The Polish opposition party Civil Platform (Platforma Obywatelska, PO) used deepfake techniques in a video imitating the voice of Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki. Shared on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) on the 24th of August, the video shows a highly controversial use of the artificial intelligence segment called generative AI. With the election campaign in full swing, the PO and its leader Donald Tusk have entered a new stage of political battles: they have used AI software to mimic the Prime Minister’s voice “reading” texts he had written. Even if the sentences were Morawiecki’s, they were taken out…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) joined the undersigned journalists’ and media freedom organisations in strongly condemning the recent attacks against Greek journalists Giorgos Papachristos and Kostas Vaxevanis and call on the authorities to swiftly investigate the attacks and ensure that those responsible are held accountable. On 29 August, Giorgos Papachristos, an editorialist and adviser at the centrist daily Ta Nea, was attacked at a football match in Athens. According to the case filed by the journalist, businessman and ship owner Yiannis Karagiorgis, backed by two bodyguards, punched him in the face and head in an unprovoked attack. Karagiorgis also…

The Coalition Against SLAPPs in Europe (CASE) published the 2023 report of SLAPP cases, which the coalition monitors on a rolling basis. This second edition comprises 200+ abusive lawsuits filed after the first reporting period and a broader regional scope than in the first edition. The report scopes the situation in 35 countries, which includes increasingly troubling countries such as Georgia and Greece.  Since 2019, the CASE has worked with Amsterdam Law Clinics to catalogue and analyse SLAPP cases across Europe. In March 2022, CASE published research findings based on the analysis of over 500 SLAPP cases identified in 29…

Dissident journalists Elena Kostyuchenko, a former reporter for the investigative newspaper Novaya Gazeta, and Irina Babloyan, previously a journalist for the broadcaster Ekho Moskvy, believe they were poisoned in Germany and Georgia respectively in October 2022. The European and the International Federations of Journalists (EFJ-IFJ) call on the competent authorities to thoroughly investigate these disturbing allegations and bring the perpetrators to justice. The Federations urged governments to protect Russian journalists in exile. German authorities are investigating a possible poisoning on Russian journalist Elena Kostyuchenko in October 2022, the Berlin prosecutor has confirmed, according to The Guardian. The alleged attack could have…

AI-generated disinformation is a growing concern, especially in an age of general mistrust in the news. Disinformation continues to spread on social media platforms and raises various problems: the influence of malicious actors such as bots; creation of memes, videos or other visual content with the intention of changing opinions; generation of incorrect text that appears convincing, and more. Young people are generally enthusiastic about using Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a UN report found a high level of trust in AI and a positive attitude. However, most do not deeply understand how it works. At the same time, German magazine…

Solo self-employed journalists now have the possibility to be included in collective bargaining by their unions. But what does this mean in practice? Almost a year since the implementation of the European Commission guidelines on collective bargaining for the solo self-employed, we take a look at how they have benefitted, or not, our members in the EFJ Freelance Expert Group (FREG). The EFJ has welcomed the Guidelines as an important step towards strengthened collective bargaining and has recognised its counteracting force to rebalance power relations in the labour market. Nonetheless, these are Guidelines and while they may have an authoritative…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) is calling on the US government funded media organization Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) to commission an independent inquiry into the management of its Azerbaijan service Azadliq Radiosu, which is facing a worrying wave of dismissals and resignations. Over the past two years, four journalists have been fired and three others have resigned at Azadliq Radiosu, the Azerbaijani service of RFE/RL. The journalists concerned denounce threats and harassment by the radio’s editor-in-chief and management. On 9 August, five former journalists (Islam Shikhali, Ravan Seyfulla, Orkhan Rustamzadeh, Arzu Aliyeva and Ramin Deko) issued a joint statement about what they describe…

The CASE coalition, of which the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) is a member, took part in public consultations to comment on the Council of Europe’sDraft Recommendation to counter SLAPPs. The EFJ joins CASE in strongly supporting the approval of the text by the Committee of Ministers and will continue supporting CoE’s efforts to curb SLAPPs and to see the draft implemented by its member states. Through CASE comments, we want to bring attention to sections in the text that we strongly believe should be kept and that, if removed or weakened, can greatly affect the effectiveness of the Draft…

In Belarus, since the fraudulent presidential election of 9 August 2020, journalists have faced hundreds of arrests and detentions. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) joins its Belarusian affiliate, the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ), in condemning the indiscriminate repression by the regime of dictator Alexander Lukashenko. The EFJ and BAJ demand the immediate release of the 35 journalists and media workers currently imprisoned in Belarus. The EFJ joins IFEX in supporting BAJ ongoing Solidarity Marathon on behalf of imprisoned journalists. 9 August 2023 is the third anniversary of the most recent presidential election in the Republic of Belarus. Three years ago, manipulated elections kept “Europe’s…

The European and International Federations of Journalists (EFJ-IFJ) and the undersigned media freedom, freedom of expression, human rights, and journalists’ organisations strongly condemn the latest incident of judicial harassment against journalist Barış Pehlivan and reiterate calls to the Turkish authorities to respect media freedom. On August 2, journalist Barış Pehlivan was informed via an SMS from the Ministry of Justice that he was expected to turn himself over to the Marmara Low Security Correctional Institution (formerly Silivri) between August 1-15, 2023. Pehlivan has already been incarcerated four times due to his journalism, two of those being one day behind bars…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) has joined its affiliates in Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia, and four civil society organisations (ECPMF, CPJ, FPU, OBCT) in writing to the Kosovo authorities to express concern about the case of journalist Svetlana Vukmirovic, who has been denied entry to Kosovo in order to carry out her work on multiple occasions since 2018. The latest case occurred on 1st May, when Vukmirovic – while working for public broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia – was again banned from entering the territory of Kosovo with the explanation that she is considered…

On 7 August, Russian missile strikes damaged a hotel, which is popular among journalists covering the war, in the city of Pokrovsk in the eastern Donetsk region, in Ukraine. It is the second time in recent weeks that facilities used by media workers have been hit by Russian fire in Ukrainian cities. The International and European Federations of Journalists (IFJ-EFJ) condemn the attack in the strongest terms and remind the Russian authorities that journalists and media workers operating in areas of armed conflict must be treated and protected as civilians and allowed to perform their work without interference. Russian strikes…

The Turkish offices of the Russian news agency Sputnik, in Istanbul and Ankara, have just dismissed 24 unionized journalists who had decided to strike to obtain better working conditions. The strike was declared following the failure of negotiations on a new collective labor agreement, announced on Monday the Trade Union of Journalists of Turkey, TGS, affiliated to the European and International Federations of Journalists (EFJ-IFJ). “Sputnik is firing our members instead of respecting their trade union rights and responding to their legitimate demands,” said TGS President Gökhan Durmuş. “The agency even went so far as to dismiss a union delegate,…

Malta is the country with the highest number of Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation (SLAPPs) per capita in the European Union. Troubling statistics combined with the ongoing quest for full justice for Daphne Caruana Galizia should prompt Malta to demonstrate a special commitment to enacting comprehensive legislation to protect public watchdogs from abusive lawsuits and set an example for other countries. Article 19 Europe, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF), the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) and Reporters without Borders (RSF) have commented on the updated proposals relating to SLAPPs made…

The European Commission has just confirmed the state of political dependence of Italian public television RAI. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), together with the RAI journalists’ union Usigrai and the Italian Journalists’ Federation (FNSI), is demanding immediate legislative reform to finally guarantee RAI’s independence. The recent scandals surrounding political appointments to the management of Italian public television and the government censorship that led to the deprogramming of journalist Roberto Saviano‘s anti-Mafia programme highlight the urgent need to amend the law in order to guarantee the total independence of the RAI and its governing bodies. This time, the European Commission…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), its affiliate AGK in Kosovo, and the undersigned international media freedom organisations today welcome the court injunction staying the revocation of the business licence Klan Kosova, an important legal ruling which blocks an effort by the government to shut down the country’s largest private television channel. On 2 August 2023, judges at the Commercial Court in Pristina ruled against the decision of the Ministry of Industry, Entrepreneurship and Trade to suspend the business certificate of the TV channel, which could have led to the withdrawal of its broadcast licence and an end to its…