The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) today launches a handbook titled "The Right Thing" to help journalists protect their authors' rights.

"Journalists, whether they are employed or freelances, face increasing difficulties in securing their authors' rights," said EFJ President, Arne König, "The handbook rightly addresses these challenges and provides a set of guidelines and best practices to help our colleagues face the new challenge."

According to Mike Holderness, author of the handbook and Chair of the EFJ authors' rights expert group, the biggest challenge faced by journalists is the unreasonable demand coming from publishers and broadcasters.

"We face publishers and broadcasters that want to make the maximum use of our works for the minimum fee- and now want to re-use that work for many new ways for no additional fee," Holderness said.  

Today, increasing numbers of journalists are working to produce reporting that will only ever be seen online. The migration of offline to online publishing has made their authors' rights more vulnerable to infringement.  

"The fact that work published online is so easily copied, altered and distorted makes the rights to be identified and to object to changes that damage the integrity of the work - and hence of the journalists who created it - more important than ever," said Holderness.

Organised in seven chapters, the handbook offers,

• ·         essentials tips for journalists on authors' rights and copyright,
• ·         latest developments on EU and International authors' rights law,
• ·         guidelines for concluding contracts,
• ·         models for collective agreements,
• ·         functioning of collecting societies,
• ·         suggestions for dealing with infringement,
• ·         future trends and challenges for authors' rights. 
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You can download the handbook in both English and French.

For more information, please contact EFJ on + 32 2 235 22 26

The EFJ represents more than 250.000 members in over 30 countries