World Press Freedom Day initiatives from affiliates around the world

Check out the activities the IFJ and its affiliates are carrying out to mark this year's World Press Freedom Day.

Check out the activities the IFJ and its affiliates are carrying out to mark this year's World Press Freedom Day.Sri Lanka IFJ affiliate in Sri Lanka Free Media Movement (FMM) is organising a public lecture and panel discussion on media freedom, which will hold under the title “Media Reforms: Moving beyond the current situation” on 2 May at Sri Lanka Press Institute, as FMM recognises the issues of freedom of information and expression as one of the most important issues facing journalist worldwide. Australia MEAA has published on 3 May an online survey conducted between February and April this year that reveals that press freedom in Australia has deteriorated over the past decade. UK The NUJ had a solidarity protest oustide the BBC in London in support of the BBC Persian Service staff/families campaign. The NUJ also released a statement on 3 May announcing that they were holding a day's strike on Wednesday 9 May together with Bectu at Al Jazeera, followed by an indefinite withdrawal of goodwill over pay as they have not had a pay rise for four years. Spain Los días 1 y 3 de mayo, Día Internacional del Trabajo y Día Mundial de la Libertad de la Prensa respectivamente, la FeSP llamó a movilizarse contra la precariedad laboral, en especial de colaborador@s, y por la regulación del Derecho a la Información de la ciudadanía en un comunicado. Bulgaria On the occasion of the World Press Freedom Day – May 3th, the Union of Bulgarian Journalists’ Managing Board is organizing a journalistic discussion under the title:” The Media crisis is a crisis of the Journalism” aiming to raise the public concern about the crisis situation of Bulgarian media and the media environment in Bulgaria; to analyze the unenviable situation in which Bulgarian journalists are placed in economic, social and legal terms and finally, to name the problems of the media and the challenges facing the journalistic profession today. Canada Dans une lettre envoyée au Premier ministre canadien Justin Trudeau, la FIJ s'est associée à ses affiliés canadiens CSN (FNC-CSN), UNIFOR et le Syndicat des communications d’Amérique (SCA Canada – Le syndicat des médias) pour rappeler les principes fondamentaux de la liberté de la presse et les attentes des organisations de journalistes quant à la défense des médias sur le territoire canadien. Les organisations signataires reprochent au Premier ministre de ne pas soutenir suffisamment la liberté de la presse et de ne pas lui donner les moyens de cette liberté. Lire la lettre en FR et ENSomalia The National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) is marking World Press Freedom Day on 3 May 2017 with launch of its flagship annual report on State of Press Freedom in Somalia and renewed its urgent appeal to the Federal Government, Federal Member States, Somaliland and armed none-State Actor to stop infringing journalists’ rights and to respect the fundamental principles of freedom of press. EFJ The EFJ will be speaking at the European Parliament in Brussels on 3 May to advocate for a solid protection of whistleblowers and journalistic sources. RDC - République Démocratique du Congo Le Syndicat nationale des Professionnels de la Presse (SNPP) constate que depuis 2004, la profession demande la révision de la loi 96/002 du 22 juin 1996. Cette loi générale sur la presse, outre son caractère liberticide, est largement dépassée dans la mesure où elle a été adoptée et promulguée au moment où les médias communautaires et associatifs étaient inexistants. Le SNPP dénonce le blocage systématique entretenu par les différents parlements lorsqu’il s’agit d’examiner les projets de loi concernant la presse, et appelle les pouvoirs publics à mettre l’intérêt supérieur de la nation au-dessus des considérations politiciennes afin de doter rapidement la profession des lois essentielles pour le développement harmonieux du secteur des médias en RDC. Romania The Romanian Union of Journalists MediaSind, the national organization of media workers, began on 3 May a campaign to collect signatures to trigger strikes against the arrogance of the governors who ignore the repeated requests of representatives of the employees of the Culture and Media sector to be welcomed at the negotiating table.  Norway The Norwegian Union of Journalists, together with 5 other organisations, has run a seminar on 3 May on press freedom. Freelance journalist Afshin Ismaeli has beeing interviewed about "The danger when challenging Erdogan with critical journalism." There has also been a debate and the showing of the film "Couragen - Journalism is not a crime".  France IFJ, SNJ, SNJ-CGT and CFDT Journalistes organised a solidarity meeting on 3rd May in front of the Town hall in Paris. They expressed their solidarity with journalists in Turkey and unfair judicial sanctions against them, with all journalists behind bars across the globe, against impunity. They paid tribute to maltese Daphné Caruana Galizia, slovak Jan Kuciak and palestinian Ahmed Abou Hussein and Yasser Mourtaja who were killed because they were journalists. They also denounce the French law proposal on trade secrets.

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