demand a new collective bargaining agreement, with a minimum starting salary of €1,250, 10% wage hikes, pay for weekend shifts, and higher daily allowances for assignments in…

The Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) consortium published an updated report on the state of media freedom in Croatia following an advocacy mission to Zagreb between 19 to 21 May 2025. The purpose of the mission was to assess the government’s progress in implementing recommendations made following the MFRR online fact-finding mission in September 2024, and to identify new and emerging threats to media freedom and independent journalism. During the three-day visit, the delegation engaged with a diverse range of stakeholders, including journalists, publishers, media leaders, representatives from journalist associations and unions, and key institutional actors such as the Ministry of Culture…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) joined media freedom groups in welcoming the conviction of the two gang members who supplied car bomb which killed Maltese journalist. Guilty verdicts handed down to two gang members who supplied the car bomb which killed Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia mark another vital step forward in the fight for full justice, the undersigned media freedom organisations said today. We jointly hail the convictions of Robert Agius and Jamie Vella, reached via a jury in Valletta on June 5, as a crucial development in the fight against impunity which we hope will strengthen the…