On 18 June, the last session of webinars aiming to improve media reporting on Muslims and Islam, funded by the European Commission (DG Justice), took place. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) invited the journalists and media professionals who participated in the online training to discuss their own media productions with experts and community representatives. Below is a summary of the challenges they faced during this process and tips and feedback received. The journalists participating in this four-part online training received constructive feedback and recommendations to improve their journalistic coverage of Muslims and Islam by Jean-Paul Marthoz, journalist and essayist…

The Belarusian Ministry of Justice ordered on 21 June an inspection of the activities of the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ). The letter that BAJ received this Monday morning demands that the independent representative organisation of journalists submit thousands of documents dated since 1 January 2018 to the Department of Non-Profit Organisations of the Ministry of Justice. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) will denounce at the highest level any attempt to intimidate and harass BAJ. The EFJ asked its Belarusian affiliate to share the identity of all those involved in this examination of BAJ activities by the Belarusian Ministry…

On 10 June 2021, the German Bundestag approved amendments to the Federal Constitutional Protection Act, removing legal provisions that exempted journalists from surveillance and hacking during terrorism investigations. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) joined its German affiliates, Deutscher Journalisten Verband (DJV) and Deutsche Journalistinnen und Journalisten Union (dju) in ver.di in criticising the Act as an infringement of journalists’ fundamental rights and a threat to the anonymity of whistleblowers. Under the law, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and the federal police will be given more powers to secretly monitor online activity and encrypted communications, such…

The Forum on Information and Democracy published yesterday its report titled “A New Deal for Journalism”. The report presents, among other, a plan to guarantee up to 0.1% of GDP per year to journalism “in order to preserve its social function for the future”. The document however neglects the central issue of journalists’ working conditions and the worrying precariousness of the profession. Written for the Forum by Sameer Padania, who heads the consultancy firm Macroscope, the report recalls a series of long-standing demands, such as transparency of media ownership and increased public support for the media to ensure pluralism. However,…

Today, on 15 June, the Slovak Supreme Court ruled on the appeal brought by prosecutors against last summer’s not guilty verdict in the murder of investigative journalist Ján Kuciak and his fiancée, Martina Kušnírová. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) welcomes the Supreme Court’s decision to remand the case back for a retrial and expects careful examination of all evidence in the case and to finally end impunity. Last summer, the controversial businessman Marian Kočner and a confidante, Alena Zsuzsová, were acquitted of ordering Kuciak’s murder in February 2018. The Specialized Criminal Court in Pezinok, Slovakia, found that there was not enough…

Today, June 15, the Slovak Supreme Court is expected to rule on the appeal brought by prosecutors against last summer’s not guilty verdict in the murder of journalist Ján Kuciak and his fiancée, Martina Kušnírová. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), the International Press Institute (IPI), the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF) and ARTICLE 19, as part of the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) urge the Supreme Court to carefully and exhaustively examine all available evidence in the case. IPI Deputy Director Scott Griffen will attend the hearing in Bratislava on behalf of IPI and the MFRR. Controversial businessman…

The General Secretary of the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), Ricardo Gutiérrez, was invited today to speak about the situation of journalists at the Council of Europe Ministerial Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Freedom of Expression and Media Freedom. The EFJ again called on Council of Europe member states to fulfil their international commitments to protect journalists. “All over Europe, media freedom is declining,” said Gutiérrez.” All over Europe, the working conditions of journalists are deteriorating. (…) The situation is getting worse, year after year. In the last six years, 33 journalists have been killed in Europe while doing their job.…

The hijacking of a plane and kidnapping of editor and blogger Raman Pratasevich is viewed by the free expression, press freedom and journalists’ community as the outrageous climax of a broader campaign against media freedom in Belarus that drastically intensified after the August 2020 election. Joint call to make respect for press freedom a cornerstone of all demands towards Belarus The undersigned organisations are calling for the international community to make respect for press freedom a cornerstone of all demands it voices towards Lukashenka’s regime. The hijacking is yet another step in a massive attack on press freedom and should…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) has joined its partners in the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) in expressing dismay at Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Janša’s disparaging tweet about Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatović. On 6 June 2021, Prime Minister Janša said the Commissioner is “part of #fakenews network” in response to her recent memorandum on freedom of expression and media freedom in Slovenia. The Prime Minister’s tweet quoted Mitja Iršič, a public relations expert at the Ministry of Culture, who said their considerations were not properly represented and called the Commissioner’s report “biased and ill-informed.” We welcome…

In the Netherlands, more than eight in ten journalists have experienced some form of aggression of threat, according to a new study carried out by I&O research for PersVeilig and published on 5 June 2021. Almost 700 journalists in the Netherlands responded to the new survey “Aggression and threats towards journalists 2021” which assessed the level of safety of journalists in the country. The results paints a bleak picture with more than 8 journalists out of 10 reporting having experienced violence or threats at some point in the course of their work. Four years ago, the figure was already high,…

In a Memorandum published today, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatović, calls on the Slovenian authorities to put a stop to the marked deterioration of freedom of expression and of the media in the country. The Commissioner warns that some steps taken by the Slovenian government in recent months risk undermining the ability of independent voices to speak freely. She stresses that hostile public discourse, as well as smear campaigns and intimidation targeting civil society activists and those who express critical opinions, harm free expression and can have a chilling effect on media freedom. The Commissioner…

Two Azerbaijani journalists and an official were killed today by a landmine explosion in the Kalbajar region, west of Nagorno-Karabakh. Four others were injured in the incident, which saw a truck blown up by an anti-tank mine at about 11am local time, Azerbaijan’s interior ministry and the office of the prosecutor general said in a statement. The three victims were identified as Maharram Ibrahimov, a reporter working for state news agency AzerTag, Siraj Abishov, a cameraman for Azerbaijan state television AzTV, and local official Arif Aliyev. The explosion occurred when a bus carrying journalists who were on duty in the Kalbajar region…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) and its affiliate in Belarus, the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ), welcome today’s statement by the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Teresa Ribeiro urging “the public authorities in Belarus to free all journalists and other media workers who have been sentenced, arrested or detained in the country. Most of these journalists were apprehended for their reporting on public events and other political developments in the country.” “This systematic clampdown on journalists and media workers is a gross violation of the OSCE commitments related to freedom of expression and media freedom, voluntary undertaken…

The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) condemns the threats and insults by Bosnian Serb politician Milorad Dodik against journalist Tanja Topic. Currently a member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Dodik called the journalist a German agent and ‘quisling’. It is the latest in his campaign of threats and insults against journalists who is he disagrees with. ETUC defends democracy and the rights of independent journalists and a free media, and says that threats and insults against journalists, and anyone else, should have no place in the rhetoric of elected politicians. “This is a new low for Dodik and…

The Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) is deeply concerned by the lawsuit targeted at a journalist and the editor-in-chief of the Network for Investigation of Crime and Corruption (KRIK) by the director of Serbia’s Security-Information Agency (BIA). The MFRR urges the BIA director Bratislav Gasic to immediately withdraw the civil lawsuit against KRIK and to refrain from weaponising the law to intimidate media outlets investigating the nexus between crime, corruption and politics in Serbia. The SLAPP lawsuit stems from anarticle KRIK published on April 9 which reported details of wiretapped conversations played as evidence in the murder trial of criminal…

Journalists and media in Croatia are targeted by new legal threats, warned the Croatian Journalists’ Association (CJA) and Union (SNH) with five lawsuits filed against Telegram.hr portal. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) strongly condemns the widespread practices in the country, also known as SLAPPs (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation), whose objectives are to censor, intimidate and silence critics by burdening them with court proceedings. Last month, judge Zvonko Vrban, president of Osijek County Court, filed five lawsuits against the Telegram.hr portal for five articles written by journalist Drago Hedl about irregularities in the judge’s work. Vrban announced that damages…