Furkan Karabay, editor for the independent news website Gerçek Gündem (“The Real Agenda”),  was taken into custody by the Istanbul police on 28 December 2023, following an article on the trial of judiciary members. The European and International Federations of Journalists (EFJ-IFJ) demand his immediate release and urge the authorities to withdraw all charges against him. 

Karabay was taken to the Çağlayan Courthouse (Istanbul), by police officers who arrested him in the early hours of 28 December. After spending the night at the police station, the editor was released pending trial.

His detention follows a story published on 27 December, about a case of ongoing corruption and bribery trial of members of the judiciary. Even though the article was based on publicly available court minutes, Karaba was arrested on suspicion of “making targets of those who were tasked to combat terrorism” and “slander”.

IFJ General Secretary Anthony Bellanger says: “We continue to witness the denial of press freedom and freedom of expression. Journalists suffer this on a daily basis and this is unacceptable. It is imperative that the authorities release Furkan Karabay and that prompt investigations are carried out.”

“This detention is pure intimidation,” added EFJ General Secretary Ricardo GUtiérrez. “We call on the authorities to let journalists do their job, especially when it comes to exposing corruption involving officials.”

Source: EFJ

108 journalists spent New Year’s Eve in prison, according to a count by organisations affiliated to the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) and the Council of Europe’s Platform for the Protection of Journalism.

While the overall number of journalists detained in Europe has fallen slightly compared to last year (108 instead of 124), repression has increased considerably in certain countries, such as Azerbaijan, where the number of journalists detained has almost quadrupled, as well as in Russia, which this year has become the country that imprisons the most journalists in Europe (40 in total, in Russia and occupied Ukraine).

The EFJ and its affiliates once again call on national governments to take the necessary measures to guarantee press freedom in Europe and to ensure the safety of journalists. Legal standards exist and so do good practices. But very few states implement them.

“There are almost as many journalists imprisoned in Europe as in China and Iran combined,” said EFJ President Maja Sever. “The recent wave of arrests of independent journalists in Azerbaijan is designed to intimidate all journalists working in the country. It is worrying to see Western European countries such as the United Kingdom adopting the same practices. We demand the immediate release of journalists imprisoned just for doing their job!”

In particular, the EFJ calls on the member states of the Council of Europe to implement without delay the Committee of Ministers’ Recommendation 2016/4 on the Protection of Journalism and the Safety of Journalists. The adoption of national plans related to this Recommendation is now a priority.

Here is the list of 108 journalists detained in Europe:

32 in Belarus

Katsiaryna Andreeva
Ihar Losik
Kseniya Lutskina
Andrei Aliaksandrau
Dzianis Ivashyn
Andrej Pachobut
Maryna Zolatava
Liudmila Chekina
Valerija Kastsiugova
Iryna Leushyna
Dzmitryi Navazhylau​
Henadz Mazheika
Iryna Slaunikava
Andrei Kuznechyk
Siarhei Satsuk
Yuryi Hantsarevich​
Dzmitryi Luksha
Kanstantsin Zalatykh
Ales Liubianchuk
Yuryi Hladchuk
Ivan Murauyou
Pavel Mazheika
Yauhen Merkis
Dzmitry Semchanka
Andrei Famin
Larysa Shchyrakova
Pavel Padabed
Viachaslau Lazarau
Aliaksandr Mantsevich
Ihar Karnei
Andrei Tolchyn
Lyudmila Andenko

23 in Russia

Abdulmumin Gadzhiev
Aleksandr Dorogov
Aleksandra Bayazitova
Aleksei Slobodenyuk
Alexander Nozdrinov
Alsu Kurmasheva
Andrei Novashov
Andrey Pyzh
Denis Shaikin
Dmitry Ivanov
Eduard Shmonin
Evan Gershkovich
Igor Kuznetsov
Ivan Safronov
Maria Ponomarenko
Mikhail Afanasyev
Roman Ivanov
Ruslan Ushakov
Sergey Mikhaylov
Vladimir Kara-Murza
Vladislav Malushenko
Yan Katelevskiy
Yevgeny Moskvin

17 in Occupied Ukraine

Amet Suleymanov
Asan Akhtemov
Dmytro Khilyuk
Ernes Ametov
Iryna Danilovich
Iryna Levchenko
Marlen Asanov
Osman Arifmemetov
Remzi Bekirov
Rustem Sheikhaliev
Serhiy Tsyhipa
Server Mustafayev
Seyran Saliev
Timur Ibragimov
Victoria Roschina
Vilen Temeryanov
Vladislav Yesypenko

15 in Azerbaijan

Aslan Gurbanov
Avaz Zeynalli
Aziz Orujov
Elnur Shukurov
Hafiz Babali
Mahammad Kekalov
Nargiz Absalamova
Nurlan Gahramanli
Osman Narimanoglu Rzayev
Polad Aslanov
Rashad Ramazanov
Rufat Muradli
Sevinc Vaqifqizi
Ulvi Hasanli
Vugar Mammadov

19 in Turkey

Abdurrahman Gök
Ali Ünal
Dicle Müftüoğlu
Erdal Süsem
Erol Zavar
Gültekin Avcı
Hatice Duman
Hidayet Karaca
Ismail Çoban
Kenan Karavil
Mahmut Gülecan
Mehmet Baransu
Murat Çapan
Mustafa Gök
Nazli Ilicak
Sami Tunca
Sedat Yılmaz
Sertan Önal
Ziya Ataman

1 in Poland

Pablo González

1 in the United Kingdom

Julian Assange

Source: EFJ

The Zagreb County Court has dismissed Luka Burilović’s appeal as unfounded, thereby confirming the first-instance decision of the Municipal Court, according to which Boris Dežulović did not write falsehoods or insult the president of the Croatian Chamber of Economy in his column “Banja Luka Burilović,” published in Novosti in 2021, reports portalnovosti.com.

Burilović, as the publisher of Novosti, had sought 40,000 kuna in damages plus interest and payment of court costs from the Serbian National Council. Instead, the court decided that Burilović must pay the litigation costs to the SNV, represented by lawyer Lina Budak, amounting to 870.99 euros plus interest.

The court concluded that the author had expressed his values and opinions about Burilović’s educational and business success based on truthful information, and that the plaintiff is a public figure. It is emphasized that Dežulović was not obliged to contact Burilović before writing the column because he presented a value judgment and commentary based on facts that the author had reasonable grounds to believe were true, as they had been previously published and the plaintiff had not denied them.

In the lawsuit, Burilović claimed that Dežulović severely damaged his reputation, that his entire immediate and extended family suffered severe consequences due to the text, and that others now recognize him as a person prone to unlawful and wrongful actions and a man who obtained his education under highly questionable circumstances, which the court did not accept.

He was particularly bothered by Dežulović’s statement that he graduated from the University for Business Studies in Banja Luka, which is located on the first two floors of the building, while on the floor above, there was a pole dance learning studio, and on the fourth floor, apartments for rent that allegedly offer the services of prostitutes, as reported by the Inforadar portal, whose journalists visited the building. The decision is final.

Source: portalnovosti.com.

Višnja Ljubičić, the Ombudsperson for Gender Equality, has issued a warning to HRT (Croatian Radiotelevision) after receiving a complaint from women’s organizations about discrimination. The complaint arose because in the Otvoreno show discussing the past year, which aired on December 28 on HTV1, there were six male participants, and no women were invited.

The show, hosted by Zrinka Grancarić, exclusively featured male participants. The topic of the show was a retrospective of events that marked 2023 in Croatia and the world, as well as expectations for 2024.

Women’s groups from the Women’s Network of Croatia filed a complaint about discrimination, and Ombudsperson Ljubičić agreed with their conclusion that by choosing exclusively male participants, the show “sent a discriminatory and unacceptable message that there are no competent women who could comment on events in the past year.”

The guests on the show included Mladen Vedriš from Effectus University, foreign affairs commentator Željko Trkanjec from Jutarnji list, communication expert Krešimir Macan, academic Sven Lončarić from the Center for Artificial Intelligence at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing, Josip Pavić, State Secretary at the Ministry of Tourism and Sports, and Nikša Bratoš, composer, and music producer.

In her warning and recommendations, Ombudsperson Ljubičić pointed out that she does not question the expertise of the invited participants but finds it particularly worrisome that this is not an isolated case. She emphasized that it is a common practice on public television that informative shows discussing important social, political, and other topics of public interest often do not include any female participants.

The Ombudsperson sees the reason for this practice in someone in the editorial team arbitrarily deciding that there are no suitable competent female experts to invite to the show. She stated that this does not reflect the truth and does not help eliminate stereotypes that women do not have or should not have relevant knowledge about the economy, politics, geopolitics, artificial intelligence, and similar topics.

Therefore, she sent a warning about discrimination, as defined by the Gender Equality Act, to HRT’s CEO Robert Švebio, highlighting that it is an “unequal and discriminatory treatment of women compared to men” to exclude a woman from the relevant program.

She also reminded HRT that, starting from January 1, 2023, the broadcaster committed to supporting gender equality in its contract with the government. This commitment includes ensuring the representation of both genders as equal participants in discussions and directing programming towards combating gender stereotypes, sexism, and eliminating discrimination based on gender and sexual orientation.

Source: Hina
Translated by CJA

On 24 December, several journalists and media workers were targets of insults and physical violence while reporting on protests in Belgrade that objected to alleged  irregularities during general elections on 17 December. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) and the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) condemn the violent acts and urge the competent authorities to launch an immediate investigation.

During the demonstrations, four attacks against journalists and media workers were recorded: three were perpetrated by law enforcement authorities, and one by a protester. The federations express consternation and outrage at those acts from the people whose exact mission is to defend and protect citizens.

Al Jazeera’s cameraman, Nenad Nešić was grabbed by the neck by a policeman while filming who asked him forcefully to move away and stop filming.

Journalist Andrija Lazarevic from the Nova.rs portal was hit on the hand with a baton by a policeman, and a photojournalist from the agency Beta avoided an attempt to snatch his camera.

Journalist Mladen Savatović, who works for N1 news channel, was attacked during a live program: a man, who had been seen destroying a car the day before, insulted and grabbed him by the arm, as the EFJ-IFJ affiliate the Independent Journalists Association of Serbia reported. The plainclothes officers who saw the scene did not react. Savatović had to call the police to get some help, but the man had already fled when the crew arrived at the protest.

The IFJ and the EFJ join the SafeJournalists (SJN) network to call on the competent institutions to react strongly and condemn promptly all the above-mentioned aggressions, and put in place safeguards ensuring these types of behaviours, especially coming from law enforcement authorities. We call on the Serbians authorities to address the threat, and the institutions to protect journalists and sanction the perpetrators. The inaction of state institutions has a serious chilling effect on free speech and independent reporting.

Source: EFJ

The Association of Journalists of Kosovo strongly condemns the unacceptable behavior of the close protection team of Prime Minister Albin Kurti towards journalist Blerta Dalloshi Berisha from TV Klan.

In the video published by Dalloshi-Berisha, a member of the protwction team, can be seen grabbing and pushing the journalist as she attempts to ask a question to the prime minister.

Such mistreatment of journalists is completely unacceptable and only adds to the growing sense of insecurity within Kosovo’s media community.

AJK calls upon the Kosovo Police to investigate the behavior of the individual mentioned. Furthermore, we ask Prime Minister Kurti to denounce this behavior, disassociate himself from it, and enable journalists to ask questions that are in the interest of the public.

After yesterday’s meeting with representatives of journalists’ associations, the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) issued a statement highlighting the good cooperation between the two parties within the Permanent Working Group for the Safety of Journalists. What was not stated in the announcement were the reasons for which the meeting was initiated, as well as the content of the meeting in which there were disagreements on certain issues.

For the sake of the whole truth about the meeting that was held in the MIA between the representatives of the police and the representatives of the Permanent Working Group, and in connection with the published statement of the MIA, we present the reasons for the meeting, the content of the meeting, what was stated and what was agreed upon.

The meeting was initiated by the representatives of the Permanent Working Group, and the reason for the meeting was the negative events and dangerous situations at the protests in which the journalists found themselves. The two sides met to discuss the possibilities of increasing the safety of journalists and reducing interference when reporting from such events. The representatives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs were particularly informed about incidents against journalists committed by police officers during the protest on December 24.

Let’s remind you, then the Al Jazeera team was attacked, and the cameraman Nenad Nešić was pulled by the neck with a ban on filming, and the reporter from the Nova S, Andrija Lazarević, was hit with a police baton for no reason. Also, a policeman tried to snatch the camera from photojournalist Beta, and members of the MIA in civilian clothes did not react to the attack on TV N1 journalist Mladen Savatović, even though they were present at the scene.

At the meeting, representatives of the association presented details of all recorded attacks and incidents. Police representatives stated that they do not know about specific incidents committed by their officers and did not agree with the fact that the incidents were committed. They repeated several times that their police officers on the field provide protection to all participants of the event, including journalists.

Given that we insisted for the events to be checked and acted upon, a promise was made by the police representative that all the mentioned events will be carefully investigated.

The extremely important and still unsolved case of the brutal beating of then-journalist Beta Žikica Stevanović by members of the Gendarmerie in July 2020 was also mentioned. After almost three years, that case is still in the police’s internal control procedure, and criminal proceedings against the unknown perpetrators are being conducted by the First Public Basic Prosecutor’s Office in Belgrade.

The representatives of the associations stated that there are still police officers who do not understand the role of journalists and the media at such gatherings, and that it is evident that incidents, especially by the Gendarmerie, are repeated, with the hope that these are isolated cases and not intentional injuries and attacks on journalists.

Police representatives did not agree with that and denied that police officers commit incidents against journalists, repeating that their officers protect all citizens, including journalists.

In order to prevent future incidents against journalists, it was proposed to create some kind of protocol – instructions for representatives of these units on behavior towards journalists. The representatives of the association were therefore asked to make a proposal and provide examples of good practice. Also, on that occasion, we offered to organize joint educational workshops and trainings.

At the meeting, we pointed out the need for mutual coordination during similar events due to the severity of incidents that are constantly repeated, and in that sense, the need for specific police contact points on the ground that journalists could turn to if they needed protection or to report specific events.

We also explained that we are working on trainings for journalists for safe reporting and that we regularly advise journalists to be visible at events and to wear press vests

Finally, we request the Ministry of the Interior not to abuse our need for cooperation and our willingness to continue to maintain communication, despite numerous bad experiences and ugly events. Although the Permanent Working Group has proven to be a good model of cooperation and communication, there are many reasons why our cooperation with the MIA cannot be called good. But our intention is to continue to communicate correctly, because we have made sure that there is still a significant number of professional members of the police who are our serious and reliable partners in protecting the safety of all journalists in Serbia.

IJAS

December 28, 2023