Italian journalist and editor of the Campania Notizie news website, Mario de Michele, survived a gun attack on 14 November. The journalist escaped uninjured despite 10 bullets – six of which hit the car – shot by two unknown individuals while driving in the town of Gricignano d’Aversa. “It is a miracle he is alive”, the Italian journalists’ union Federazione Nazionale della Stampa Italiana (FNSI) said in a statement. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) stands in solidarity with the journalist and alerts about the very worrying decline when it comes to journalists’ safety in Italy and Europe. The event…

Investigation about Russian journalist Ivan Golunov‘s arrestation was declared ‘classified’ by Russia’s Federal Investigative Committee (SK) on 11 November. The European Federation of Journalists and the Russian Journalists’ and Media Workers’ Union (JMWU) denounced this decision considered as an attempt to intimidate all the journalists investigating Russian politics and corruption. Golunov has been arrested on 6 June and accused of drug-dealing – the drugs were tossed by someone into his backpack and into his apartment. Such a practice is becoming more and more common for the intimidation and imprisonment of disturbing investigative journalists. After an unprecedented mobilisation campaign by civil…

In the plenary session of 13 November, few members of the European Parliament debated about the impunity of crimes against journalists and the importance of protecting journalists in order to have a solid democratic system. In their interventions, all the MEPs agreed to condemn the violence against journalists and the need to find the murderers of the crimes against journalists that remain unsolved in the EU. Although some of them referred to the situation in regions like Latin America or Africa, all of them are aware that journalists are in danger in Europe too. In this sense, they all agreed…

The Warsaw Regional Court ruled in favor of a Polish public radio journalist, Dorota Nygren, who was sanctioned for refusing to broadcast discriminatory information. The radio broadcasting has been found guilty of breaking the principle of equal treatment and the court ordered the payment of compensation for the discrimination and the correction of plaintiff’s reduced salary. On 2 September 2017, Nygren wrote a story for the radio information agency of the Polish public service broadcaster (IAR) about an event that happened in Italy, where a 53-year-old man spat at a 97-year-old priest in a local church. As editor, Nygren decided not to publish the…

Spanish political party VOX has denied the accreditation to several media outlets, ahead of the general election of 10 November. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) joins its Spanish affiliates Federacion de Servicios a la Ciudadania de CC.OO (FSC-CC.OO), Federacion de Asociaciones de la Prensa Espanola (FAPE) and Federation de Sindicatos de Periodistas (FeSP) in condemning this new attack on freedom of expression and in recalling the Article 20 of the Spanish Constitution, which guarantees the freedom of expression. Right before the general election of Sunday November 10, VOX has denied the accreditation of Grupo Prisa media outlets – some…

The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), which is composed of three groups representing the EU’s trade unions, employers’ organisations and diverse civil society organisations, issued an interim report on fundamental rights and the rule of law in Romania, Hungary, Poland, Austria and France. This report highlights serious concerns regarding freedom of expression and the media as put forward by civil society in the targeted countries. Building on this newly published report, the EESC held in Brussels on 5 November a high-level conference on “Fundamental Rights and the Rule of Law – Trends in the EU from a civil society…

Turkey’s biggest newspaper Hürriyet fired 45 journalists last week in one of the history’s most brutal layoffs operation press in Turkey.  Forty-three of them were members of the Turkiye Gazeteciler Sendikasi (TGS), an EFJ affiliate. The employees said that their dismissal was notified by a letter while they were working. A few journalists’  access to their computer and e-mail accounts were blocked. A woman was on maternity leave, one on compulsory military service and another journalist on sick leave, according to Turkish media reports. Vahap Munyar, Hürriyet’s editor-in-chief, who said he was not aware of the layoffs, and some of…

Online hate speech is a worrying and complex phenomenon, which has deep cultural and social roots and brings new questions and challenges to the issue of freedom of expression on the internet. Can a new law be a solution to tackle online hate speech or a curb on freedom of expression? How can we silence hate without silencing media freedom? Only a collective commitment at the cultural and educational level can be the basis to counter it, promoting at the same time freedom and participation. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) will organise a final conference on 18 November in…

The Union of Icelandic Journalists has called for a series of temporary strikes among its members at the media companies that are affiliates of the Employers’ Association. The Union demands wages for journalists comparable to employees of similar educational background or university degrees. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) supports its affiliate the Union of Icelandic Journalists and joins the Nordic Federation of Journalists and its members in Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland in backing Icelandic journalists’ demands and standing in solidarity. The first strike is among photographers and online journalists and will last for four hours on Friday. It…

A Turkish court ordered on 4 November the release under supervision of journalists Ahmet Altan and Nazli Ilicak who had spent three years in jail, accused of participating in the failed 2016 coup. The European and International Federations of Journalists (EFJ and IFJ) welcome their release but urge authorities to remove the judicial control, stressing they were victims of trumped up charges. Both journalists were jailed in 2016 following their conviction of “aiding a terrorist group without being its member”, charges that they always denied. On 2 October 2018, the Court of appeal in Istanbul upheld aggravated life sentences of…

The freelance photojournalists Britt van Uem (Tubantia) and Ruud Rogier (Brabants Dagblad) won on the 1st of November the lawsuit against DPG Media (formerly De Persgroep). The court ruled that the rates they received for their work, respectively 13 cents per word and 42 euros per photo, were not fair. The judge has increased the rates by 50% to 0.21 cents per word and 65 euros per photo respectively. DPG Media therefore has to pay these two freelancers extra for work they did in 2018. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) welcomes this historical decision and congratulates its affiliate, The…

Ahead of the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists, a UN-recognized day observed annually on 2 November, twelve partner organisations of the Council of Europe Platform to Promote the Protection of Journalism and Safety of Journalists call on governments to ensure that crimes against journalists are not carried out with impunity. Earlier this week, the case of courageous Maltese investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia was moved to the Council of Europe’s category of journalists killed with impunity. The three men charged with her murder have yet to be brought to trial, while those who masterminded her assassination…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) joined IFJ 3-week campaign to expose the staggering levels of impunity for crimes against journalists and the lack of international action to combat the rising tide of threats and abuse faced by journalists worldwide. The campaign will kick-off on 2 November marking International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists and run until 23 November, the anniversary of the Ampatuan massacre in the Philippines, in which at least 32 media workers were killed. The Federation has recorded 1064 killings of media professionals in the past 10 years. Yet, only one murder in every…

The first step for reaching a broader and diverse group of people is improving diversity and inclusiveness within the union itself. Eighteen trade union representatives from sixteen European countries attended a three-day training organised by the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) and the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI), on 28-30 October in Porto, Portugal. The host of the workshop was the Portuguese union and EFJ affiliate Sindicato dos Jornalistas (SinJor). The training aimed to provide current, future and potential leaders different tools to make their unions more inclusive and diverse, equipping them with leadership and trade union mobilising skills; providing…

Show your support to the charter and join the signatories! The EFJ Charter on Journalists Working Conditions is a guideline on working conditions, signed on 12 February 2019 in Belgrade (Serbia), by 14 journalists’ organisation representatives affiliated to the European Federation of Journalists and leading journalists’ unions from Western Balkans and Turkey. The Charter is open for signature to all journalists organisations, private or public media companies or authorities willing to commit to improve the working conditions and reinforce the labour rights of journalists and media workers in Europe, to fight against censorship and to promote free access to information and sources. The Charter contains 10…

More than 850 journalists, photographers, media executives and reporters signed an opinion against Google‘s decision to refuse to compensate the press sector for information referenced on its search engine and services. The European and International Federations of Journalists (EFJ and IFJ), representing respectively 320,000 journalists in Europe and 600,000 worldwide, co-signed this opinion and called on the EU States to act against this abuse of dominance. « Today, Google is attacking the press. Tomorrow it will be music, cinema. We believe that Google can not be above the law or flout the will of the European Parliament. This is an…