The undersigned organisations of the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) today express serious concern over the Molotov cocktail attack on the home of journalist Willem Groeneveld in Groningen last night. We welcome the prompt response of the Dutch authorities to carry out a police investigation. Our organisations call on the authorities to analyse the safety measures that were in place, to establish the motive of the attack and to bring those responsible to justice. Coming so soon after the fatal shooting of Dutch crime reporter Peter R. de Vries in Amsterdam in July, this potential attempted murder represents another serious…

Yorgen Fenech, a Maltese business mogul, has been indicted for the murder of anti-corruption journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia in 2017 and will face a trial by jury on a date yet to be set. Fenech faces charges of complicity in murder and criminal association. So far, Vince Muscat has been sentenced to 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to the murder earlier this year. Two further alleged hitmen, the brothers George and Alfred Degiorgio will also face trial. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) welcomes Fenech’s indictment and urges the Maltese authorities to finally end impunity and punish everyone involved…

UPDATE 11/08/21 Lex TVN was passed with 228 MPs in favour, 216 against and 10 abstentions. The EFJ and IFJ call on the Senate to reject the bill, and the European Union to counter the attack on the independence of TVN channels. ————————- The Polish parliament is discussing measures to ban non-European owners from controlling more than a 49% stake in Polish media companies. The move, dubbed the “lex TVN”, represents a direct attack on the critical and independent US-owned TVN and TVN24. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and the European Federation of Journalists (IFJ) are urging the members…

A team of the Turkish TV channel Halk TV was attacked in the İçmeler area of Marmaris. The aggressors threatened to block the channel’s live broadcast from the fire-hit region and a cameraman was targeted with a broken glass bottle. This incident occurred after a recent threat by the government-controlled RTÜK (Turkey’s Radio and Television Supreme Council) to TV stations over their critical coverage of the wildfires, which have been raging across the country for the past few days. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) joins its Turkish affiliates, the Journalists’ Union of Turkey (TGS), the Journalists’ Association of Turkey (TGC), the Journalists’ Association (GCD) and the Broadcast and Printing…

The European Federation of Journalists joined the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) today in calling for swift and robust action by the European Union and U.S. to defend media freedom in Poland and counter the serious attack on the independence of the country’s largest private television channel, TVN, by the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party. Our organisations believe that the so-called “lex TVN” and the ongoing deadlock over the renewal of the license for its 24-hour news channel TVN24 are part of an increasingly systematic effort by PiS to erode critical journalism by engineering ownership changes of critical independent media…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) and its partners in the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) are highly concerned by a barrage of attacks and harassment of journalists by protesters at demonstrations across Europe in recent weeks against new government measures taken in light of the Coronavirus-pandemic. They fit a disturbing pattern observed throughout the region of increasing violence, harassment and intimidation of journalists and media workers at COVID-related protests, rooted in growing anti-media sentiment that fuels anger and distrust: In Germany, Jörg Reichel, the regional manager of the German journalists’ union dju in ver.di, was brutally attacked on the margins of an unauthorised…