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…

In Spain, daily press workers in many newsrooms are wearing black on Wednesdays to demand pay rises and improved working conditions, after more than a decade of wage freezes and, in some cases, substantial cuts. The International and the European Federations of Journalists (IFJ-EFJ), together with their Spanish affiliates, fully support journalists’ and media workers’ calls for decent salaries and the broader fight against precarity in the sector. Journalists, media workers and staff from the economic newspaper Expansión reached a pre-agreement with the media company Unidad Editorial – amongst the largests media groups in Spain – to be voted on 3 August,…

Incidents of disrespect for the work of journalists are multiplying in Serbia. The EFJ President Maja Sever denounced these attacks. She called on the authorities to respect the role and mission of the press in a democratic society. On 27 July, Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic presented the EU’s Digital Europe programme at the Belgrade Science and Technology Park, in the presence of Information Minister Mihailo Jovanovic and the Head of the EU Delegation in Serbia, Emanuele Giaufret. The press was invited to the event. However, the journalists were locked in a room from which they were unable to ask…

EFJ Director Renate Schroeder wrote about the European Media Freedom Act in an article originally published in Social Europe. Read the article in its entirety here:  Amid a sea of online misinformation, in a ‘polycrisis’ world reliable public-interest journalism has never been more essential. Today, the sustainability of free media is threatened in many European Union countries. Pluralism is lacking, with the rise of the platforms to information monopolies accelerating the shrinkage of the space for independent and public-interest journalism. Media are increasingly captured and controlled by politicians—or subjected to ‘fake news’ smears in the style of the former United…

The LocalMedia4Democracy project is supporting 17 small local media outlets. These outlets aim to serve the public interest in localities and regions where access to information has significantly decreased in the European Union. This grant scheme is operated by Journalismfund Europe and International Media Support (IMS), and co-funded by the European Commission.  The 17 media outlets are from Belgium (1), Croatia (1), France (2), Hungary (2), Ireland (1), Italy (1), Latvia (1), Lithuania (1), Poland (4), Portugal (1), Romania (1) and Spain (1). The total amount distributed among the 17 proposals was €524.265.  Check the list of the granted media…

The European and International Federations of Journalists (EFJ) join their affiliate in Armenia, the Union of Armenian journalists (UAJ), in condemning the campaign of insults and harassment launched by government supporters on social networks and in certain online media following Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan‘s press conference in Yerevan on 25 July, in a climate of tension following the events in Karabakh. We call on the Armenian authorities to publicly denounce these threats and to prosecute and punish the perpetrators. Among others, journalists Ani Gevorgyan and Hripsime Jebejyan have been the target of death threats and threats of physical violence. The…

Following statements against the Italian Vice President of the Council of Ministers Matteo Salvini (far right), journalist Roberto Saviano saw the program he was due to present in the autumn on public television abruptly canceled by the directors of Radiotelevisione Italiana (RAI), appointed in the spring. Italy’s far-right government has been accused of leaning on the public broadcaster to axe his anti-mafia television programme. In the name of freedom of expression and in defence of the public interest, the European and International Federations of Journalists (EFJ-IFJ) call on RAI to reverse its decision. Four episodes of Saviano’s programme, “Insider, Face…

The Russian authorities continue to crack down on journalists in occupied Crimea. On 27 July, the police have arrested two more journalists there. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) joined its affiliate the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU) and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) in denouncing these repeated arrests, which are clearly aimed at intimidating the press. On 27 July, Russian police arrested professional journalists Lutfiye Zudiyeva and Kulamet Ibraimov as they were preparing to cover the trial of three Crimean Tartar activists before the Crimean Supreme Court. Zudiyeva and Ibraimov showed their press cards to police…