The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), which is composed of three groups representing the EU’s trade unions, employers’ organisations and diverse civil society organisations, issued an interim report on fundamental rights and the rule of law in Romania, Hungary, Poland, Austria and France. This report highlights serious concerns regarding freedom of expression and the media as put forward by civil society in the targeted countries. Building on this newly published report, the EESC held in Brussels on 5 November a high-level conference on “Fundamental Rights and the Rule of Law – Trends in the EU from a civil society…

Turkey’s biggest newspaper Hürriyet fired 45 journalists last week in one of the history’s most brutal layoffs operation press in Turkey.  Forty-three of them were members of the Turkiye Gazeteciler Sendikasi (TGS), an EFJ affiliate. The employees said that their dismissal was notified by a letter while they were working. A few journalists’  access to their computer and e-mail accounts were blocked. A woman was on maternity leave, one on compulsory military service and another journalist on sick leave, according to Turkish media reports. Vahap Munyar, Hürriyet’s editor-in-chief, who said he was not aware of the layoffs, and some of…

Online hate speech is a worrying and complex phenomenon, which has deep cultural and social roots and brings new questions and challenges to the issue of freedom of expression on the internet. Can a new law be a solution to tackle online hate speech or a curb on freedom of expression? How can we silence hate without silencing media freedom? Only a collective commitment at the cultural and educational level can be the basis to counter it, promoting at the same time freedom and participation. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) will organise a final conference on 18 November in…

The Union of Icelandic Journalists has called for a series of temporary strikes among its members at the media companies that are affiliates of the Employers’ Association. The Union demands wages for journalists comparable to employees of similar educational background or university degrees. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) supports its affiliate the Union of Icelandic Journalists and joins the Nordic Federation of Journalists and its members in Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland in backing Icelandic journalists’ demands and standing in solidarity. The first strike is among photographers and online journalists and will last for four hours on Friday. It…

A Turkish court ordered on 4 November the release under supervision of journalists Ahmet Altan and Nazli Ilicak who had spent three years in jail, accused of participating in the failed 2016 coup. The European and International Federations of Journalists (EFJ and IFJ) welcome their release but urge authorities to remove the judicial control, stressing they were victims of trumped up charges. Both journalists were jailed in 2016 following their conviction of “aiding a terrorist group without being its member”, charges that they always denied. On 2 October 2018, the Court of appeal in Istanbul upheld aggravated life sentences of…

The freelance photojournalists Britt van Uem (Tubantia) and Ruud Rogier (Brabants Dagblad) won on the 1st of November the lawsuit against DPG Media (formerly De Persgroep). The court ruled that the rates they received for their work, respectively 13 cents per word and 42 euros per photo, were not fair. The judge has increased the rates by 50% to 0.21 cents per word and 65 euros per photo respectively. DPG Media therefore has to pay these two freelancers extra for work they did in 2018. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) welcomes this historical decision and congratulates its affiliate, The…