Third group of journalists acting in solidarity withtheir colleagues under curfew has arrived in Diyarbakır. Journalists Arzu Demir, Ceyda Karan, Cihangir Balkır, Demet Yılan, Gökhan Biçici, Hayko Bağdat, Mehveş Evin, Metin Cihan, and Semra Çelebi took parto to the mission for News Watch.
Dozens of freelance journalists in Belarus face fines for working for “foreign media”. European press associations warned on this eastern republic’s authorities’ continuation of bad practice after they sanctioned, at the beginning of this year, Larysa Shchyrakova with around 225 euro for breaking an article of the Belarusian Code on Administrative Offenses which forbids freelance journalists in the country from working with foreign media outlets.
The refugee crisis has sparked fears that immigrants and refugees arriving in Europe will provoke an increase in crime and especially sexual crime. Yet, although complaints are multiplying, reality seems to be completely different.
Kosovo ranks 87th in the ranking of Reporters without borders about media freedom, performing slightly worse than Ivory Coast. Attacks and threats are nothing new in the country, but are nevertheless "allarming" as pointed out by the OSCE. A report from a country where one can throw death threats without being recognized guilty.
According to a survey of public attitudes, conducted by The Konrad Adenauer Foundation and Foundation "Media Democracy", only one in eight Bulgarians believes the media are free. The Bulgarian media sector continues to enjoy a poor reputation.
Digital communication strategist Gillo Cutrupi warned that there is too much noise on the Internet and that it is lowering information flow. Cutrupi spoke to Media.ba about today’s biggest threats to unobstructed flow of digital information and how every activist, organisation and journalist can strengthen the civil society sector.
The Croatian network E-net and nonprofit media have petitioned the prime minister of Croatia Tihomir Orešković to replace the minister of culture Zlatko Hasanbegović. During the first month in this position, the minister has adopted many questionable decisions, angering the public, and has now resolved all members of the Expert Committee for non-profit media from their duty. We discussed Hasanbegović's first moves with Željana Buntič Pejakovič from Cenzura plus and Saša Lekovič, president of Croatian Association of Journalists.
Andrija Mikulić, President of the Parliamentary Commission for information, digitalization and the media, and member of the HDZ party said, in line with the position already expressed by the Minister of Culture Hasanbegović, that the decision to suspend the funding program for non-profit media is the consequence of scandals and conflicts of interest that concerned that program. In particular, he accused Suzana Kunac of voting a funding provision in support of a media she was also a contributor for.
