The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) has denounced the latest attack and arrest of journalists who were reporting the refugee crisis on the border between Hungary and Serbia today. Six journalists were reportedly beaten  on Wednesday by Hungarian border police. According to local media reports, Warren Richardson, an Australian photographer, and Jacek Tacik, a Polish reporter together with a Slovakian journalist were accused of crossing the border between Hungary and Serbia illegally. They were beaten before they were arrested by the border police. The journalists had been working in the Serbian village of Horgoš and followed a group of refugees who entered…

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) today strongly condemned the Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko’s decision to ban at least 38 international journalists and bloggers from the country for one year. The President’s decree, which was signed yesterday and published on the presidential website, names 388 people representing an “actual or potential threat to national interests, national security, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine.” The IFJ and the EFJ call on the Ukrainian government to remove the journalists’ names from this list. Poroshenko said the list targeted people involved in Russia’s 2014 annexation of…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), the Journalists Union of Turkey (TGS) and the Journalists Association of Turkey (TGC) will be jointly hosting the conference ‘Turkey: Fighting for journalists’ rights and freedoms in a politically polarized country’ in Istanbul 17/18 September 2015. This international conference is the culmination of five years campaigning on journalists’ rights, freedoms, working conditions and capacity building for the journalist trade union organisation whose strength is fundamental to the future protection and promotion of Turkish journalism. The political context in which the conference will be taking place could not be…

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), today joined Ukraine’s journalists in commemorating the 15th Anniversary of the murder of Ukraine investigative journalist Georgy Gongadze. On 16 September 2000, Georgy Gongadze’s body was left beheaded in the forest outside Kiev. He was killed as punishment for his exposures of government corruption and the case sparked worldwide condemnation and a global campaign for the prosecution of his killers. After years of investigations, four former officers of the SBU were eventually convicted of Gongadze’s murder, but the people responsible for ordering it remain free. “Today we…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), represented by its President, Mogens Blicher Bjerregård, will participate to a conference in Vienna on countering online abuse of female journalists held by the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Representative on Freedom of the Media in Vienna on 17 September. The conference will gather experts in the field to help increase understanding and gravity of the issues involved best practices and possible solutions to tackle the mounting number of online threats targeting female journalists. Among the EFJ members, they rarely received reports of harassment by journalists and the problem is not widely…

The European Federation of journalists (EFJ) and the Spanish Federation of Unions of Journalists (FeSP) denounce the American authorities for refusing the visa application of the Spanish journalist Manuel Martorell who works for the online information website cuartopoder.es. An official of the US consulate in Madrid first explained that the visa refusal was based on the homonymy between the journalist and an Ecuadorian national who is the subject of a legal proceeding in the United States. A few days later, the Vice-Consul, Ms. Julie P. Akey signed a letter stating that the visa refusal was due to Martorell’s “terrorist activities”…

Index on Censorship, the European Federation of Journalists and Reporters Without Borders are delighted to announce the expansion and redesign of Mapping Media Freedom, which records threats to journalists across Europe, and which will now also cover Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. First launched in May 2014, the map documents media freedom violations throughout the European Union and neighbouring countries including the Balkans and Turkey. More than 700 reports were logged on the map in its first year, lifting the lid on the everyday threats to media freedom that have previously gone largely unreported or undocumented. “Mapping Media Freedom has highlighted…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) and the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) have called for stronger rights for freelance workers and the need to enforce their fundamental rights to collective bargaining in national and European legislations. The call came after a workshop hosted by the NUJ on Collective bargaining for atypical workers in the audio-visual and live performance sector as part of a capacity building project organised by the EFJ, the International Federation of Actors (FIA), the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), the International Federation of Musicians (FIM) and UNI-MEl. Participants including unions leaders from the-above federations and legal…

According the NVJ (Dutch Journalists Association, EFJ-IFJ affiliate), Frederike Geerdink, a Dutch correspondent based in Diyarbakir (Turkey), has today (10/09/2015) been deported by the Turkish authorities to Amsterdam after being detained two days for reporting on a Kurdish group protesting clashes between the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants and the Turkish military. The Turkish authorities are accusing the Dutch reporter of “hindering a military operation and supporting a terrorist organisation”. Frederike Geerdink lived Turkey since 2006 and has been based in Diyarbakir since 2012 where she writes about Turkish and Kurdish matters for Dutch and international media as well as a critical…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) and the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) have today backed their affiliates, the Hungarian Press Union (HPU) and the Association of Hungarian Journalists (AHJ), which slammed a TV camerawoman who was filmed kicking refugees as they fled from police last Tuesday in Hungary. In a video footage widely shared in media reports on the attack which took place on 8 September, Petra Laszlo, who worked for N1TV, is seen kicking several refugees, including children, as they ran from a police lines during disturbances at Roszke, southern Hungary. The footage, which was filmed by another journalist…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) and the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) are jointly calling the Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu to immediately lift all the bans against news organisation, protect press freedom (including journalists’ work places) and release all journalists being detained. According to media reports, the Turkish Telecommunications Authority (TIB) has geographically blocked access to the website of Dicle News Agency (DIHA), dedicated to the coverage of the Kurdish issue. “This is the eleventh times that free access to the Dicle News Agency’s online version is being blocked based on a request coming from the Prime minister office. DIHA continue to…

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and its European organisation, the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), denounce the beating of a Serbian journalist on 27 august and support their affiliates in Serbia, the Association of Journalists of Serbia (UNS), the Journalists’ Union of Serbia (SINOS) and the Independent Association of Journalists of Serbia (NUNS) in their call for the attacks’ perpetrators to be tracked down and brought to justice. Investigative journalist Ivan Ninic, 27, was beaten on August 27 in front of his home as he was locking his car in the parking lot. Two young men attacked him brutally using metal…

Banning the promoters of online hate speech and preventing broadcast thereof are not simply acts of civic responsibility. For journalists, this is the fulfilment of a basic duty: giving readers, viewers and listeners real facts. This is why today the Italian organisation Associazione Carta di Roma, with the support of the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), Articolo 21, the National Federation of the Italian Press (FNSI), the Italian Order of Journalists and the Journalists’ Union RAI (USIGRai), has launched the #nohatespeech campaign.   OUR ONLINE PETITION ASKS: JOURNALISTS – Don’t be passive in front of hate speech cases. Since they are based on…

UPDATE (09/09/2015) : Dutch journalist likely to be deported from Turkey The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) calls on Turkish authorities to immediately release Dutch journalist Frederike Geerdink. She was arrested early Sunday, at around 2 am, near the city of Yüksekova (Hakkari province, southeastern Turkey), while covering an activists group of the People’s Democratic Party (HDP), a Kurdish opposition organisation. Geerdink was following a “human shield group” of 32 people when she was detained, with all the members of the group. The police told them they were in a restricted area. The arrest comes just a week after two journalists for Vice News,…

The President of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz has met with a delegation of creators’ organisations including the EFJ President, Mogens Blicher Bjerregård and presidents of the European Composer and Songwriter Alliance (ESCA), Euroepan Writers Council and the Federation of Europeam Film Directors (FERA) and the European Federation of Screenwriters (FSE) to discuss the upcoming Digital Single Market Strategy being prepared by the European Commission. The delegation highlighted the importance of strong authors’ rights protection in the current intellectual property rights debate, the role of creators in European economy and the need to foster cultural diversity. During the meeting, Blicher…

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) back their Ukrainian affiliates the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU) and the Independent Media Trade Union of Ukraine (IMTUU) in deploring the injury of five journalists following riots in front of the Parliament in Kiev, Ukraine’s capital, on August 31. Violent clashes took place in front of the Rada, Ukraine’s parliament, as deputies approved in first reading a bill amending the Ukrainian Constitution to grant greater autonomy to Russian-backed separatists in Eastern Ukraine. Fighting erupted between activists led by the populist Radical Party and the…