The European and International Federations of Journalists (EFJ-IFJ) today backed their affiliate, the Nederlandse Vereniging Van Journalisten (NVJ), in condemning the killing of a Dutch photojournalist while covering clashes in the Libyan city of Sirte. On 2 October, Dutch journalist Jeroen Oerlemans (45) was killed by sniper fire as government forces battled Islamic State group holdouts in the coastal city of Sirte, a jihadist stronghold 450 kilometers east of the capital Tripoli, media reported. Forces allied with Libya’s UN-backed Government of National Accord are trying to take the city back from jihadists in an offensive that started in May and which…

The European and International Federations of Journalists (FEJ/FIJ) have backed calls for Ukrainian reporter Roman Sushchenko to be freed following his arrest on 30 September in Moscow on charges of spying. News of his arrest last Friday only emerged after his family expressed concerns that he had not been in touch for two days and after he was spotted in Lefortovo Prison in Moscow by a human rights monitoring group. Neither the embassy nor his family had been informed. According to reports from NGO Open Russia, 47-year-old Roman Sushchenko, who has worked for Ukrainian news agency Ukrinform since 2002, told…

A mission to Serbia by the Ethical Journalism Network and the European Federation of Journalists this month has called for urgent action to strengthen journalism and independent media across the country. Aidan White, EJN Director, and EFJ Project Officer Mehmet Koksal talked with media leaders and journalism support groups during their visit on September 16-17. They found that problems of political bias, lack of transparency in ownership, manipulated state funding for favoured media, and a desperately weak economic situation all contribute to a deeply flawed media system. “The media crisis cannot be allowed to get worse,” said White. “It poisons…

update : Eutelsat has removed the signal of the Kurdish television as of 03/10/2016 at  10:00 The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) has learn today (30/09/2016) that Eutelsat SA, the French satellite provider hosting over 6000 televisions channels, is planning “to remove immediately”  Med Nuçe TV, a Kurdish language television broadcasting from Belgium, from its transponder because “the content is not in line with public order directives of the term’s between us as well as with the laws which regulate TV distribution in Europe and surrounding countries”. According to EFJ sources, Eutelsat SA has received pressure from RTÜK (Turkish Radio Television Supreme Council)…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) backs its affiliate, the Russian Union of Journalists (RUJ), in calling on the Russian authorities to conduct swift investigation of the attack against weekly MK Nechernozemye publisher Denis Shaikin, in Kursk, Western Russia. On 20 September, Denis Shaikin was arrested and beaten up by policemen while he was leaving the Kursk police station with his lawyer. He was brought to the hospital and suffered from severe head injury. The RUJ believes that this attack is linked to the publication in his newspaper mid-september of an investigation accusing the deputy head of Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation in the Kursk region of being involved in alcohol-smuggling.…

The International and European Federations of Journalists (IFJ and EFJ) are backing demands by striking journalists in Ukraine for their rights to be protected during the privatisation of their newspaper as they took their struggle to the President’s door. Staff at daily newspaper Vilnym Shliakhom in Kivertsi today protested at the gates of the Presidential administration, having already staged 10 days of strike action in protest at the failure of the authorities to protect their rights during the reorganisation. The strike by members of IFJ/EFJ affiliates the Independent Media Trade Union of Ukraine (IMTUU) and the National Union of Journalists…