Between 19 and 21 May, Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) partner organisations will conduct a press freedom mission to Zagreb, Croatia. The mission aims to engage with public authorities and media representatives on key recommendations from the MFRR monitoring mission report and stress the urgent need for Croatia to fully implement the EU Anti-SLAPP Directive and ensure the effective application of the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA).  The report “Precarity and political pressures: addressing challenges undermining media freedom in Croatia,” published in February 2025, underscores the critical importance of addressing legal threats to journalists in Croatia – including criminal defamation,…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), which will hold its General Meeting in Budapest on 2-3 June, strongly condemns, together with its Hungarian affiliates MÚOSZ and HPU, the bill tabled on Tuesday by the ruling party in Hungary to crack down on independent media and NGOs that receive funding from abroad. The EFJ calls on the European Union to sanction this new attack on the rule of law in Hungary. On Tuesday 13 May, shortlly before midnight, János Halász, a Member of Parliament from Fidesz, the party of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, tabled a bill in Parliament aimed at…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) joins its partners from the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) and Reporters Without Borders (RSF) in condemning state security forces’ deliberate violence against journalists covering the International Workers’ Day protest in Paris on 1 May, including physical violence and arbitrary confiscation of protective masks. We call on the French authorities to rigorously enforce national safety protocols to protect media workers and end recurring police violence against the press during demonstrations. Under the Ministry of Interior’s National Law Enforcement Plan (SNMO), state security must ensure journalists’ rights to cover law enforcement operations, protect them, and…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) condemned the attack on Nova TV’s investigative journalist Danka Derifaj and camera operator Miroslav Bokan while filming a report on the long-term environmental destruction along the Una River in Croatia. We also join our Croatian affiliates (TUCJ and CJA), and the SafeJournalists Network (SJN), in welcoming the prompt action of the Lika-Senj County Police, who arrested the individuals responsible under the government’s safety protocol for journalists signed with the Ministry of Interior, TUCJ, and CJA. On 10 May 2025, at around 6 pm, Reporter Danka Derifaj and camera operator Miroslav Bokan from Nova TV’s…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) welcomes the Pope’s call on Monday for the release of imprisoned journalists. In Europe, 163 journalists are currently behind bars, just for doing their job. Pope Leo on Monday called for the release of imprisoned journalists and affirmed the “precious gift of free speech and the press” in an audience with some of the 6,000 journalists who covered his election. This was the first news conference of his pontificate, in the Vatican. He called for journalists to reject war and to give voice to the voiceless and he expressed solidarity with journalists around the…

On 7 May 2025, the French journalists’ unions (SNJ, SNJ-CGT, CFDT-Journalistes) took part in the inauguration of the esplanade at the Pôle Universitaire de Vichy, named Arman Soldin, in tribute to the French-Bosnian journalist killed two years ago in Ukraine. A 32-year-old video journalist, Arman Soldin was one of the first AFP correspondents to enter Ukraine after the Russian invasion on 25 February 2022, regularly visiting the front lines in the east and south. He was killed on 9 May 2023 in a bombardment near Chasiv Yar, in eastern Ukraine. From Croatia, Maja Sever, President of the European Federation of…