Regarding press freedom “we are certainly embarking in a new era in Slovenia. When the criminal police was asking me questions back in 2013, my case was the first where the Slovenian State decided to prosecute a journalist for publishing allegedly classified information. Today, there are three more cases in pre-trial procedures where four colleagues are now facing similar charges referring to the articles in the criminal code which prohibits the publication of classified information”, explains Anuška Delić (investigative & data journalist at the daily Delo) in an exclusive interview in Brussels with Ricardo Gutiérrez (EFJ General Secretary). In 2011, Anuška Delić wrote…

Update (21.08.2015) – The Azerbaijani state prosecutor is asking today nine-year jail term for investigative journalist Khadija Ismayilova, on trial in Baku. The European Federation of Journalists firmly condemns this outrageous request. She should be immediately released. The trial is due to continue on August 26. The verdict could come on that day. ——————— The international support to free Khadija Ismayilova, a jailed female Azerbaijani investigative journalist, is growing around Europe and is expected to be a top embarrassing issue for the EU and Azerbaijani authorities during the first European Games to be held in Baku (Azerbaijan) from 12 to 28 June 2015.…

In a meeting with Petra Kammerevert (MEP and SPD coordinator for media and cultural issues), Renate Schroeder (EFJ Director) and Michael Klehm (DJV senior advisor) discussed issues around media policy and media freedom, authors’ rights, spectrum policy, support for “entrepreneurial journalism”, TTIP, net neutrality and the revision of the audiovisual media framework. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) warned that unfair contracts, sometimes called “buy-out contracts”, destroy journalists’ authors’ rights. The EFJ delegation argued that the European Parliament’s “Reda report” on the harmonisation of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the information society is harming the continental authors’ rights framework, in particular when…

Günter Oettinger, EU Commissioner in charge of Digital Economy and Society, met delegates from the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) on Thursday (30/04/2015) about the plan for a reform of the EU copyright/authors’ rights legislation taking into account new technological developments.  Mogens Blicher Bjerregård (Danemark, EFJ President) took the floor to stress that “staff journalists, freelancers, press photographers, cartoonists, graphical editors and other media workers should clearly be considered as authors contributing contents for the online, audiovisual or print media industry. The EU creative industry is a big market with an annual turnover of 500 billion euros. In Denmark alone, between 4 and 5 million euros are collected…

The IFJ – EFJ has published a special edition newsletter on Turkey. The newsletter highlights key trends, tips and best practices about journalists in Turkey and the latest news about the international campaign on Set Journalism Free in Turkey. See the special edition HERE More information is available on our campaign page : http://europeanjournalists.org/campaigns/turkey-set-journalists-free/

A new documentary called Persona non grata*, directed by Tuluhan Tekelioğu and supported by the Platform for Independent Journalism (P24), puts the lights on the poor working conditions of journalists in Turkey. From the basic court reporter to the star columnists of mainstream newspapers, all journalists in the country are currently struggling between legal harassments, political pressures, increasing self-censorship, pressures to quit jobs for covering sensitive issues or pressures to avoid affiliation to a professional trade union movement. In this 41 minute documentary officially presented in Istanbul at the Swedish Consulate for World Press Freedom Day, Mustafa Kuleli (General Secretary of the…

en français / en español by Paco Audije (Spain, member of the Steering Committee of the EFJ) Today on World Press Freedom Day (#WPFD), the right to freedom of expression is again be celebrated as an inalienable European value across the continent — by the public, the media and politicians alike. But to many, this will mean little more than engaging in a well trodden mental routine. We hardly consider the difficulties that freedom of expression faces in practice. In the first part of 2015, more than a third of journalist killings in the word took place in two European…

Ahead of World Press Freedom Day (#WPFD), tomorrow, the European Federation of Journalists strongly calls for release of imprisoned journalists in Europe. With their affiliates in Turkey, Azerbaijan, Russia and Belarus, the EFJ and the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) are following closely the cases of 33 imprisoned journalists in Europe. All of them are in prison just for having done their job. Together with the Helsinki Commission, the EFJ call on again the authorities of Turkey, Azerbaijan and Russia to release those journalists who remain imprisoned. We will not forget them… Turkey (follow the IFJ/EFJ campaign “Set journalists free in Turkey”)…

“There can be no press freedom if journalists exist in conditions of corruption, poverty or fear”… The motto of the IFJ must be recalled on this Labour Day. A recent Swiss study proved that the deteriorating working conditions of journalists have a negative impact on press freedom and quality of journalism. The results suggest that economic pressure from advertisers and the media owners are jeopardising the editorial freedom of media. Press freedom is declining in Europe, as clearly indicated in the annual report of the Secretary General of the Council of Europe Thorbjørn Jagland, in the annual activity report of the Council of…

Bosnia-Herzegovina Journalists’ Association – BHN Address Krajla Trvrtka 5/V, 71000 Sarajevo Staff Marko Divković (President) Borka Rudic (General Secretary) Arman Fazlic (Coordinator) Phone +387 33 217 302 Email bhnovinari@bhnovinari.ba Contact Person Borka Rudic – borka.rudic@bhnovinari.ba Arman Fazlic – arman.fazlic@bhnovinari.ba Website Twitter  http://bhnovinari.ba @bhnovinari

On the occasion of the World Press Freedom Day (3 May 2015) and the two events which are going to be organised in Riga and Brussels, Access Info Europe together with the European Federations of Journalists (EFJ), and the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) have called on the four Special Rapporteurs on Freedom of Expression, Pansy Tlakula ( the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Right), Edison Lanza ( Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression of the Organisation of American States), Dunja Mijatović ( OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media) and David Kaye ( United Nations Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of…

Today (29/04/2015), police forces in Bulgaria entered to the building of private television channel TV7 in order to impound the television’s property and get off the TV equipment preventing it from broadcasting. Bulgarian citizens were alerted by the increasing number of police forces out of the building. According to the EFJ affiliate in Bulgaria, SBJ or the Union of Bulgarian Journalists, TV staff and journalists are resisting and refused to allow the police to enter the TV headquarter without seeing any judicial order. They have also requested to talk with Kristina Dimitrova, the head of the Bulgarian police called Bailiff. According to the SBJ, this police action is a blatant violation of press…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) today condemned the Luxembourg authorities for accusing the French journalist, Édouard Perrin, of disclosing confidential information of the accounting firm PricewaterhouseCooper (PwC) about custom made tax deals for multinational corporations known as LuxLeaks. According to the indictment issued by the investigating judge, on 23 April, Perrin was charged for being a “co-author, if not an accomplice, in infractions committed by one of PwC’s former employees”. Ricardo Gutierrez, the EFJ General Secretary said, “It is shameful that the Luxembourg authorities are going after a journalist who has acted entirely in the public interest to publish the information. The authorities…

“The annual Progress Reports produced by the European Commission does not say much about the situation of press freedom and freedom of expression in the candidate countries. Therefore, I call the Commission to better focus on those topics as we need a deeper analysis and development on those important topics, specially regarding the situation in Turkey”, said Guy Verhofstadt, member of the European Parliament and leader of the Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe of (ALDE) , during a seminar on Press Freedom in Turkey co-organized on 22/04/2015 by ALDE and the Greens. The liberal MEP’s call to…

Vienna: After the first bargaining round for a collective agreement in the daily and weekly newspaper sector, its supplements and editorial digital services for employed journalists, technical workers and freelances, there has not been any consensus with the Austrian Publishers Association (VÖZ). The chairman of the GPA-djp Franz C. Bauer said: There is a shadow over the positive agreement we negotiated last year with the employers. We had agreed that for the next bargaining round we would focus on freelances – our demand for a adequate rise of the fee per line was however refused by the employers.“ The next…

The EFJ affiliate, the Belarus Association of Journalists (BAJ) elected a new chairman at its  IX Congress on 24 April. The out-going chair woman, Zhanna Litvina, had been serving the BAJ for almost 20 years announced the candidate for the chairmanship Andrei Bastunets. Litvina, had headed the organisation since it was founded in 1995. Litvina called Bastunets “conscience of the organisation, a person you can always rely on”. Bastunets, 48, a former deputy head, was elected chairman of BAJ, an organisation with 1,300 members. Andrus Klikunou , who is a member of the EFJ Freelance expert Group, was elected for…