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,…

Following the visit of Turkish Justice Minister Bekir Bozdağ in Strasbourg, the Council of Europe (CoE) Secretary General Thorbjørn Jagland published a harsh press statement warning the member state on severe violations of journalists and parliamentarians rights. “It is imperative for Turkey and Europe that the judicial safeguards for all those who have been dismissed or are in prison are based on the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and on the case law of the European Court of Human Rights”, said the Secretary General. Making specifically reference to “the cases of journalists and parliamentarians that are in pre-trial detention”…

UPDATE (14.03.2017): Another attack against journalists happened on March 11 in Skopje. TV 24 crew was at first verbally abused and then one of their journalists Hristijan Banevski was hit in the head with a stick, during the protest “For a Unified Macedonia”. UPDATE (06.03.2017): Two more attacks against journalists took place in Macedonia after the TV crew was beaten during the protest. On March 1 Branko Trickovski was verbally abused by two young men near his home. The retired journalist is famous for his criticism of VMRO-DPMNE party. One of the attackers shouted at Trickovski and called him a traitor,…

The home of Russian journalist and human rights activist Zoya Svetova was raided by the police on February 28. According to her lawyer Anna Stavitskaya, ten investigators and two representatives of Federal Security Bureau (FSB) entered the property in the morning and searched her computer, personal papers and books. Stavitskaya believes that the raid is connected to Yukos (the oil company) case for alleged tax evasion. She explained that Russian law enforcement agencies think that the proceeds are used to fund organisations and individuals, among them Svetova. The Moscow Times columnist is known for her work on prisoners’ rights in…

On 24 February 2017, Spiegel Online reported in an article that the German foreign intelligence agency (Bundesnachrichtendienst, BND) apparently spied on at least 50 telephone and fax numbers or email addresses of journalists or newsrooms worldwide from 1999 onwards. According to documents seen by Spiegel, among the targets were the BBC in Afghanistan and London, the New York Times in Afghanistan, as well as mobile and satellite telephones of the news agency Reuters in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria. Spiegel Online doesn’t mention the nature of the journalists’ work and the length of the surveillance. Last October, the German Bundestag has…

EFJ affiliates in Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia are sending solidarity messages and support with journalists on strike in Macedonia. Please find below the letter sent to SSNM, the Independent Trade Union of Journalists and Media Workers of Macedonia : Trade unions of journalists of Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia express full solidarity and support to SSNM (the Independent Trade Union of Journalists and Media Workers of Macedonia) and to journalists of Utrinski vesnik, Dnevnik and Vest – three daily papers of the company Media print Macedonia (MPM) – who are in strike since 17 February 2017 due to unpaid salaries, obligatory contributions…

On 27 February 2017, the European Federation of Journalists submitted the following alert to the Council of Europe platform for the protection of journalism and the safety of journalists: On 20 February 2017, two journalists were harassed by far-right wing protesters while reporting live in Thessaloniki, Greece. Maria Travlou, who works for the public broadcaster ERT3, and Eleni Latrou, for the private station Skai TV, were insulted and stopped from doing their job by some men and women part of the so-called “Patriots’ Organisation” demonstrating outside a school. They were preventing refugee children from attending classes. The protesters covered the…

UPDATE (28.02.2017): Deniz Yücel was jailed pending trial on terrorism related charges on Monday 27 February 2017. German daily Die Welt correspondent in Turkey Deniz Yücel was taken into custody on 14 February following reports on Turkish Minister of Energy Albayrak’s hacked emails. Mr Yücel, who holds both Turkish and German citizenship, is accused of being a member of a terrorist organisation, spreading propaganda and misusing information, charges refuted by the defendant as well as media organisations. Since the end of December, six other journalists working for Turkish news outlets have been arrested supposedly in connection to the RedHack leaks.…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) backs its Croatian affiliate, the Croatian Journalists’ Association (CJA), in denouncing the attack against freedom of speech and the rights of ethnic minorities in Croatia. On February 13, the nongovernmental organisation “In the Name of the Family” (U ime obitelji) held a press conference asking for disqualifying the weekly magazine Novosti published by the Serb National Council. On the same day, it sent to the government a document titled “Report on the Abuse of State Budget Funds for the Serbian National Minority”, in which it calls for the criminal prosecution of Novosti’s journalists, editors…

“In each company we need to first deal with the staff workers, and find out about their main challenges at work. We need to map the company, the sector and then also map the situation of staff , freelances, agency and all workers “, said Erkan Ersoy, Director of Organizing  in UNI SCORE (Strategic Campaigns, Organising, Research + Education) who was invited to the Freelance Expert Group meeting to discuss how to apply the UNI organising strategy at company level to freelance journalists. Other tips include: Choose the most ethical media company to start with; Map: find out about pay…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) joined the campaign launched by the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) advocating for a pay rise for workers throughout Europe. On 14th and 15th February, European trade unionists have been discussing the need for pay rises with employers and government at a conference in Brussels. Today, wealth and wage inequality is on the rise and workers’ rights such as collective bargaining should be encouraged and promoted by all. That is why the European trade union movement has banded together in this campaign to make sure workers get their pay rise. “Europe needs to talk…

The Trade Union of RTK has been actively discussing the rights of workers during the meetings with Caucus Groups in Kosovo Assembly and Speaker of the Assembly due to the RTK law being in the process of amending. The process that has been criticised by the EU office in Kosovo for not being transparent enough. However, General Director of RTK Mentor Shala wasn’t pleased with the Trade Union’s activity, in his recent Facebook post (08.02.2017) he called the Union “political ‘bacteria’ within RTK”. Furthermore Mentor Shala insulted workers and members of the Trade Union by saying that “if it wasn’t…

The Representative on Freedom of the Media, an independent OSCE Institution, has a unique mandate to protect and promote media freedom in all 57 OSCE participating States. The current mandate holder, Dunja Mijatović of Bosnia and Herzegovina, is due to leave the Office on 10th March 2017. To date, there has been no announcement of her successor. The International and European Federations of Journalists (IFJ and EFJ), together with a wide coalition of freedom of expression organisations (including AEJ, Article 19, CPJ, Index on Censorship, IPI and RSF/RWB), sent today a letter to OSCE Participating states, urging them to press…

“There is an urgent need to restore freedom of expression and media freedom in Turkey. The closure of more than 150 media organisations since the coup attempt and the continuous detention of around 150 journalists had the huge chilling effect on the state of fundamental rights in Turkey”, said Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Nils Muižnieks who published today (15/02/2017) a detailed Memorandum on freedom of expression and media freedom in Turkey based on the findings of two visits to the country in April and September 2016. In a interview with the EFJ, the Commissioner insisted that the…

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) back their British affiliate, the National Union of Journalists (NUJ), in its concerns over the proposals to update the Official Secrets Act in the United Kingdom. Due to the new way of defining espionage, including “obtaining sensitive information”, as well as “passing it on”, journalists, whom are simply working on their stories, can potentially face up to 14 years in prison by receiving some secret information. These proposals completely ignore the right of journalists to disclose information in the public interest and would also punish severely whistleblowers,…

The International and European Federation of Journalists (IFJ/EFJ) have condemned the arson attack by unidentified assailants on the car of journalist Sergey Goos yesterday morning in the central Ukrainian city of Kamianske (Dneprodzerzhinsk). This is the latest case in a worrying and growing number of attacks against independent journalists in the country and was immediately condemned by IFJ affiliates the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU) and the Independent Media Trade Union of Ukraine (IMTUU). The attack took place in the courtyard of an apartment building where Goos lives and the unions claimed was a result of recent reporting…