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…

Following the victory of Karol Nawrocki in Poland’s presidential election on 1 June, the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) joined the undersigned media freedom organisations today in calling on the president elect to commit to building a cross-party consensus required to bolster press freedom and strengthen Polish democracy. Though the election of the Nawrocki, an ally of the Law and Justice (PiS) party, pits him in opposition to the government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk, our organisations jointly stress the need for genuine and effective cooperation to drive forward much needed reforms to the media ecosystem, including on Strategic Lawsuits…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) has joined the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and over 130 journalists’ organisations, press freedom groups and international newsrooms in issuing a public appeal demanding that foreign journalists be granted immediate, independent and unrestricted access to the Gaza Strip. The signatories are also calling for the full protection of Palestinian journalists, nearly 200 of whom have been killed by the Israeli army over the past 20 months. After 20 months of almost complete exclusion of international media from Gaza, the letter demands the protection of Palestinian journalists currently reporting under siege in the…

The General Meeting of the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), which just took place in Budapest, Hungary, on 2 and 3 June, was marked above all by solidarity. The organisation representing media workers in Europe elected a new Steering Committee for the next three years and adopted no fewer than 35 resolutions and statements. For the first time in EFJ history, all affiliates present co-submitted two joint motions calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, opening Gaza to the international press, and calling on the European Union to denounce the targeted attacks by the Israeli army against journalists in the West…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) welcomes the announcement on 4 June 2025 of the Hungarian ruling party Fidesz to postpone the vote on the draft law on foreign-funded organisations until the autumn. The decision came a day after the EFJ General Meeting in Budapest, which took place on 2-3 June in the presence of Budapest Mayor Gergely Karácsony and OSCE High Representative on Freedom of the Media Jan Braathu. The EFJ continues to demand the withdrawal of this bill without further delay. Due to be passed in mid-June, the bill, entitled ‘Transparency in Public Life’, gives the government the…

European journalists’ organisations meeting in Budapest (Hungary) on 2-3 June 2025, on the occasion of the EFJ General Meeting (GM), denounced the ongoing crackdown by the Hungarian government on independent media, journalists and LGBTIQ people with the adoption of two resolutions. Co-organised by the EFJ Hungarian affiliates HPU and MUOSZ, the GM took place in a context of unprecedented repression against fundamental values and freedom, as the Fidesz party of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán presented a draft of a new foreign funding bill, on 13 May. If passed, this legislation would effectively represent the first foreign agent-style law in the…

Speech by Maja Sever (EFJ President) on 2 June 2025. Dear colleagues, dear friends, Welcome to Budapest and to the Elective General Meeting of the European Federation of Journalists. First, my sincere thanks to our hosts, the Hungarian Press Union, the National Association of Hungarian Journalists, and the Hungarian Confederation of Trade Unions, for making this gathering possible at such a critical moment. Because this is not just another meeting. This is a message. Our sign that we stand with our colleagues in Hungary and with free journalism and democracy. We are gathered in a country where independent journalism is…

On 16-17 June 2025, the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) will be hosting a workshop entitled “Mental wellbeing: an invisible crisis in journalism” in Namur, Belgium, as part of the Stand up for Journalism (SUJ) project in partnership with the Association of professional journalists (AJP, Belgium). The workshop will focus on  It will feature insightful speakers from across Europe, including journalists, media professionals, and experts. This workshop is the fourth in a series of five thematic capacity-building workshops. The first workshop was held in Istanbul in September 2024, addressing collective bargaining strategies for freelancers. The second took place in Vichy,…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) will hold its elective general meeting in Budapest, Hungary, on 2-3 June 2025. More than 120 journalists and trade union representatives from 38 European countries will meet and elect the leadership of the federation for the next three years. This is the first time in the history of the EFJ that the organisation holds a statutory meeting in Hungary. Budapest was chosen as the host city of the EFJ congress, representing 295,000 journalists through 73 journalists’ organisations across 44 countries in Europe. Co-organised by the Hungarian Press Union (HPU) and the Association of Hungarian…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), along with two of its affiliates (APJA and AGSH), joined the SafeJournalists Network (SJN) to raise alarm over recent reports of alleged violations of journalists’ labour rights at ABC News Albania, one of the main private television. Information received from numerous journalists indicates that ABC News management may have unilaterally and without prior notice initiated changes to employment contracts, replacing regular agreements with freelance contracts. These changes have reportedly affected up to ten journalists, including reporters, correspondents, and camera operators, across Albania. Fearing retaliation from management, local stakeholders, and negative media reports, the journalists…

On 13 May, the Fidesz party of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán presented a draft of a new foreign funding bill which represents the most serious attack on Hungarian media in years and is the latest step in a more than decade-long campaign by the government to stigmatise independent journalism, undermine its business model and systematically erode media pluralism. If passed, this legislation would effectively represent the first foreign agent-style law in the European Union, marking another milestone in Hungary’s democratic decline and deepening the crackdown in what has long been the EU’s worst country for media freedom. Hungary has already…

Russia’s Investigative Committee announced, in a statement on Telegram on 20 May, that a criminal case had been launched against journalist Galina Timchenko. She has been accused of organising the activities of an “undesirable organisation” and posting videos “to foment protest sentiment and to involve the public in the activities of such an organisation”. The International and European Federations of Journalists (IFJ-EFJ) condemn this action and demand that the Russian government stops criminalising journalism and harassing journalists who have fled the country. Galina Timchenko, 64, a Russian-born journalist based in Latvia and CEO of Meduza, is facing a criminal case recently…

Latvia’s Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau (KNAB) requested information from two media outlets, LETA and Re:Baltica, about content published on their websites in the context of the pre-election municipal campaign to be held on 7 June 2025. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) joined its affiliate the Latvian Journalists’ Association (LŽA) in expressing its concern about questions by a state agency into editorial decisions. On 14 and 15 May 2025, Latvia’s news agency LETA and the Baltic Centre for Investigative Journalism Re:Baltica, received similar letters from the Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau (KNAB) to provide explanations regarding published content about…