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

Poland: More ambitious reform needed to secure media freedom

The Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) consortium completed a two-day mission to Poland, 16-17 September, where it held meetings with the Minister of Justice, Adam Bodnar, the Ministry of Culture as well as journalists, publishers, regulators, media law experts. The mission focused on measures to reform public service media, to protect journalists from Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs), and proposals to reform the media landscape in line with the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA). The meetings discussed the changes within the public service media since the Civic Coalition-led government of Donald Tusk used contested legal mechanisms to remove senior…

Turkey: Alarming death threats against journalist Murat Ağırel

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) joins the undersigned press freedom and freedom of expression groups in strongly condemning the ongoing and intensifying threats against prominent Turkish journalist Murat Ağırel. We are deeply alarmed by the persistent pattern of intimidation, surveillance, and death threats targeting Ağırel, which represent a severe assault on press freedom and the safety of journalists in Turkey. These threats and acts of intimidation are not isolated incidents but part of a broader, systemic issue affecting press freedom in Turkey, where independent journalists frequently face significant risks in their pursuit of truth. We urgently call on the…

Press freedom on trial in Greece: support Alterthess’ appeal

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) joined its Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) partners in expressing full support for Greek journalist Stavroula Poulimeni and media outlet Alterthess ahead of their appeal on 19 September 2024. Today’s hearing follows a court ruling that partially upheld a civil lawsuit demanding damages over Poulimeni’s report on the conviction of two Hellas Gold executives for water pollution – which were overturned in 2022, as the journalist also reported at the time.  In 2023, Alterthess was ordered to pay €3,000 to one of the company’s executives for reporting his court conviction in October 2020. The…

MFRR Monitoring Report – 756 media freedom alerts in first six months of 2024

The partners from the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) consortium today publish the latest edition of its Monitoring Report which documents and analyses all press freedom violations recorded on its platform Mapping Media Freedom in European Member States and candidate countries from January to June 2024. The report was produced by the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF), the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), and the International Press Institute (IPI). The latest Monitoring Report explores in detail the 756 media freedom violations recorded by the MFRR partners in the first half of 2024. These violations affected 1,212 media-related…

Romania: Court reopens investigation into smear campaign against journalist Emilia Șercan

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) joined its Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) partners in welcoming the 5 September ruling reopening the investigation into the crimes against journalist Emilia Șercan. This is a positive step towards addressing the harassment and intimidation she has faced for the last two years. This ruling comes after a long legal battle by Șercan to hold accountable those responsible for smear campaigns against her and leaking her private photos, following her reports on high-profile cases of plagiarism, including the President of the Romanian Senate, and former Prime Minister, Nicolae Ciucă.  The initial investigation produced a…

Croatia: International mission to assess media freedom challenges

On 9 September, the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) will begin a press freedom mission to Croatia. The delegation will meet with government representatives, journalists and journalistic associations, civil society, and renowned media experts to discuss the most pressing challenges to media freedom and pluralism in the country. Between 9 and 20 September 2024, the MFRR partners will conduct an online fact-finding mission to Croatia with a special focus on the safety of journalists, the long-overdue and much-needed media law reforms, transparency in media ownership and state advertising, the use of strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs) and other legal threats (including criminal…