On 12 March 2026, personal details of journalist Ardiana Thaçi‑Mehmeti from the TV show Kiks Kosova, including her private phone number, were illegally shared in a ‘Discord’ group with over 70,000 members. The journalist received hundreds of harassing messages overnight from members of the group, including sexual and denigrating content. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) joins its affiliate in Kosovo, the Association of Journalists of Kosovo (AGK), in strongly condemning the online harassment against journalist Ardiana Thaçi‑Mehmeti and calling on the Kosovo Police and the Prosecutor’s Office for a swift investigation into the attack. Two weeks prior to her…

On 12 March 2026, the new version of the law on the governance of Lithuania’s public broadcaster LRT will be put to a vote in Parliament, while the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe has just expressed its concern about the recent amendments. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) joins its affiliate in Lithuania, the Association of Professional Journalists (ŽPA), in opposing the bill and calling on the authorities to abandon their plans to freeze the public broadcaster’s funding and change the procedure governing the dismissal of the Director General. The Venice Commission is an advisory body that provides…

Media freedom in Italy has continued its overall downward trajectory in the past two years, amidst the car bomb attack on one of the country’s most famous journalists, new spyware attacks on reporters, politicisation of the public broadcaster, legal harassment of journalists by governing politicians, and continued concerns over media pluralism, partner organisations of the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) said today. The findings of the MFRR consortium, shared at a press conference in Rome following a follow-up advocacy mission on 9-10 March, conclude that since our organisations’ previous visit to Italy in 2024 the climate for press freedom and…

Today the European Parliament adopted the report on “copyright and generative artificial intelligence” drafted by MEP Axel Voss (by 460 votes to 71, 88 abstentions). The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) welcomes this first step as a sign of political will to strengthen and make fairer the copyright framework protecting journalists from the unauthorised use of their work in AI training and content generation. Until now, AI companies have been relying on journalistic content without seeking consent, providing remuneration, or ensuring transparency about how such material is used. This practice not only undermines journalists’ intellectual property rights but also threatens…

Yesterday, Swiss citizens voted by a clear majority to support independent, high-quality journalism and a strong public broadcasting system. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) joins its Swiss affiliates, syndicom and impressum, in welcoming the rejection of the “SBC Initiative” which sought to reduce the annual media licence fee for the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SBC). Put to a vote on 8 March, the right-wing Swiss People’s Party proposed to cap the annual household licence fee for SBC to 200 Swiss francs (222€) instead of 335 Swiss francs (372€), with businesses becoming exempt. This would have led to drastic job cuts…

To mark International Women’s Day on 8 March, the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) joins partners of the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) today in publishing alarming data highlighting how women journalists across Europe continue to face enhanced risk through systematic gender-based violence in the past year. Our 2025 monitoring documented 53 cases of gender-based violence targeting women media professionals across EU Member States and candidate countries, including online smear campaigns, threats of sexual violence and derogatory comments about physical appearance. This data, recorded on the MFRR’s Mapping Media Freedom platform, reaffirms that women journalists are disproportionately affected by gender-based…