The Ankara 22nd Heavy Penal Court handed travel bans to Faruk Eren, President of the DİSK Basın-İş Union, and editor of the Gerçek Gündem news portal Furkan Karabay on 7 September 2023. The European and International Federations of Journalists (IFJ/EFJ) join their affiliate the Turkish Press and Printing Employees Union (DİSK BASIN-İŞ) in condemning these actions against journalists that infringe their rights and damage media freedom. Constitutional Court member Judge İrfan Fidan filed a complaint against the two journalists regarding an article published in the Gerçek Gündem news portal. The article reflected on the many controversies surrounding the 2021 appointment of Fidan…

Journalists and media outlets are adapting their practices to integrate more and more automated processes into their workflows. As the challenge posed by Artificial Intelligence (AI) on journalism is immense, the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) joined the international committee to develop a charter aimed at regulating the use of AI in media, an initiative launched by Reporters without Borders (RSF). First results are expected before the end of the year 2023. “We certainly share the same urgency of the journalists, organisations, academics and other media stakeholders to react to the opportunities and risks posed by AI technologies. While algorithms…

On September 4, Aleksandr Lukashenko‘s regime ordered the country’s embassies to stop issuing passports to citizens living abroad. A measure that will directly impact Belarusian journalists in exile and citizens who fled repression. The European and the International Federations of Journalists (IFJ-EFJ) join its affiliate, the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ), in condemning the latest repressive action by the regime to crush free speech and political opposition. The Federations amplify their calls to immediately release the 33 imprisoned journalists in the country. Belarusian citizens who fled the country, including journalists and media workers in exile, are facing increased restrictions by…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) joined the undersigned journalists, press freedom organisations, and unions, in denouncing the war crimes committed by the Russian Federation against journalists in Ukraine and calling for immediate action to hold the perpetrators accountable. Deliberately targeting journalists, shelling their facilities, and engaging in arbitrary detentions and torture clearly violate international humanitarian law and press freedom. We urge authorities to take decisive steps to address these grave violations and provide increased support for front-line reporters.  We are alarmed at the continued targeting of media workers in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The recent missile attack in Pokrovsk is…

Members of the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) Steering Committee sent messages of solidarity to their colleague and friend Larysa Shchyrakova, sentenced on 31 August to 3,5 years in jail in Belarus.  “Imprisonment, torture, police brutality… those are the methods of a frightened dictator who is afraid of these brave women and men journalists who do their job and fight for the truth. To all the journalists in Belarus – we will not forsake you and we will fight for your right to work and live in freedom,” said EFJ President Maja Sever in reaction to the imprisonment of Shchyrakova,…

Partner organisations of the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) will travel to Warsaw on 11-13 September 2023 to conduct an international press freedom mission ahead of the country’s upcoming general election on 15 October. The MFRR mission will be joined by representatives of the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF), the International Press Institute (IPI), ARTICLE 19 Europe, the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) and Free Press Unlimited (FPU). Mogens Blicher Bjerregård will join the mission on behalf of the EFJ. The delegation will assess the current state of play for media freedom and pluralism and identify the…

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…