WELCOME FROM THE IFJ PRESIDENT

Read a blog from IFJ President, Jim Boumelha, welcoming visitors to our new website:"Dear colleagues,I have the pleasure of welcoming you to the IFJ’s new website, bringing a new look, new content and new functionality. Our staff have been working on it since our last world congress to rebuild a site around the needs of our member unions.The new site not only uses up-to-date technology to create a better look and feel slicker – all new websites do that – but it explains better who we are and what we do, and gives more space to members’ news and activities.New information architecture and navigation will connect to social media and pulls through the latest tweets from unions and their members, changing the way the IFJ communicates with its affiliates and a wider audience, and the way members interact with each other.This launch takes place at a critical time for journalists. It happens only a few days after the cold-blooded murder of AFP reporter Sardar Ahmed and his family in Kabul horrified the community of journalists the world over and reminded us of the crucial importance of the IFJ campaigning for the safety and protection of journalists and against impunity. Our special microsite on safety is a huge resource for journalists everywhere, brimming with practical information and advisories underpinning our training programme on safety, and a formidable tool in our campaigns against impunity on several fronts within international institutions.It also happens at a time where, whenever there are huge political upheavals, whether in Egypt or the Ukraine or Yemen, journalists have now become the first to bear the brunt of violent attacks, kidnapping and arrests. The IFJ website will be a crucial tool not just to report but also to organise solidarity between journalists, to rebuild morale of our unions under attacks or fighting austerity, or to name and shame corporations when their decisions result in undermining quality of journalism or weakening working conditions, and, most importantly, consolidate and showcase the campaigns and fight back of our unions.As a global organisation, the IFJ caters for all the needs of its members, whether they are broadcasters gearing up to strike to defend public interest, or reporters fighting on bread-and-butter issues, or just a small union endeavouring to build its capacity.The website will be there for everybody. As well as being a window on our governance, our decisions and views, we should unite in making it a powerful enabling engine for all the activities of the IFJ as the global voice of journalists."Kind Regards,  IFJ President Jim Boumelha.