A new poll released on Monday (24 April) by the Committee for Editorial Independence and Reporters Without Borders Austria highlights the  increasing concern of the population over the freedom of the press in the V4 countries (Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia). The research was led by Dr Václav Stetka, and gathered answers of over 4,000 people, collected by online questioning or by telephone. The project was commissioned by the Committee for Editorial Independence with the support of the Bakala Foundation, after the assessment that the audience perspective had been largely missing from the debates. It was carried out by the research agency MEDIAN for the…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) joined the partner organisations of the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) today in expressing dismay over the recent court ruling involving a SLAPP lawsuit against independent Greek media outlet Alterthess and one of its journalists, Stavroula Poulimeni. Using the MFRR Legal Support fund, our consortium will help provide funding to cover legal fees for their appeal. In early 2023, a court in Athens partially accepted the civil lawsuit filed by the former high-ranking executive of a gold mining company, Hellas Gold, and ordered the cooperative media outlet to pay a total of €3,000 in…

A new draft law presented by Austrian Media Minister Susanne Raab (ÖVP), introduced in Parliament on 30 March 2023, would permanently stop the printing of the world’s oldest daily newspaper, the Wiener Zeitung. The government’s plans to stop funding the state-owned newspaper as a printed daily is seen as a blow to media pluralism and quality information in Austria. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) joined its affiliates the Austrian Press Union (GPA) in calling on Members of Parliament to reject the bill that is to be voted on next week. The draft law “on the promotion of quality journalism” provides for…

To mark World Press Freedom Day, the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) organises a conference at Bozar on 2-3 May 2023, as part of its Safety4Journalists project. The 1.5 days final conference will highlight the good practices of safety in the media from unions, media employers, policy-makers and international experts. Experts will discuss the EFJ risk assessment tools to be launched on the day with a focus on what can be done by media managers, employers, journalist unions and associations, and national and international authorities to create a culture of health and safety at work in the media. Please find the…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) joined the partners of the Media Freedom Rapid Response and 20 press freedom, freedom of expression and human rights organisations in calling on Turkey’s broadcast regulator (RTÜK) to immediately stop fining broadcasters for their critical reporting. Journalists and broadcasters must be allowed to do their jobs of informing the public over critical issues and holding the government to account. Instead of upholding freedom of expression and media pluralism in the country, RTÜK is being weaponised by the governing parties to silence legitimate criticism and provide them with an unfair advantage in the May 2023…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) and its affiliate in Kosovo, AGK, strongly condemn the violent attack on journalist Valon Syla in Pristina on Tuesday evening. The EFJ calls on the Kosovo authorities to condemn publicly this act of violence and to do their utmost to identify the perpetrators and their sponsors and to prosecute them. Kosovar journalist Valon Syla was attacked last night by three unknown men in the Bregu i Diellit area of Pristina. Syla was attacked a few minutes after leaving the studio of a broadcast, where he was invited to discuss the trial of former UÇK leaders…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) will hold its annual meeting in The Hague, Netherlands. Around 100 journalists and trade union representatives from 45 countries in Europe are expected to meet on 11-12 May 2023. The Hague was chosen as the host city of the upcoming congress of the EFJ, representing 320,000 journalists in Europe. Co-organised by the Dutch journalists’ union Nederlandse Vereniging van Journalisten (NVJ), the assembly will be held in Beeld en Geluid, the Sound & Vision Museum. “With its reputation as the home of international law and arbitration, The Hague is an appropriate venue to convene in times of…

The existence of vibrant and independent local media that serves the public interest of its local communities is a cornerstone of our democratic societies. They are the key to empowering citizens to grasp and exercise their rights in the communities where they live. However, the very existence of these media has become uncertain across different parts of the European Union. We spoke to people researching this phenomenon in Turkey, Portugal and Croatia. They spoke to us about the news deserts emerging in their countries, a term developed by US scholars and policymakers to explain the crisis of traditional news media…

To mark the 24th anniversary of the murder of Serbian editor and publisher Slavko Ćuruvija, the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and international press freedom organisations are today visiting Belgrade to renew our calls for justice and issue fresh warnings about the current climate for the safety of journalists. The mission to Belgrade comes 24 years after Ćuruvija was shot dead in cold blood outside his apartment on 11 April 1999, and a matter of weeks after the final hearings began in the retrial of four state security officials accused of planning and executing…

Two years ago today, veteran Greek crime reporter Giorgos Karaivaz was assassinated in Athens. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) joins the undersigned partners in the Council of Europe’s Platform to promote the protection of journalism and safety of journalists in honouring his memory. To mark the anniversary, we also renew our call on the Greek authorities to urgently bring to justice all those responsible for this abhorrent murder and to provide more transparency about the investigation. It is wholly unacceptable and deeply saddening that the case must now be categorised as an instance of impunity for murder, considering there has been no significant…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) joined the partners of the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) today in denouncing the arson attack on the family car of Italian freelance journalist Rossella Puccio in the city of Palermo and expressing solidarity with the reporter. The targeted attack happened during the night of April 3, while the journalist’s family car was parked in a public area in the Sferracavallo district of the city. Footage captured by a nearby CCTV camera showed a man approach the vehicle, pour liquid from a bottle over the car and light it on fire. The car was…

We partner organisations of the Council of Europe’s Safety of Journalists Platform, a Europe-wide system of public alerts to flag and remedy serious threats to media freedom, call on the Russian authorities to release journalist Evan Gershkovich immediately and to drop all charges against him. Evan Gershkovich, a US national, was engaged in legitimate journalistic activities for The Wall Street Journal when he was arrested on 30 March in Yekaterinburg. Gershkovich has reported from Russia for many years and has repeatedly received official accreditation from the Russian Foreign Ministry. He was detained by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) and accused…

“I noticed unusual noises when I used my car on Friday morning. After a check at the garage, I found out that my wheels had been sabotaged again, almost two years after the first time”. Morgan Large is a journalist for the Breton radio station Radio Kreiz Breizh (RKB). During the night of 23 and 24 March, her car was damaged in what is likely to be an act of intimidation.  Last week, the journalist was running personal errands when noises from her vehicles alerted her. After a few hundred metres, she decided to call her garage. A few checks…

Presscouncils.eu will hold a EU Master Class on Digital Journalism focusing on digital ethics and digital empowerment of young journalists and students of the profession. The curriculum includes training on digital security, data journalism, AI in journalism and ethical standards in online news. These sessions will be led by international experts who will guide the participants to analyse the ethical standards of journalistic materials from the view of press councils. This will allow participants to discover how press councils work and the critical questions upon which the councils’ work is based. The call for applications is open from today via this…

One year ago, as Russian forces retreated from the outskirts of Kyiv in the first days of April, the world was shocked by the emerging images and testimonies of the atrocities suffered by the local civilian population during the month-long occupation of the region. In a few days, Bucha, the largest town in Kyiv’s immediate northwestern suburbs, became an international symbol of the war crimes committed as part of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Among the hundreds of civilian victims, Ukrainian journalists Roman Nezhyborets and Zoreslav Zamoysky were found dead, killed in conditions likely never to be fully determined. While the world discovered the…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) is a partner of the ReMeD project on Resilient Media for Democracy in the Digital Age which was kicked off on 31 March 2023 in Pamplona, Spain. Funded by Horizon Europe and coordinated by the University of Navarra, in partnership with six European universities, ReMeD aims to address the current challenges to a healthy relationship between the media and democracy. In particular, the project will produce policy recommendations to guide European digital media legislation, including the Digital Services Act, the Digital Markets Act, and the upcoming Media Freedom Act. With an interdisciplinary approach and…