News

Coalition calls for effective implementation as the Parliament adopts the EMFA

13/03/2024

OBCT, as part of the EU Media Advocacy Working Group, welcomes the adoption of the European Media Freedom Act by the European Parliament and calls for an effective implementation of the new regulation

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

13/03/2024

The partner organisations of the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) today express 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

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SafeJournalists and MFRR: Physical Confrontation with Journalist in Serbia is Unacceptable and Must be Sanctioned

08/03/2024

SafeJournalists Network and the Media Freedom Rapid Response strongly condemn the behavior of the local authorities in Indjija, 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

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Safeguarding women journalists in the digital age

08/03/2024

On International Women’s Day, MFRR coalition partners publish a critical examination of attacks against women journalists in the European Union and candidate countries

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Italy: MFRR partners strongly condemn investigation into Domani journalists

07/03/2024

OBCT and MFRR partners note with concern that Italian press freedom has fallen under renewed pressure. We call for the preliminary investigation of three Domani journalists to be immediately dropped, and we urge Italian authorities to respect the confidentiality of journalistic sources in line with international and European press freedom standards

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Türkiye: Big tech should protect free speech and resist state censorship

04/03/2024

Ahead of Türkiye’s municipal elections on 31 March 2024, 22 rights groups and journalists’ organisations jointly call on social media platforms to uphold the free expression rights of their users and resist state censorship. They should also fully disclose all government requests to restrict accounts or content, and be transparent about informal government pressure to restrict content on their platforms.

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International Media Freedom and Human Rights Organisations Demand Release of Journalist Dicle Müftüoğlu in Upcoming Trial

29/02/2024

On the day of a new hearing of journalist Dicle Müftüoğlu, MFRR partners and international media and human rights organisations call for immediate attention to her case and her unjust detention which starkly violates international legal standards and media freedom

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The Anti-SLAPP Directive creates a promising minimum standard for Member States

27/02/2024

The Coalition Against SLAPPs in Europe (CASE ) welcomes the adoption of the Anti-SLAPP Directive in the European Parliament in today’s plenary vote. This directive sets the minimum standards for protecting public watchdogs against abusive litigation in the form of SLAPPs (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation)

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Two years on, Ukrainian journalists still pay a heavy price for the war

23/02/2024

February 24 marks two years since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Today, the organizations of the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) reaffirm our solidarity with Ukrainian journalists and call for guarantees of their safety and full freedom to report, as well as a renewed effort to provide the necessary financial and technical support for them to continue their work.

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Slovakia: Lack of justice for Kuciak and Kušnírová’s assassination exacerbated by growing attacks on press freedom

21/02/2024

On the sixth anniversary of the brutal killing of investigative reporter Ján Kuciak and his fiancée Martina Kušnírová, the undersigned organisations renew our call for long-awaited justice for their killings and the imperative to break the cycle of impunity.

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