Today, on World Press Freedom Day, 22 journalists are still behind bars in Belarus. The situation with freedom of speech in Belarus remains the worst in Europe. Since the sweeping repression that began in 2020, hundreds of Belarusian media workers have endured detention, arrest, and persecution. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) joins its affiliates the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ) in calling for the release of all Belarusian journalists. Recently, several well-known journalists were released. But we worry about those who remain behind bars. In February and March of this year, after large-scale releases of political prisoners, several media…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) joins the undersigned organisations in strongly condemning the intensifying use of Article 217/A of the Turkish Penal Code — widely known as the “disinformation law” — to arrest, detain, and prosecute journalists, and calling on the government to repeal the provision immediately and release all journalists imprisoned under it. Since the law entered into force in October 2022, at least 83 journalists have been charged 114 times over disinformation according to news reports. The scale of Article 217/A’s use against journalists has been starkly illustrated in a recent article. The two journalists most frequently…

By Zoran Pehar, Trade Union of Croatian Journalists Can self-employed workers strike? Can they secure their rights through a collective agreement? How can unions protect them? And should we work with artificial intelligence or against it? Over the past two years, the project “Building stronger Unions in the Media, Arts & Entertainment Sector to Tackle the Challenges of Freelance Work, AI and Sectoral Change” has sought answers to these questions. The project is relevant to the wider cultural and creative sector, where Eurostat records around 2.5 million self-employed workers in the EU, and especially to the narrower group of creative…

A new government bill which would overhaul the funding model for the Czech public media risks financially weakening the broadcasters, eroding safeguards for their financial independence and violating European Media Freedom Act (EMFA), the undersigned Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) partners, the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) and other media freedom, journalist and freedom of expression organisations warn today. Our organisations call on the European Commission to closely assess this bill regarding its compatibility with Article 5 of EMFA and to ensure that no reforms are undertaken which threaten the financial, editorial or institutional independence of the Czech public media.…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) and international press freedom and journalist organisations are today calling on the Maltese authorities to make long-overdue media reforms an immediate priority, and to commit to meaningful and transparent collaboration with national and international civil society.  The assassination of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia in 2017 generated significant pressure to improve working conditions for all journalists in Malta. A 2021 public inquiry, established independently to assess the circumstances of her murder found the state had to “shoulder responsibility” because it had created an “atmosphere of impunity” and failed to take reasonable steps to protect…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) with Europod released their first episode of the Voices podcast “Journalism in War: Solidarity Beyond Borders”. Recorded in March during the third edition of Voices Festival, it explores the challenges journalists face when reporting from conflict zones and the structures that have been established to support them. At this year’s festival, Voices presented the Media Freedom Award to the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU) and the teams behind the network of Journalists’ Solidarity Centres. These hubs were developed as a response to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, to provide journalists…