The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) was invited by the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists &Democrats in the European Parliament to a seminar on Diversity in Media and Culture Versus Convergence  on Thursday 7 of April. Ms Maria Joao Rodrigues, S&D Vice President and the chair of the Culture Committee Silvia Costa introduced the seminar highlighting the group’s priorities for pluralism, culture, media and communication as major sources of development and as a way to integrate European citizens within the European public sphere. Dr Elda Brogi from the Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom (CMPF) exposed the…

Speech by Mogens Blicher Bjerregård (EFJ President) The European Partnership countries in former Soviet states must realize that they in reality have to replace their state media by public service media independent from government Independency of media in the so-called partnership countries from Caucasus to Belarus, Ukraine and Moldova was on the agenda 11th April 2016 at a conference set up by the Council of Europe, hosted by UK Parliament at Portcullis House. I was on the speakers list and should deliver a speech about public broadcast. I emphasized and repeated what a previous panelist has said, that it is important to…

Swiss Employment Law is designed liberally and the protection of employees is quite weak compared to other countries. In Switzerland, due to the different circumstances in each language area, the working conditions in the media industry vary from one area to another. While a Collective Agreement for journalists does exist in the French-speaking part of Switzerland, journalists in the German- and Italian-speaking parts have been working without one since 2004 and are therefore constantly facing the consequences of the lack of protection. However, there is reason to hope that this long lasting state of affairs may come to an end…

Despite the travel difficulties to Brussels following the attacks of 22 March 2016, members of the Labour Rights Expert Group (LAREG) of the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) continued their meeting in Brussels to discuss the evolution of labour conditions for journalists and media workers in Europe. Thanks to a new EFJ project entitled Building Trust in media in South East Europe and Turkey financially supported by UNESCO and the EU, the LAREG meeting provided a unique opportunity to exchange views between EU and non-EU participants from South Eastern Europe of the EFJ members and discuss recent developments in the media sector…

The European Federation of Journalists together with its affiliate in Croatia, the Croatian Journalists’ Association (CJA) condemns the verbal and physical attack on Ante Tomić, well-known journalist and writer, in the very center of Split. CJA congratulated the police for its quick response arresting two attackers. Meanwhile, however, the Culture Ministry responded with a quite unusual and disgraceful statement in which it seemed to give legitimacy to the attackers, report Croatian media on April 3, 2016. The Ministry sent this official statement: “The Ministry of Culture condemns physical violence and attacks on all citizens. At the same time, this case…

Veteran journalist Dmitry Tsilikin was found killed in his apartment in Saint Petersburg on 1 April. The IFJ/EFJ condemn the killing and ask Russian authorities for prompt investigation into the murder. “This is a great tragedy for the entire journalistic community, because he was a very well-known, great journalist who wrote on culture and art,” St. Petersburg Union of Journalists chairwoman Lyudmila Fomichev said. According to media reports, Dmitry Tsilikin, 54, received multiple stab wounds. He is said to have died at least two days earlier. A laptop and a mobile phone are missing from the apartment. Tsilikin had returned from a…

Dataharvest/EIJC, the European Investigative Journalism Conference organised by Journalismfund.eu, is one of the most relevant networking events for investigative and data journalists in Europe. Dataharvest/EIJC 2016 takes place in Mechelen, Belgium, on Friday 3, Saturday 4 and Sunday morning 5 June 2016, with a pre-conference Hackaton on Thursday 2 June. #EIJC16 Investigative journalist Heidi Blake will keynote the conference. Blake is the UK investigations editor for BuzzFeed News and previously worked as an investigative reporter for the Daily Telegraph and the Sunday Times. At the conference, Blake will, among other things, talk about the #TennisRacket scandal, BuzzFeed’s recent tennis match-fixing investigation, which she uncovered together with colleague John Templon. There…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) and the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI) are organising a two-day Cyber Security Training for Journalists on 25 – 27 May in Leuven, Belgium. This is the second training on cyber security organised by the EFJ and ETUI. The first training successfully took place in January 2015. The second training targets at professional journalists with digital background. He or she should have good technical skills and have an interest in digital media issues and surveillance law. The EFJ encourages members to nominate their journalist members to attend this training. The training will be in…

On 29 March, the Latvian government shut down the local website of Russia’s foreign news channel Sputnik, describing the state media outlet as a “propaganda tool” and questioning the credibility of its reporting on the Ukraine conflict. The EFJ and the IFJ warn that any forced closure of a media outlet is a breach of press freedom. Sputnik describes itself as “a provider of alternative news content and a radio broadcaster” and produces news in multiple languages. Launched in 2014 it operates under Russian government control. On 29 March, the Latvian Internet registry NIC suspended Sputnik’s right to hold the…

watch here : http://4d.rtvslo.si/arhiv/prispevki-in-izjave-kultura/174394938

IFJ/EFJ  today condemned the decision to hold the trial of Can Dündar and Erdem Gül behind closed doors. All diplomats, journalists (including the IFJ and EFJ observers, Barry White and Mehmet Koksal), members of the public were evacuated from the court room. The ruling was made earlier today on the first day of the Dündar/Gül case charged with aiding a terrorist organisation, espionage and disclosure of classified documents, having reported on the supply of arms to Syrian fighters by the Turkish secret services. Gül and Dündar had previously been held for 92 days until the constitutional court set them free,…

Leading international free expression and press freedom groups condemn politically motivated trial. On the eve of a trial scheduled to start on March 25, 2016, a coalition of leading international free expression and press freedom groups, including the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), condemns the criminal case targeting Cumhuriyet journalists Can Dündar and Erdem Gül, and calls on authorities in Turkey to drop all charges against them. Dündar, editor-in-chief of Cumhuriyet, and Gül, the newspaper’s Ankara representative, face accusations of aiding a terrorist organisation, espionage and disclosure of classified documents for reports in Cumhuriyet claiming that Turkey’s intelligence agency secretly…

The International and European Federations of Journalists joined today in Istanbul other media organisations in Istanbul for an international press conference in solidarity with Turkish journalists and media workers.One day before the hearing of Cumhuriyet journalists Can Dündar and Erdem Gül, the organisations gathered to back the campaign to set free imprisoned journalists that has been launched by the Journalists Association of Turkey (TGC), Journalists’ Union of Turkey (TGS), Progressive Journalists Association (CGD), DISK-Basin Is trade union, Haber Sen trade union and the National Press Institute. The IFJ and the EFJ were represented by Barry White and Mehmet Koksal. The campaign…

On March 24, 2016 at 5:00 pm, a press conference in support for “freedom of information and freedom for journalists” in Turkey  will be held in the district of Cağaloğlu in Istanbul, where representative of national and international professional media organisations will gather together. The conference is the result of a joint ongoing campaign launched by the Journalists Association of Turkey (TGC), the Journalists’ Union of Turkey (TGS), the Progressive Journalists Association (CGD), DISK-Basin Is trade union, Haber Sen trade union and the Turkish national press institute to set imprisoned journalists free. International media organisations. including EFJ, IFJ, IPI, EJN,…

The Executive Committee of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), gathering today for a meeting in Brussels and bringing together trade union leaders from all over Europe, expressed its solidarity with the people of Brussels and the victims of this morning’s horrific bomb attacks. “We are with all the people in Brussels who have been injured or killed, with their families, with all those dealing with this frightening situation, and with those who are seeking news of family, friends and colleagues,” said Luca Visentini, General Secretary of the ETUC. “It is beyond comprehension that anyone would wish to bring such suffering and misery to others.”    “This…

Prominent Azeri journalist Rauf Mirkadyrov has today been released following a suspended sentence of five years handed down by the appeals court in the capital, Baku. The International and the European Federations of Journalists, (IFJ) and (EFJ), while welcoming this development, insist on the full acquittal of the journalist, who has been in jail since April 2014 and accused of high treason for spying for Armenia. The political correspondent in Turkey for the independent Russian-language newspaper Zerkalo (Mirror), Rauf Mirkadyrov, has today received a suspended sentence of five years after the court threw out the initial six-year jail conviction, his…