The EFJ affiliates in Serbia, Journalist Association  of Serbia,(UNS)  Independent Asossociation of Serbia (NUNS) , Journalists Union of Serbia (SINOS), media society organisations and one foundation published a joined statement to support Belgrade’s leading political weekly NIN in challenging the decision of the High Court in Belgrade which determined that NIN had damaged the reputation of Serbia’s Minister of Interior Nebojsa Stefanovic by publishing a June article which portrayed Stefanovic as “The Phantom of Savamala”, the Court ordered the magazine to pay the equivalent of 2500 euros for harming the Minister’s reputation. Serbia’s journalistic community is shocked that Judge Slobodan…

Yesterday evening investigative reporter Jovo Martinovic has been released from over a year of detention ahead of his appearance in court on January 19 to answer drugs-smuggling charges while pending trial. He was indicted for aiding and belonging to a drugs-trafficking gang in April 2016 and is due to appear in court on January 19. The EFJ and IFJ in cooperation with its member in Montenegro, the Trade Union Media of Montenegro  (SMCG) had urged in a letter to former Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic in September  to consider his journalistic work as a justifiable explanation for his alleged contacts with…

“When your child dies, everything dies. When your child dies, the world stops turning. The last thing a father would have to do, the really last thing, is respond to racist comments”, wrote VRT journalist Fatma Taspinar. During the latest terror attack in Istanbul (31/12/2016), a Belgian-Turkish citizen Kerim A. (23 years old) was among the 39 victims killed. Shortly after the publication of his name, many racist comments related to the supposed ethnic or religious background of the victim were shared by social media users on Twitter and Facebook. The online spreading of openly racist comments have deeply (for a second time) affected the…

On 31st December 2016 the consultation of the European Commission on the European pillar of social rights ended. The EFJ has submitted its response focusing on the need for equal treatment for all workers independent of their employment contract. The consultation of the Commission follows a process of the European Commission that took off following the State of the Union speech of President Juncker in 2015. The public consultation contains a series of questions on the social situation and EU social “acquis”, the future of work and welfare systems and the European Pillar of Social Rights. The most pressing priorities as defined the…

A total 93 journalists and media professionals were killed in 2016 in the world, out of which 12 in Europe, according to new statistics published by the IFJ, the world’s largest journalists’ organisation. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), which represents 600.000 members in 140 countries, today published a list of 93 journalists and media staff who were killed in 2016 in work-related incidents. A further 29 died in two plane crashes. The killings, including targeted murders, bomb attacks and crossfire incidents span 23 countries in Africa, Asia Pacific, the Americas, Europe and the Middle East and Arab World regions. Although the figures…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) is supporting the call of its affiliates in Serbia, the Independent Association of Journalists of Serbia (NUNS), the Association of Journalists of Serbia (UNS) together with the Independent Journalists’ Association of Vojvodina (NDNV), the Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM), the Business Association of Local Press (LP) who strongly protested against the new mass dismissal of media workers at the Serbian branch of Ringier-Axel Springer, one of the largest press publishers in Serbia. According information sent to the EFJ, Ringier Axel Springer Serbia dismissed just before Christmas day more than fifteen journalists in daily…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) is backing the statement sent by its affiliates TGS, TGC and DISK Basin-Is calling the Turkish authorities to stop the criminalisation of journalists and media workers in Turkey. On 25/12/2016, the following journalists and media workers Tunca Öğreten (freelance), Mahir Kanaat (accountant for BirGün daily), Ömer Celik (DIHABER news director), Metin Yoksa (DIHABER correspondent) and Eray Saygin have been detained by police and no explanation has been provided for these arrests. “You cannot hide the truth by jailing journalists”, said Journalists Union of Turkey (TGS) in a statement. DISK-Basin Is underlines the fact that…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) wishes all the best for 2017 to all journalists, media workers, unionists, partners and supporters. Click here to have a quick look to top events that kept EFJ busy from January to December 2016 ! Thank you for your trust and professionalism and happy season’s greetings. The EFJ team from Brussels [timeline src=”https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1dj2_P_l68xs0gMtNRRr2tMYLjkBRO6Pxx5Pt-TlJH9o/edit#gid=0″ width=”100%” height=”850″ font=”Default” lang=”en” version=”timeline3″ ]

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) has today launched together with partners ARTICLE 19, Media Diversity Institute (MDI), Croatian Journalists’ Association (CJA), Cooperazione per lo Sviluppo dei Paesi Emergenti (COSPE), Community Media Institute (COMMIT), Community Media Forum Europe (CMFE) a Europe-wide campaign Media Against Hate, to counter hate speech and discrimation in the media. The media and journalists play a crucial role in influencing both policy-making and societal opinion on migration and refugees. As hate speech and stereotypes targeting migrants and refugees proliferate across Europe, balanced and fair media reporting is needed more than ever. Despite some good journalism practices…

The EFJ newsletter, EFJ Focus, is available in English and in German.   EDITORIAL The situation for journalists in Turkey has worsened during this summer and after the coup attempt on July 15. Journalists were targeted during that day. One of them, Mustafa Cambaz, paid the highest prize with his life. After the coup attempt, journalists were detained, media outlets were shut down and fear were spreading. I made contact with Thorbjørn Jagland, the General Secretary of the Council of Europe, to call for an urgent meeting with partners of the Platform to promote the protection of journalism and safety…

Bosnian / Türkçe / Shqiptar / Montenegro The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) together with its affiliate the Association of Professional Journalists in Albania (APJA) have successfully organised on 19/12/2016 in Tirana (Albania) the training of trainers’ workshop for Labour Rights Expert Group (LAREG+) in the framework of its Unesco supported project called Building Trust in media in South East Europe and Turkey (#TrustinMediaSEE). Tim Dawson (NUJ President, UK) acted as expert during this event and gave the course based on his long serving experience as trade unionist in the United Kingdom to trainers from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro…

The EFJ newsletter, EFJ Focus, is available in English and in German. EDITORIAL As the year comes to an end, we have witnessed many ups and downs in media development. There will be challenges for us in the coming year – fighting for media freedom, quality journalism and better working conditions for journalists. But there are also hopes. Carrying on the positive spirit from this year, the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) will continue our fight for journalists. Our focus for the coming year will be: Safety for journalists 2016 is a record year for the number of jailed journalists…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) has today strongly condemned the latest attack on media freedom by Poland’s ruling Law and Justice party (PiS) to restrict media access parliament. Several thousand people have protested on Friday, Saturday and Sunday in Warsaw over the government’s plans to impose restrictions on media coverage of parliament. The rules proposed by the head office of the Sejm, the lower house of parliament, will ban all recording of parliamentary sessions. Only five selected Polish TV stations will be allowed to record or broadcast parliamentary sessions. The new rules will also limit the number of journalists allowed…

The Council of Europe (CoE) and the European Network of National Human Rights Institutions (ENNHRI) organised on 15 December in Strasbourg a high level seminar as a follow-up activity to the CoE Secretary General’s report on the State of democracy, human rights and the rule of law in Europe 2015. The EFJ was represented by its president. In his report, the Secretary General of the CoE, Thorbjørn Jagland, proposed a two-year Europe-wide programme to support national mechanisms to protect journalists, such as ombudsman institutions, press commissioners and non-governmental organisations. The programme pursues several goals: to strengthen the capacities of such…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) is backing its affiliate, the Croatian Journalists’ Association (CJA), to denounce the attack against the journalist Domagoj Margetić, in Zagreb (Croatia) city centre, on 13 December. According to the testimony given by phone to the Croatian Journalists’ Association, Margetić said he was approached by a man. He thought he wanted to ask him something, but the man shouted he would “silence” him, adding “You will never write again”. He went on with threats and started to beat him. Domagoj Margetić is a journalist investigating crime and corruption in Croatia and is editor of „No censorship“ show at TV…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) is joining its affiliate, the Association of Journalists of Kosovo (AJK), to denounce the ban on media to cover the initial hearing of the so-called “Land Fraud” case involving senior politicans and judges. In a press release, AJK expressed its disagreement with the reasoning of the president of this panel, Arcadius Sedek, who justified the ban by the technical nature of the hearing. “We would like to draw attention to the judge that this session is of public interest” one can read in AJK press release. This is the third court case where Kosovo courts decide to ban…