A mission to Serbia by the Ethical Journalism Network and the European Federation of Journalists this month has called for urgent action to strengthen journalism and independent media across the country. Aidan White, EJN Director, and EFJ Project Officer Mehmet Koksal talked with media leaders and journalism support groups during their visit on September 16-17. They found that problems of political bias, lack of transparency in ownership, manipulated state funding for favoured media, and a desperately weak economic situation all contribute to a deeply flawed media system. “The media crisis cannot be allowed to get worse,” said White. “It poisons…

update : Eutelsat has removed the signal of the Kurdish television as of 03/10/2016 at  10:00 The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) has learn today (30/09/2016) that Eutelsat SA, the French satellite provider hosting over 6000 televisions channels, is planning “to remove immediately”  Med Nuçe TV, a Kurdish language television broadcasting from Belgium, from its transponder because “the content is not in line with public order directives of the term’s between us as well as with the laws which regulate TV distribution in Europe and surrounding countries”. According to EFJ sources, Eutelsat SA has received pressure from RTÜK (Turkish Radio Television Supreme Council)…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) backs its affiliate, the Russian Union of Journalists (RUJ), in calling on the Russian authorities to conduct swift investigation of the attack against weekly MK Nechernozemye publisher Denis Shaikin, in Kursk, Western Russia. On 20 September, Denis Shaikin was arrested and beaten up by policemen while he was leaving the Kursk police station with his lawyer. He was brought to the hospital and suffered from severe head injury. The RUJ believes that this attack is linked to the publication in his newspaper mid-september of an investigation accusing the deputy head of Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation in the Kursk region of being involved in alcohol-smuggling.…

The International and European Federations of Journalists (IFJ and EFJ) are backing demands by striking journalists in Ukraine for their rights to be protected during the privatisation of their newspaper as they took their struggle to the President’s door. Staff at daily newspaper Vilnym Shliakhom in Kivertsi today protested at the gates of the Presidential administration, having already staged 10 days of strike action in protest at the failure of the authorities to protect their rights during the reorganisation. The strike by members of IFJ/EFJ affiliates the Independent Media Trade Union of Ukraine (IMTUU) and the National Union of Journalists…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) has joined its affiliate, the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) in the UK and Ireland, calling on the Irish government to apply pressure on British prime minister Theresa May for a new investigation into the murder of Sunday World journalist and NUJ activist Martin O’Hagan.  On the 15th anniversary of his death, the NUJ has called on the Irish foreign affairs minister, Charlie Flanagan, to support the call by the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) for the authorities in the UK to intensify their efforts to find the killers. Dunja Mijatović, an…

Update on 04.10.2016: Turkish authorities cut the signal of IMC TV, sealed the building of Hayatin Sesi TV, raided the office of Özgür Radyo and detained journalists / media workers. Update on 30.09.2016, IMC TV was added to the list of banned TV channels. The European and International Federations of Journalists (EFJ-IFJ) have today (29/09/2016) backed its affiliates TGS and TGC in condemning the removal of at least 11 TV channels in Turkey including IMC TV, Hayatın Sesi, Azadi TV, Jiyan TV, Van TV, TV 10, Denge TV and Zarok TV from the national satellite platform TÜRKSAT. According to media reports, the administrative decision…

The International and European Federation of Journalists, (IFJ and EFJ), today condemned an attack on a journalist in Siberia whilst he was carrying out investigative reporting training. On 26 September, Grigory Pasko, Director of the international NGO Community of Investigative Journalists, was beaten by two unknown assailants in the city of Barnaul, in Siberia, with the cry of “get out of our city!”. The investigative journalist managed to escape with concussion and a bruise to half of his face, reports said. Pasko had arrived in Barnaul to train local journalists on investigative-reporting techniques. When he arrived at his hotel, he…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) and the Alliance Internationale de Journalistes (AIJ) are organising a roundtable discussion on Refugees and Migrants, the inconvenient truths – Journalism against bias and stereotypes in Brussels on Tuesday, 4th October 2016 from 11.00 – 14.00 at Magritte room (3rd floor) Residence Palace, rue de la loi 155, 1040 Brussels Introduction Migrants and refugees have suddenly jumped to the top of the news agenda. During 2015 television screens and newspapers have been filled with stories about the appalling loss of life and suffering of thousands of people escaping war in the Middle East or oppression and poverty in…

In the framework of the project “Rights and Jobs in Journalism”, the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) will organise the final conference on 25 October in Zagreb, Croatia. The workshop is funded by the European Commission (DG Employment). Agenda 25 October The conference will bring together EFJ members and experts to highlight good practices identified during the four workshops and develop further strategies to reinforce the rights of journalists’ and capacity of unions. A handbook consisting of case studies and best practices examples from EFJ members will be launched at this occasion. EU initiatives on employment and authors’ rights Presentation of handbook Building alliances to…

On the first officially-recognised International Right to Know Day, European civil society groups and professional organisations (including the European Federation of Journalists) working on the right of access to information today raised concerns that a lack of government transparency is damaging democratic processes, thereby facilitating rising mistrust and demagogic populism in Europe. Recent monitoring by civil society organisations has demonstrated that while significant progress has been made – there are now 111 access to information laws globally and governments regularly publish key datasets on spending and services – there remain serious shortcomings with transparency of decision making which is shielding…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), the European Center for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF) and the International Press Institute (IPI) invite journalists and unionists to a three-day workshop on Investigative journalism and defamation law, to be held in Thessaloniki (Greece) from 18 October to 20 October. On Days 1 and 2, trainers and contributors from Greece and other European countries will work together with participants to describe the working environment for investigative journalists in Greece, and identify challenges and possible opportunities for them to develop their work. They will also present financial tools and funding models for investigative journalism, as well…

The European Federation of Journalists together with its affiliate from Croatia, the Croatian Association of Journalists (CJA), have expressed their concerns over threats by the acting general manager of Croatian public broadcaster, HRT, Siniša Kovačić to dismiss journalist Sanja Mikleušević Pavić. Kovačić also initiated another dismissal procedure against Mirna Zidarić, president of HRT Ethical Council. The CJA has criticised the unprofessional behaviour of the acting HRT management, which had been confirmed by the joint International mission to Croatia in June , to which the EFJ participated. On September 23, the  HRT Ethical Council agreed that Sanja Mikleušević Pavić,  who is president of CJA Branch…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) has today expressed growing concerns over recent amendments to weaken the independence of national regulatory authorities in the review of the EU regulation on audio-visual media (AVMSD Directive 2010/13/EU). The EFJ has called on Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) to reject amendments that would weaken the independence of national regulatory authorities and the  European Regulators Group for Audiovisual Media Services (ERGA). Ricardo Gutiérrez, EFJ General Secretary, said, ‘‘We are very surprised to see several amendments attempting to weaken the provision to guarantee the independence of national regulatory authorities. This is completely contradictory to…

The European and International Federations of Journalists (EFJ/IFJ) today condemned the “politically motivated” dismissal of an Azeri journalist working for APA Holding Media Organisation on 12 September. Journalist Gasimov Farahim Ilqar posted a photo on Facebook showing the success of a rally organized recently by the National Council of Democratic Forces, an umbrella organisation uniting part of the country’s opposition forces, and which had been sanctioned by the government. The demonstrators were protesting in the frame of an upcoming referendum that would give Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev greater powers and a longer term in office, media reported. The journalist told that…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) has called today in Skopje for the immediate release of detained Macedonian freelance journalist Zoran Bozinovski. Zoran Bozinovski has been spending five months in detention in Skopje, after his extradiction from Serbia where he had spent another 18 months detained. The prosecutor’s office in Skopje needed four months to deliver the formal indictment for alleged espionnage, blackmail and criminal association. The EFJ member organisations in the country, the Association of Journalists of Macedonia (AJM) and the Trade Union of Macedonian Journalists and Media Workers (SSNM), consider that the case against Bozinovski is not based…

The European Federations of Journalists (EFJ), along with its German affiliates – the Deutscher Journalisten-Verband (DJV) and the DeutscheJournalistinnen- und Journalisten-Union in ver.di (dju in ver.di) – urges the German Bundestag to back off on the revision of the Bundesnachrichtendienst –BND law, following the strong opposition of many media organisations and the OSCE. The draft law foresees to increase BND’s capabilities to spy on non-EU citizens outside of Germany. No exemption is made for foreign journalists or editorial offices outside the European Union: they would be subjected to surveillance without an explicit court order. This law would legitimise a practice…