The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) has joined the oral statement delivered today (15/03/2017) by PEN International at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva to demand the immediate release all those held in prison for exercising their rights to freedom of opinion and expression and to end the prosecutions and detention of journalists simply on the basis of the content of their journalism or alleged affiliations The full statement says : JOINT ORAL STATEMENT ON THE DETERIORATION OF FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION AND MEDIA FREEDOM IN TURKEY UN Human Rights Council 34th Special Session Item 4: Human rights situations that…

Barents Observer Editor Thomas Nilsen was on business trip with a delegation from the Danish Parliament´s Committee of Foreign Affairs, on 8 March 2017, when he learned that he can’t enter Russia, despite having a valid visa. When Nilsen arrived in Borisoglebsk, the cross-border point between Russia and Norway, he was told by FSB border guards that he is not allowed to enter due to security reasons. Barents Observer quoted Nilsen describing the incident: “I was told it was necessary to deny me access to Russia for the purpose of state security. The officers could not elaborate further and it was…

The European and International Federation of Journalists (EFJ-IFJ) have backed calls by striking workers at one of Italy’s top financial newspapers for the editor to resign. The EFJ-IFJ joined its affiliate, the Federazione Nazionale della Stampa Italiana (FNSI), in supporting the stoppage by Il Sole 24 Ore workers which started today. The strike, backed in a vote on Friday by 90% of union members, is demanding the resignation of the paper’s editor, Roberto Napoletano, following a police raid on the paper’s headquarters and claims senior managers, including Napoletano, issued false statements about the company’s position. Reports said that Napoletano and two former…

UPDATE (14.03.2017): The Belarusian Association of Journalists protests detentions of 18 journalists and obstruction of their professional activities by law enforcement forces. The BAJ believes that the court ruling on March 13, where journalists Halina Abakunchyk and K. Bakhvalava were found administratively liable, is unlawful and illegitimate. On March 12, protests were planned in three Belarusian cities – Babruysk, Orsha and Rahachou due to the unemployment tax, which will force people to pay approximately $200 if they are unemployed for more than six months per year. Law enforcement agencies unfolded a large-scale operation to prevent journalists from covering the events. The…

In the framework of the project “Media Against Hate”, the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) will organise together with the Croatian Journalists’ Association (CJA) a workshop on “Reporting Refugees, Migrants, Ethnicity” on 26-27 May 2017 in Zagreb, Croatia. The training will gather 25 journalists from the European Union reporting topics concerning refugees, migrants and ethnicity. The training aims to exchange best practices and guidelines promoting ethical journalism on these issues. A regional outlook will also focus on challenges for hate speech in Croatia. Please find enclosed the invitation letter with all the practical details as well as the draft programme.…

Regional Platform for Advocating Media Freedom and Journalists’ Safety wants to express its solidarity and support to journalists and media workers in Macedonia faced with constant pressures, including physical attacks and death threats. We are especially concerned by the fact that coordinated attacks involve public officers and representatives of state institutions. In last four years in Macedonia there were 44 attacks against journalists, 19 of them last year. “The European Court for Human Rights in Strasbourg confirmed violations of freedom of expression in Macedonia, but local institutions did not punish any of attackers against journalists”, says Naser Selmani, president of…

The Romanian affiliate of the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), the Federation Culture and Media FAIR-MediaSind, negotiated and signed a collective agreement on 2 March 2017 with the national news agency Agerpres for the period 2017-2019. The collective agreement contains new clauses as well as new dispositions regarding holidays, pension and the Ethics and Discipline Committee. The article 22 introduces three days off on June 1 (for all employees), March 8 (for women) and November 19 (for men). The article 80 introduces the payment of seven months’ severance in case of redundancies and three in case of retirement. The article…

Sexist of the year award ceremony took place in Moscow on March 10. The annual ceremony was initiated six years ago by Russian feminist group “Pro Feminism”. Blogger Natalia Bitten, the founder of the award, said that the aim of the ceremony is to combat hate speech and humiliation of women. Dozens of news-makers, politicians, religious leaders, journalists and academics have been nominated for five different awards this year. The news-portal Gazeta.ru and biologist Alexander Markov won the ‘Sexist in the Media” award for the article “It is beneficial for women to be illiterate”, where the scientist claimed that from…

Dunja Mijatović, OSCE representative on Freedom of the Media, will leave office on Friday 10 March. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) would like to reiterate its call – defended in a letter on 16 February 2017 – to ensure continuity of the Office of OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media. The EFJ, as many media organisations, strongly believe in the high value and importance of this Office. Dunja Mijatović gave her final speech today during the presentation of her final report to the OSCE Permanent Council. She reflected on her seven years in office and highlighted the need…

Shkelqim Hysenaj, the president of the Association of Journalists of Kosovo (AJK), and researcher Petrit Collaku met on Wednesday 8 March with Aleksander Lumezi, the Kosovo’s State prosecutor, to discuss better protection for the journalists in the country. During the discussion, the AJK president shared his concerns regarding the inefficient justice system and the unsafe environment Kosovo represents for journalists. Shkelqim Hysenaj also presented to the state prosecutor the recommendations of the AJK report “The indicators of the level of media and journalists safety” published in December 2016. It recommends to improve the effectiveness of the justice system when dealing…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) strongly condemns the attack perpetrated against Elvi Fundo, director of Citynews.al online portal and Radio Best, on Wednesday 8 March 2017 in Tirana, Albania. According to media reports, Elvi Fundo was beaten up by unidentified assailants near the train station. He was later sent to the hospital. He declared to Balkan Insight, the news portal of Balkan Investigative Reporting Network: “Two individuals attacked me near my office at 10.30 am, causing injuries (…) I don’t believe it’s a political attack but the work of criminals financed by corrupt media clans tied to drug-trafficking.” Albanian…

“Any human being, who is involved in a natural language generation (NLG) process, such as programmers or linguists, must take into account the ethical dimensions governing journalism” concluded Laurence Dierickx, a specialist in Computational Journalism, who was invited to the EFJ Digital Expert Group meeting, that took place on March 8 in Brussels. She explained that the computer scientists and start-up companies, who are heavily involved in the NLG, are not hold under the same ethical standards as journalists. Also in cases with automatically generated content, there is not always a mention that the article is written by a computer, which…

A multidisciplinary European consortium comprising the Universities of Newcastle (UK), Padova (Italy) and Gothenburg (Sweden), the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) and the Permanent Conference of the Mediterranean Audiovisual Operators (COPEAM) has just been awarded a grant by the European Commission’s Directorate –General for Justice and Consumers to develop an action project to advance gender equality in media industries. The project will bring journalism, media and communication students together with media professionals so as to foster a gender equality perspective within both journalism and media education and professional journalism practice, and bridge the transition between education and employment. The project…

MEP Michal Boni (EPP, Poland) together with The Guardian Media Group launched a discussion ”News: fact or fake?” on March 7 in the European Parliament. During the meeting experts, moderated by a senior editor from the Guardian – Dan Roberts, discussed how the new technologies change the business model of news reporting and how the fake news and filter bubbles do impact  democracy. Michal Boni stated at the beginning of the meeting that it is important to understand how to react to fake news. He explained: “We don’t need censorship tools, instead we need to promote the better understanding of fake…

Türkçe Following an international press freedom mission to Turkey on 7 February to 2 March 2017, the undersigned participants, representing six international free expression watchdog organisations, express severe concern about media freedom and respect for human rights and warn that the country’s democracy is under threat. The mission came in response to an ongoing purge by Turkey’s government in the wake of a failed 15 July 2016 coup attempt that traumatized the country. Hundreds of thousands have been dismissed from jobs or detained under wide-ranging emergency powers granted after the coup attempt. This includes some 155 journalists and media workers…

The National Council for Television and Radio Broadcasting of Ukraine revoked license of the Ukrainian broadcasting company “Radio Vesti” in Kharkiv city. The council also refused to extend the radio’s license in the capital, Kyiv. Radio Vesti, the largest national professional radio channel in the country, insists they sent the required documents on time in order to renew the licenses, which expired in February. Despite this, the National Council decided to revoke the licenses out of concerns that the ultimate beneficiary of the station was the former Minister of Revenue and Fees, Oleksandr Klymenko. Reports said that as a result,…