The European and International Federations of Journalists (EFJ-IFJ) join Council of Europe Platform on Safety of Journalists partners to express concerns over crisis within Kosovo’s Public Broadcaster RTK. The partner organisations urge the board of RTK to ensure that the public broadcaster continues to serve the public and not political interests. We sent the following letter to the board of RTK: Dear Chair of the RTK Board, Mr. Besnik Boletini, Dear members of the RTK Board, We are writing to you on behalf of the partners of the Council of Europe Platform to Promote the Protection of Journalism and Safety…

Around 80 local journalists, journalists’ organisations, media researchers and experts from 19 EU countries gathered during the two-day Local Journalism Festival in Brno organised by the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) and Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic.  Opening the Festival, EFJ President Maja Sever stressed that “the beginning and end of good journalism that serves the public interest is strong and independent local journalism, and that connection with citizens and the community is the essence of our work.” “Local journalism is the backbone of independent journalism. Without it, we cannot safeguard our democracy. Journalists, their unions and associations, civil…

Russian journalist Artem Kriger, who works for independent media SOTAvision, was arrested on 18 June and placed in pre-trial detention, on charges of allegedly helping late opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK), labelled as “extremist”. The International and the European Federations of Journalists (IFJ-EFJ) condemn the repeated detention of critical journalists on similar charges and call on the Russian authorities to immediately and unconditionally release Artem Kriger and all journalists imprisoned in the country.   On 18 June, the Moscow Basmanny Court held a closed trial and placed Kriger in pre-trial detention until 18 August. The journalist challenged the decision…

On 18 June 2024, a journalist working for the French independent news portal Blast was arbitrarily arrested by the police and detained for refusing to hand over her sources. She was released after thirty-two hours of detention. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) joins its French affiliates the SNJ, SNJ-CGT and CFDT-Journalistes in denouncing this blatant violation of the confidentiality of journalistic sources and arbitrary detention.  On 18 June 2024, protestors gathered outside of the headquarters of the company Exxelia, which is at the heart of a judicial investigation by the Paris court for complicity in war crimes, following a…

Two Russian journalists have been killed in separate incidents in Russia’s occupied Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine. Journalist of News.ru, Nikita Tsitsagi, died on 16 June, in a drone attack amidst ongoing battles. Earlier, Valery Kozhin, a cameraman of Russian state-controlled media NTV, also died after a shelling attack near Horlivka, on 13 June. The International and European Federation of Journalists (IFJ-EFJ) strongly condemn these killings and urge the authorities to conduct a swift investigation into the deaths of the journalists. According to a report from News.ru, Tsitsagi lost his life while reporting in the town of Vugledar, which was…

Mensagem de Lisboa is a community-focused media outlet based in the Chiado district in Lisbon, Portugal. Their mission is to disclose the small and human-interest stories in a big metropolis like Lisbon, an objective in line with the opportunity offered by the Local Media for Democracy (LM4D) funding scheme. “There are only a few projects that allow you to do what this project does: to work at the purely local level,” said Catarina Cavalho, editor and co-founder of Mensagem de Lisboa. “Community media is especially needed in these times of greater polarisation and distancing between communities.” They partnered with trusted…

The undersigned journalists and media freedom organisations condemn the legal actions filed by Judge Dušanka Đorđević and her husband against Crime and Corruption Reporting Network (KRIK), its editor-in-chief Stevan Dojčinović, and journalist Bojana Pavlović. The Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) coalition considers those legal actions as Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs), aiming at silencing KRIK for its investigative work. The SLAPPs are vexatious legal actions that are pursued as a means of harassing or intimidating journalists, media outlets, and other public watchdogs.  The lawsuits followed KRIK’s publication of Judge Dušanka Đorđević and her husband’s profile on the “Judge Who Judges”…

The European Media Freedom Act (EMFA) entered into force on 7 May 2024. The new rules will fully apply at national level in each EU member state as of 8 August 2025. It has been said this is a historic act as the European Media Freedom Act, called “EMFA”  is the first European regulation dealing with all media. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), together with other media freedom groups, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and civil society organisations, has worked hard for over two years to get an ambitious act. A future-proof act against the growing attacks against journalism,…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) joins the undersigned organizations in welcoming the recent study on the actions taken by Member States to implement the European Commission’s Recommendation on the protection and safety of journalists. However, our coalition finds that the report lacks a critical assessment of on-the-ground realities that reduce the effectiveness of initiatives that otherwise look good on paper. We stress therefore the need for more effective measures, and a deeper engagement with journalists and media freedom organizations, to build structures that can genuinely safeguard journalist safety in Europe. The Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) coalition reviewed the recently published…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) joined the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) partners in condemning the barring of journalists from reporting within the Parliament of Georgia. We urge the Parliament to reinstate the accreditation of all journalists including online media. Since the start of the debate on the foreign agent bill titled “Law on Transparency of Foreign Influence in Georgia,” journalists from online outlets have been barred from the Parliament. On 27 May 2024, Speaker of the Parliament Shalva Papuashvili signed a decree on “enhancing security levels,” indefinitely barring online media journalists and visitors from attending parliamentary sessions. Since…

TuŁódź is an independent Polish news portal that reports on local and community media in central Poland city Łódź and the surrounding area, among which is Piątek. No independent news existed in this area so TuŁódź decided to start writing about this commune as part of the Local Media for Democracy (LM4D) project. TuŁódź is a traditional newsroom that covers a wide range of local and community news topics. With only 2,000 inhabitants, Piątek is normally a news desert. TuŁódź felt that this project was important to the local community as the people who live there have no information on…

The highly-anticipated second edition of Voices will be hosted at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb on 28 February-1 March 2025. “New technologies are dramatically reshaping opinion-making dynamics and the media landscape. After the success of the first edition in Florence, the next edition of Voices will continue to raise awareness about the current risks to ethical journalism, media pluralism, and European democracy,” said Giovanni Melogli, the project coordinator. Reflecting on the value of incorporating media literacy into the event, he added, “It is crucial for citizens to become more critical users of media and social media. Voices aims…

Critics warn: proposed law could seriously undermine the independence of  public media Journalists and media freedom groups are urging Slovakia’s MPs to reject the proposed public service broadcasting bill scheduled for parliamentary review next week. Despite recent amendments to the bill, the new structure would lead to the politicization of the broadcaster in breach of the European Media Freedom Act. The public broadcasting bill aiming to replace Radio and Television of Slovakia (RTVS) with a new entity, Slovak Television and Radio (STVR), will be discussed by the Parliament next week after its finalization by the government in May.  If passed…

On 5 June, the Kofi Annan Foundation (KAF), the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) and Reporters without Borders (RSF) organised a roundtable discussion at the Brussels Press Club on the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA), which came into force on 7 May. Opening remarks were provided by Corinne Momal-Vanian, Executive Director of KAF, Renate Schroeder, Director of EFJ, and Antoine Bernard, Director of Advocacy at RSF, followed by a keynote speech from Vice-President of the European Commission, Vera Jourova. Sébastien Brack, KAF’s representative in Brussels, moderated a panel discussion with Renate Nikolay, Deputy Director-General of DG Connect, Frederic Bokobza, Deputy…

The Supreme Court’s council decided on 10 April 2024, overturning the previous verdicts of the lower courts, which had determined that the Croatian Radiotelevision’s (HRT) 2018 decision to summarily terminate the employment contract of Hrvoje Zovko, the president of the Croatian Journalists’ Association (CJA) and then executive editor of HTV4, was unlawful and the termination unjustified. The Supreme Court concluded that the verbal altercation between Zovko and Katarina Periša Čakarun, the senior editor of HRT’s Informative Media Service, constituted “an attack on the employer, insults, and an assault on the honor and reputation of the employer,” and thus represented a…

The International and European Federation of Journalists (IFJ-EFJ) and its affiliate, the Trade Union of Media of Montenegro (TUMM), sent a letter to the members of the Parliament of Montenegro expressing serious concern about the significant last-minute changes to the draft Law on National Public Broadcasting in Montenegro. The Prime Minister’s Office has amended the agreed text of the draft Law, on which the Working Group on Media Legislation had been working for almost 30 months, without public consultation. We urge the Parliament to clarify and amend the text to ensure the normal and sustainable functioning of the endangered media…