UPDATE (15.09.2022): The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation has ordered a halt to the activities of the Novaya Gazeta website. The decision was taken following requests from Russia’s state-media watchdog Roskomnadzor, which said the newspaper had violated the country’s controversial “foreign agents” law. The European and International Federations of Journalists (EFJ-IFJ) join their Russian affiliate the Journalists and Media Workers Union (JMWU) in calling on Russian authorities to reverse the recent decision to suspend the printing license of the independent Novaya Gazeta newspaper and stop to censor the outlet and its journalists. On Monday 5 September, a Moscow court granted a…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) joined its partners organisations of the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) today in expressing support and solidarity with embattled broadcaster OK Radio and urging Serbian law enforcement authorities to put an end to the dangerous campaign of harassment and pressure exerted on the media outlet by a powerful local businessperson. Over the last few months, OK Radio, a leading independent radio station which covers local news in the southern city of Vranje, has faced an increasingly violent wave of attacks and intimidation from Dejan Nikolic Kantar, a powerful gambling businessperson. Pressure on the media…

Former Russian journalist Ivan Safronov who has been imprisoned for alleged “high treason” since 7 July 2020, was sentenced to a 22-year jail term on 5 September. The International and European Federations of Journalists (IFJ-EFJ) joins their affiliate the Journalists and Media Workers Union (JMWU) in strongly condemning the decision of the Moscow City Court. Ivan Safronov was a prominent journalist reporting until May 2020 on defence issues for Russian newspapers Kommersant and Vedomosti, before becoming an adviser for the Russian space agency Roscosmos. Safronov is accused of “high treason” for allegedly providing state secrets related to arms sales to the Czech Republic,…

Journalists and media workers from private television stations in Greece will be on strike for 24 hours from 5:00 AM on 6 September to protest against a draft regulation that would undermine job security and make conditions more precarious for up to 40% of workers. The International and the European Federations of Journalists (IFJ-EFJ) join their Greek affiliates (the Journalists’ Union of Athens Daily Newspapers, the Journalists’ Union of Macedonia and Thrace Daily Newspapers, the Panhellenic Federation of Journalists’ Union and the Union of Magazine and Electronic Press Journalists) in calling on the government to withdraw the regulation, safeguard the…

Is there a story in your local town, somewhere in Europe, that you think is worth sharing with the rest of the world? If the answer is yes, but you lack resources, we may have the solution for you: a grant to support local investigative journalists and/or local news media outlets from several European countries who want to do investigative reporting at the local level in resonance with the European level.  Why local? In every nook and cranny of the world, there are many stories waiting to be told. This grant programme aims to tackle the shortage of local journalists…

The building housing the offices of the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU), as well as media outlets and printing houses, in Kharkiv in northeast Ukraine, may collapse due to the damage caused following a Russian missile strike. The International and European Federations of Journalists (IFJ-EFJ) denounced the attack and expressed their support to the Kharkiv NUJU branch and the workers who are no longer able to continue their work. According to NUJU, an IFJ/EFJ affiliate, several weeks were needed to carry out checks and precise damage control following the rocket attack, which took place at night on 31 July…