European Federation of Journalists

Media Freedom Rapid Response

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) is a partner of Media Freedom Rapid Response project (MFRR) aiming to promote an independent, pluralistic media landscape, to safeguard media workers, especially harassed female media workers and to protect the rights of journalists. The RRM helps to mitigate the consequences of the recently observed deterioration of media freedom in several European Union, Member States and Candidate Countries.

Overall Objective

The overall objective of this project is to provide practical support for journalists to improve media freedom in Europe.

The Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) is designed to detect, answer and prevent violations of press and media freedom. It consists of three layers: monitoring, categorisation, responses.

Specific objectives

1. Mapping Media Freedom (MMF) in Europe (EU & Candidate Countries): Media violations are on the rise especially under the current coronavirus crisis. One of the key components of the project is to monitor and document a wide range of media violations conducted by any actors, whether individuals, state actors or business, so that actions can be taken rapidly to address the violations.

2. Practical supports: Based on the media violations reported, the project offers a wide range of immediate to long-term, practical support ranging from legal help, safety advice and training, safe house for journalists, advocacy and mission, and online resources. You could find more information about the legal support here and more details about safe house for journalists here.

3. Advocacy & Trial Monitoring: Joint media advocacy will also be carried out by the project including joint statements, national missions (in Czech Republic, Hungry, Spain, Serbia), roundtable advocacy meetings with EU policy-makers. The EFJ will involve the relevant national members when carrying out such national missions. Trial Monitoring especially for Turkey, Malta (for the case of Daphne Caruana Galizia) and Slovakia (for the case of Ján Kuciak) will be carried out and participated by the project partners to help find justice for journalists who are put in jails or murdered.

Anyone can submit and report a media violation to the MMF platform online.

Actions

Call for withdrawal of Slovakia’s repressive broadcast law

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) joined journalists and media freedom groups in calling for the urgent withdrawal of a proposed legislation allowing political control over public-service media in Slovakia. The bill threatens independent information, especially before the June European Parliament elections, contradicting the recently voted EU’s Media Freedom Act. On 11 March, the Slovak government announced a plan to dissolve Radio and Television of Slovakia (RTVS) and replace it with the new Slovak Television and Radio (STaR). The Ministry of Culture’s draft law includes drastic changes to the appointment and competence of oversight bodies, which would set up a government control and effectively end…

Georgia: MFRR partners denounce smear campaign against journalist by speaker of the Parliament

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) joined today the partner organisations of the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) in expressing concern at the discrediting of a prominent Georgian journalist by Shalva Papuashvili, Speaker of the Georgian Parliament. The comments come amid a broader wave of smear campaigns against independent media in Georgia by Papuashvili and others. On 20 February 2024, Georgian media reported that Papuashvili had publicly discredited Gela Mtivlishvili, the editor of online news site Mtis Ambebi, by questioning his credentials as a journalist in the course of an interview. In remarks to journalists, Papuashvili mentioned an investigation by Mtivlishvili into…

IWD: Safeguarding women journalists in the digital age

On International Women’s Day, MFRR coalition partners publish a critical examination of attacks against women journalists in the European Union and candidate countries To mark International Women’s Day, the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) presents an analysis of the troubling attacks against women journalists, in European Union member states and candidate countries. In 2023, female journalists faced a disproportionate number of verbal attacks, especially online. The MFRR partners call for collaborative efforts to protect their rights and foster a society free from discrimination. On International Women’s Day, the partners of the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) emphasise the need to…

Albania: Smear campaign against investigative journalist Ola Xama must stop

The smear campaign against Albanian investigative journalist Ola Xama, who works for the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN), intensified again earlier this month. The news platforms Prapaskena.com and DITA published articles that unleashed a worrisome level of violence with personal attacks, attacks on her family, “slut-shaming” and divulgation of Ola Xama’ private address. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) stands in solidarity with Ola Xama and joins the Safe Journalists Network (SJN) in calling on the media outlets to stop their damaging attacks which have been going on since July 2023. On 13 July 2023, BIRN document-based investigation revealed that…

Italy: MFRR partners strongly condemn investigation into Domani journalists

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) joined the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) partners in strongly condemning the investigation of three Domani journalists for allegedly receiving confidential documents from a public official and for alleged breaching of secrets through the publication of information contained in those documents. The charges are connected to their reporting on a conflict of interest involving the current Minister of Defence, Guido Crosetto. The journalists face up to 5 years in prison under Italian criminal law. Our organisations call for the investigation to be dropped immediately. No journalist investigating matters of public interest, or their sources,…

Physical confrontation with journalist in Serbia is unacceptable and must be sanctioned

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) joined the SafeJournalists Network and the Media Freedom Rapid Response partners in strongly condemning the behaviour of the local authorities in Indjija, Serbia, who forcibly removed the journalist Verica Marincic from the municipality building and prevented her from doing her job. We appeal to the competent authorities to investigate this incident in which the journalist was injured. The journalist of the In media portal from Indjija, Verica Marincic, was kicked out of the Indjija municipality building because she “wasn’t on the list” to monitor the conference regarding the residents’ protest against the abolition of…