World Congress Study Reveals Vital Need for Training of Journalists

There is an urgent need to provide better training opportunities for journalists across the world, a study by the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has found.

According to the study, which was carried out with journalists taking part in the IFJ World Congress in Dublin, unions in 75% of countries across the world think training for journalists in their country is currently insufficient or only partly sufficient.

The study also showed that increasing numbers of journalists are being forced to carry out their work online. In Europe the figure is nearly 50%, while in European countries such as Switzerland, Germany and Finland the figure is closer to 80%. Outside Europe, 30.8% of journalists work for online media.

Another statistic that has been revealed is that in Europe, 40.9% of journalists have freelance status, while this is the case for 26.4% of journalists outside Europe.

Worryingly, the survey also showed that 48% of journalists outside Europe do not earn a sufficient living from their work as journalists. The IFJ believes this is due to the lack of cooperative agreements between employers and journalist unions. In Europe, 48.8% of journalists profit from such agreements, but outside Europe this figure is only 23.6%.

Notably, the survey shows that in 56.5% of the countries surveyed author's rights are not respected, but also in Europe this is the case in 33.3% of the countries.

IFJ General Secretary, Beth Costa, said: "It is clear from this survey that it is not only issues of safety that are affecting the profession of journalism throughout the world, but also training and working conditions, for journalists must be considerably improved if we are to have a free and democratic media."