Updates on some of the biggest developments and threats to media freedom and pluralism across European Union Member States throughout 2023 were submitted to the EU Commission’s annual Rule of Law Report by partner organisations of the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR). On 15 January 2024, MFRR consortium partners Free Press Unlimited (FPU), International Press Institute (IPI) and the Osservatorio Balcani Caucaso Transeuropa (OBCT) filed detailed submissions to the report on the topic of media freedom and pluralism in Hungary, Greece, Italy, Netherlands and the Czech Republic. The joint and individual submissions provide information of major developments in the media…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) expresses its anger at the unacceptable comments made towards awarded journalist Dora Kršul and the media outlet Telegram.hr by the Minister of Culture and Media of Croatia. We demand an immediate apologies and a retraction. “Malicious fake news”: those were the words used by Minister Nina Obuljen Korzinek in interviews, to talk about articles published by Telegram.hr and written by Dora Kršul. Discredit, an overused technique, is particularly worrying for the state of press freedom in a country when it comes from the Minister responsible for the media. The journalist, on 15 January, published a follow-up…

The Croatian Parliament began on 18 January 2024 reviewing amendments to the criminal code tabled by the government to criminalise the unauthorised leaking of documents from criminal proceedings. The text provides for up to three years’ imprisonment for anyone disclosing the contents of “an investigative or evidentiary document”. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) joined its affiliate, the Croatian Journalists’ Association (CJA), in calling for the proposed legislation to be dropped, as it would have alarming repercussions for journalistic sources and the right to information. While a paragraph has been added to exempt journalists from criminal liability, the proposed amendments…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) joined the undersigned international freedom of expression and media freedom organisations today in renewing our condemnation of a groundless defamation lawsuit filed against Greek journalists and media by Grigoris Dimitriadis, the nephew of the Prime Minister, and urge the plaintiff to urgently withdraw the lawsuit ahead of an upcoming hearing. With the first hearing due at an Athens court of First Instance on 25 January, 2024 after a year-and-a-half delay, our organisations restate our shared characterisation of this lawsuit as a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation (SLAPP) – a vexatious effort to muzzle investigative…

Come to the Voices Festival as an awardee! The Voices Awards are organised within the Voices Festival, a brand-new itinerant event co-funded by the European Commission to celebrate Journalism and Media Literacy in Europe. It will recognize the works of journalists that best convey the values and goals of the Voices Festival, which will take place in Florence on 15-16 March 2024. The award winners will receive a monetary award of €1.000 each and will have a dedicated space to present their work to the Festival community. Journalists can apply to one of the five categories: 1. Up-and-coming: innovative and…

Ukrainian investigative journalist Yurii Nikolov said on Monday that he received a visit from unidentified people threatening him. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) and its affiliates in Ukraine, NUJU and IMTUU, call on the Ukrainian authorities to identify the perpetrators of the threats and ensure the protection of the journalist. Nikolov is a co-founder and an editor of the Nashi Groshi investigative media project. He is well known for his investigations exposing corruption in Ukraine’s public procurement, including the Defense Ministry. Nikolov’s investigations into inflated prices for food supplies and low-quality winter jackets for the military prompted the ousting…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) joins the undersigned partner organisations of the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) today renew their call for democratic and comprehensive reform to Poland’s public broadcasters which creates systematic safeguards to limit the ability of all governments, future and present, to meddle in editorial or institutional independence of the country’s public media. The MFRR coalition also reaffirms the set of recommendations for steps that can be taken by the new coalition government to improve the wider situation for media freedom and independent journalism in Poland. These recommendations were jointly developed following a recent mission of…

On the evening of 10 January, a Russian missile attack damaged the Park Hotel in Kharkiv, injuring Anadolu’s reporter Davit Kachkachishvili, photojournalist Özge Elif Kızıl, and Ukrainian fixer Violetta-Anastasia Pedorych. The European and International Federations of Journalists (EFJ-IFJ) strongly condemn the attack and demand that journalists should be treated and protected as civilians. Anadolu reporter Davit Kachkachishvili and photojournalist Özge Elif Kızıl, who were on duty at the Park Hotel at the time of the attack, were able to leave the hotel with minor injuries, Anadolureports. A hotel where Anadolu reporters covering war in Ukraine are staying targeted by missiles…

Global Media Group (GMG), one of the largest media organisations in Portugal, is facing severe managerial difficulties impacting the future of the company and damaging labours’ rights. Job security and media pluralism are at stake, warns the Portuguese Union of Journalists (SinJor).  In September 2023, a new board took over the direction of GMG, which owns Diário de Notícias, Jornal de Notícias and TSF. The group is now backed by an investment fund owned by French businessman Clément Ducasse: World Opportunity Fund Ltd (WOF). Listed in the tax-haven Bahamas (Caribbean), it is registered by the Bahamas International Securities Exchange as…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) today joined media freedom partners in the SafeJournalist Network, the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) and Reporters Without Borders (RSF) in writing to the head of the Special Prosecution against Corruption and Organized Crime (SPAK). We expressed our concerns over the recent actions SPAK has taken to seize journalist Elton Qyno’s equipment and to pressure him to reveal his sources. The letter urges the SPAK to proceed in the legal case with  respect for international standards regarding the protection of journalistic sources.   Mr. Altin Dumani Head of the Special Prosecution against Corruption and…

Russia launched two massive attacks in Ukraine between 29 December 2023 and 2 January 2024, which injured three journalists and damaged four newsrooms. The International and European Federation of Journalists (IFJ-EFJ) condemned the attacks in the strongest terms and expressed solidarity with the media workers targeted. On 30 December 2023, two employees working for the German TV channel ZDF were injured by the shelling of the Kharkiv Palace Hotel which was mostly occupied by media workers at that moment. As a result, a security guard of foreign nationality who was working as a security advisor to ZDF, had to undergo…

On 27 and 29 December 2023, multiple journalists were detained by police in Moscow. Some of them were awaiting a verdict in the case of a group of activists accused for statements critical of the war in Ukraine. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) and its Russian affiliate, the Journalists’ and Media Workers’ Union (JMWU), are demanding the immediate release of these journalists, who were only doing their job. The police arrested journalist Mikhail Lebedev on 27 December near the Prosecutor General’s Office in Moscow, while he was filming a solidarity picket of activist Oksana Osadcha, who was calling for…

This article first featured on the Swedish Journalist union website Some 50 freelance writers at Svenska Dagbladet (SvD) have long been in negotiations with management about their fees. A demonstration supported by the Swedish Union of Journalists was held on Friday 8 December outside SvD in Stockholm following the break-down of negotiations, which had started in the spring of 2023. No significant increase in 20 years In addition to a symbolic adjustment in the spring, SvD’s freelancers emphasised in the negotiations that they have not received a significant increase in over twenty years and that they therefore earn less than…

Furkan Karabay, editor for the independent news website Gerçek Gündem (“The Real Agenda”),  was taken into custody by the Istanbul police on 28 December 2023, following an article on the trial of judiciary members. The European and International Federations of Journalists (EFJ-IFJ) demand his immediate release and urge the authorities to withdraw all charges against him.  Karabay was taken to the Çağlayan Courthouse (Istanbul), by police officers who arrested him in the early hours of 28 December. After spending the night at the police station, the editor was released pending trial.  His detention follows a story published on 27 December,…

108 journalists spent New Year’s Eve in prison, according to a count by organisations affiliated to the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) and the Council of Europe’s Platform for the Protection of Journalism. While the overall number of journalists detained in Europe has fallen slightly compared to last year (108 instead of 124), repression has increased considerably in certain countries, such as Azerbaijan, where the number of journalists detained has almost quadrupled, as well as in Russia, which this year has become the country that imprisons the most journalists in Europe (40 in total, in Russia and occupied Ukraine). The…

120 journalists and media workers, including 11 women, have been killed in 2023, announced the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) on 31 December. Four of them lost their lives in Europe: three in Ukraine and one in Albania. The IFJ, which published an initial list of journalists killed ahead of UN Human Rights Day on 8 December documenting 94 killings, says the latest increase is the result of additional deaths in the Gaza war as well as other killings being made known to the federation. “Today our thoughts go out to journalists’ families and our colleagues in world newsrooms who…