To mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, on 25 November 2023, the Gender and Diversity Expert Group (GENDEG) of the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) reminds all media workers and media organisations that violence is not part of the job.

Female journalists are heavily affected by physical, psychological and sexual violence as part of their work. Surveys carried out between 2018 and 2023 in the following European countries reveal that:

• In Belgium, 4 out of 10 female journalists experienced harassment in newsrooms;
• In Spain, 88% of the female media workers reported having suffered situations of sexual harassment at work;
• In Ukraine, 43% of the female journalists who experienced harassment in the workplace were attacked by men in managerial positions;
• In Italy, while 60% of the female journalists were harassed online, 20% said they experienced real-life assaults directly following online harassment.

These data show only the tip of the iceberg in terms of the psychological and physical violence suffered by female journalists in the course of their work.

The EFJ calls on its member unions and media companies to not allow gender-based violence in their own organisations and to take immediate steps to create a zero-tolerance working environment. Prevention and awareness raising are key to effectively fighting violence at work.

Three actions to prevent and combat gender-based violence at work:

• Be aware of the situation in your organisations through surveys, focus groups, safe spaces for discussions, awareness campaigns, etc;
• Create and promote a culture of zero-tolerance of all forms of violence in unions and media companies;
• Create trust by establishing reporting mechanisms in media and journalists’ organisations and designating a trusted person in charge of receiving testimonies and taking appropriate action with management.

Don’t allow it. Prevent it!

Source: EFJ

PODGORICA, 22.11.2023. – The long-overdue sectoral collective agreement for the media industry has yet to be signed, to improve the socio-economic position of media workers, providing them with additional rights and benefits not covered by the general collective agreement.

This is stated in the European Commission’s 2023 Report on Montenegro.

„Journalists and trade unions continued to report overall poor working conditions of most media professionals, including low salaries, unpaid overtime work, security risks, selfcensorship, and various forms of pressure and undue influence both from media owners and third parties. Employees in local public broadcasters continued working in particularly challenging professional and socio-economic circumstances, being directly exposed to editorial influence and financial control by the local authorities“, the report states.

They refer also to „very weak media self-regulation“ and that „rare existing selfregulatory bodies have a limited impact, as even media outlets and journalists themselves tend to bypass them and take cases against their competitors directly to courts“.

„The media landscape was polarised along political lines and media outlets remained highly vulnerable to internal and external influence from corporate and political interests. Full and effective protection of journalists and other media workers continues to improve, yet tangible results on old cases of attacks have yet to be achieved“, the report states.

It describes Montenegro’s media environment as „highly politically polarised with the uneven application of the journalistic Code of Ethics and professional standards“, noting that limited progress was achieved in the area of freedom of expression.

„The government involved civil society and media stakeholders in the drafting of new media legislation but failed to finalise the legislative proposals and present them to the Parliament. The authorities need to step up efforts to effectively address the pending recommendations of the ad hoc commission for monitoring violence against the media, particularly regarding important old cases“.

European Commission also marked that the public broadcaster, the RTCG, continued to „pursue a balanced editorial policy“, but also noted that in January 2023, the Podgorica Basic Court overturned the RTCG Council’s decision to appoint the public broadcaster’s Director-General as unlawful.

„In May 2023, this ruling was upheld, in second instance, by the Podgorica High Court. In June 2023, the Council reappointed the same person as RTCG Director-General, causing a strong public reaction from multiple CSOs, which accused the RTCG Council of abuse of office and failure to comply with a final and enforceable court decision. The prosecution authorities opened a criminal investigation into the case“, it is stated in the report.

Journalism students and journalists participating in the second edition of the Information Integrity Academy were lectured today about the verification of facts, information, videos and images.

This module, taught by Shkëlzen Osmani – founder of the fact-checking platform, hibrid.info, showed the participants an online platform on how facts, videos and images can be verified. During the examples that were discussed, the participants had the opportunity to practice online fact-checking tools, videos and images. Practical examples allowed them to apply these tools practically.

In addition, crucial aspects of information integrity were discussed and the challenges of image and video verification, including deepfake technology, were addressed.

The Information Integrity Academy will continue with four more modules in the following months.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) called the Serbian government to implement European Commission recommendations aimed at improving media regulations and combating Russian disinformation.

A press release said that Serbia must revise media reforms to respond to disinformation challenges in line with EU calls.

“The Serbian parliament recently passed two media laws but, in the European Union’s view, progress in this area is still limited. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) urges the Serbian government to adopt the European Commission’s recommendations in order to improve media regulation and combat Russian disinformation more effectively,” the RSF press release said.

It recalled that the European Commission’s latest progress report noted that Serbia made limited progress on media freedom because of frequent and virulent verbal attacks against journalists by public officials, the lack of independence of the Regulatory Body for Electronic Media (REM), the lack of transparency on media ownership, and the dissemination of Russian disinformation by many media outlets. It added that newly adopted media laws allow the state to buy media outlets via the Telekom Serbia company.

“We welcome the adoption of these two media laws in Serbia, which contain real solutions for improving press freedom. However, these reforms are not up to the challenges. The possibility of a return to state ownership of the media and the lack of a real overhaul of the REM are prompting concerns about renewed pressure from the Serbian authorities and a prominent place for Russian propaganda. As a candidate for accession to the European Union, Serbia must be more ambitious in its reforms. We call on the government to review these laws in light of the recommendations in the European Commission’s report,” the press release quoted RSF EU-Balkans desk chief Pavol Szalai as saying.

“RSF calls on the Serbian government to follow the European Commission’s recommendations to: take measures to combat the dissemination of Russian disinformation, ensure the independence of the REM and protect journalists against all forms of violence and intimidation.

RSF also recalled that the two new media laws were put forward by the government at the last minute and were adopted late at night with by-laws still to come. “The government could still improve or, on the contrary, toughen some of the laws,” it said.

Source: N1

Working as a journalist has never been easy. However, the specificity of today’s times is the increasingly frequent threats, primarily security-related, directed towards journalists and media professionals, it was stated at today’s meeting of media representatives and media associations representing the majority of media outlets in Croatia.

Because of all this, the Croatian Journalists’ Association and the Trade Union of Croatian Journalists’ recently agreed with the Ministry of the Interior on a Cooperation Agreement regarding police procedures at public gatherings and in the event that journalists and media professionals become victims of criminal acts while performing their duties.

At today’s meeting with media representatives and media associations representing the majority of media outlets in Croatia, we presented the Cooperation Agreement, Protocol on police procedures in cases of criminal offenses against journalists on assignment, and the Protocol on police procedures for journalists and media professionals at public gatherings of public interest. We also invite you to familiarize yourselves with these documents.

The representative of the Ministry of the Interior, Marina Mandić, emphasized that the Protocols establish a process and presented specific steps for implementation. The Protocol on procedures at public gatherings was first activated during three parallel protests that took place after the start of the terrible conflicts in Israel and Gaza.

“Some journalists were aware of the Protocol, some were not. They all came to report because they recognized the spokesperson of the relevant police station, who is also the contact person for journalists and media professionals regarding security questions at gatherings. In this case, the journalists did not use the safe place defined by the protocol, but they welcomed the fact that it exists,” described Mandić how the first application of the Protocol went.

The representative of the Croatian Employers’ Association – Association of Newspaper Publishers, Tomislav Wruss, welcomed the structuring of police procedures in this way during events of high security risk. This sentiment was also echoed by the representative of the Croatian Association of Digital Publishers, Ozren Kronja, as well as the Director of the News Program of Nova TV, Ksenija Kardum, and the representative of HRT, Renato Kunić.

The meeting was also an excellent opportunity to further acquaint employer representatives with the activities of the Ministry of Culture and Media. The Director of the Media and Creative Industries Development Department, Jasna Vaniček-Fila, reported that they are still working on educating judges regarding SLAPP cases, as well as the Council of Europe’s campaign on journalist safety.

“This campaign is a platform open to as many participants as possible who can devise useful measures to protect journalist safety,” explained Vaniček-Fila, adding that the National Plan for the Development of Culture and Media, which is under development, has as its first measure the protection of journalist safety and the improvement of the profession’s position.

Times are challenging, there are many problems, but dialogue is certainly the best way to start addressing them. Therefore, we believe that today’s meeting is just the first in a series of meetings with media employers and the beginning of social dialogue.