EFJ elects new steering committee and president at General Meeting

At its General Meeting in Verviers, Belgium, from 13 to 15 May, the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) elected a new steering committee, including a new President and Vice-President. President of the EFJ is now Mogens Blicher Bjerregård, from the Danish Union of Journalists (Dansk Journalistforbund). Elected as Vice-President is Nadezda Azhgikhina from the Russian Union of Journalists. Further members of the Steering Committee are Andreas Bittner (DJV, Germany), who was re-appointed as Honorary Treasurer, Paco Audije (FAPE/FeSP, Spain), Yannis Kotsifos (ESIEMTH, Greece), Daniela Stigliano (FNSI, Italy), Agnieskza Romaszewska (SDP, Poland), Urs Thalmann (impressum, Switzerland), and Barry White (NUJ, Great Britain). The General Meeting was attended by delegates from 29 countries representing over 320.000 journalists in Europe. Over the course of the meeting, a message of support was also sent out to Greek journalist Dimitris Trimis who was due to appear in court for holding a strike on 1 May. The trial is part of legal action against media workers pursued by media owners aimed at criminalising trade union activities and manipulating public opinion news information. The General Meeting adopted a set of 21 resolutions dealing with labour rights, press freedom, authors' rights, gender and internal policies, as well as several statements on outgoing issues such as the crisis in Cyprus and missing journalists in Syria. Former President Arne König (SJF, Sweden) and former Vice-President Philippe Leruth (AGJPB, Belgium) had held the positions for nine years. You can find the resolutions here: http://europe.ifj.org/en/articles/resolutions-adopted-by-the-efj-general-meeting-in-2013 You can find the message of support for Dimitris Trimis here: http://europe.ifj.org/en/articles/gm-delegates-send-message-of-support-for-dimitris-trimis You can find the speech of Fadila Laanan, Minister for Culture and Audiovisual affairs, Walloonia and Brussels Federation, here (in French): http://europe.ifj.org/fr/articles/le-journalisme-en-tant-que-bien-public-selon-mme-laanan You can also see impressions of the meeting here:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/94622834@N04/sets/72157633510167192/For more information, please contact EFJ on + 32 2 235 22 02The European Federation of Journalists is the European group of the International Federation of Journalists. It represents over 320 000 journalists in 37 countries.