Journalists Union of Serbia (SINOS – EFJ affiliate) in partnership with the Friedrich Ebert Foundation held a seminar in Prolom Banja (Serbia) from 19 to 21 May. The theme of the was organising unions for media workers in Serbia and the Balkans countries. The participants talked about precarious work, legal and social status of journalists and the sustainability of trade unions in the media with multinational ownership problems. The President of the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), Mogens Blicher Bjerregard spoke about the experience of organizing unions for journalists in different European Union member states. He stressed that progress is possible when…

UPDATE (01/06/2016) : Nada Kalkan, the new editor of RTV, is sending the EFJ the following statement : “That’s not true that journalists in RTV were layoffs. Previous program director was replaced and new director elected because the executive board was not satisfied. The general director and the editor-in-chief have resigned. Now, we have new a group of managers, nobody at RTV was dismissed or degraded and most of them have same salary and rested on editorial places.” Serbian media report that program director of RTV, Slobodan Arežina, was replaced, general director Srđan Mihajlović resigned under political pressure; 7 editors of news program…

Update (25th May): Our Turkish colleague Erol Önderoglu is also under criminal investigation for “terrorist propaganda” for participating in a solidarity campaign with the Kurdish daily newspaper Özgür Gündem. The EFJ and IFJ demand that all criminal charges be dropped against journalists involved in this campaign. The European and International Federations of Journalists (EFJ and IFJ) is calling upon the presumptive upcoming Turkish Prime minister, Binali Yildirim, to end the climate of permanent judicial intimidation, threats, harassment, detention and physical assaults against journalists and media workers in Turkey. The EFJ is particularly underlining the fact that Turkish judicial authorities have recently opened an…

The Institute of European Media Law (EMR), consortium partner of the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF), has recently conducted a study on the state of media freedom and investigative journalism in Europe. The results published on 17 May 2016 show that restrictive rules for the development of press freedom remain a major obstacle in all countries. 1. Decriminalisation of journalism = Hungarian model Journalists might infringe the law while trying to obtain information. According to the report, all legal frameworks know limits to the freedom of obtaining information. Even though in many states courts take into consideration the importance of press freedom…

A three-day conference will be held on 27-29 June 2016 in Brussels on the theme: “Shaping the new world of work – The impacts of digitalisation and robotisation”. Organised by the European Trade Union Confederation and the European Trade Union Institute, the conference will bring together over 400 representatives of trade unions, research bodies, academia, civil society, EU institutions and international organisations to discuss how the world and nature of work and employment is being changed radically by the digital revolution. Contrary to similar conferences, this event will not only focus on the quantity of work (‘will robots destroy our jobs?’) but also…

Three top editors from the Russian RBC media group announced their departure on 13 May as the political pressure against the independent media outlet grows in Russia. The International and European Federations of journalists (IFJ/EFJ) back their affiliate the Russian Union of Journalists (RUJ) in expressing concerns over the growing intimidation against the media in Russia. In a statement published on 13 May RBC said that the resignations of editor-in-chief Yelizaveta Osetinskaya, chief editor of the RBC newspaper Maxim Solyus, and chief editor of the RBC news agency Roman Badanin were due to “differences regarding the media company’s future and…