European Federation Of Journalists Ends

The yearly EFJ ended today in Zagreb, most important congress of European journalists and associations in 2007.

With accepting the declaration and re-election of the current president Arne Koening to the head of the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), the annual EFJ assembly ended today in Zagreb, the most important congress of European journalists and journalists` associations in 2007.

The final document, which, among other things, consists of the state and media freedoms in Croatia assessment , salutes the progress in the area of media freedom in Croatia, but it also warns of occasional violation of social, professional and moral rights of journalists and the media.

Complete support was given to the Union of Croatian journalists in negotiations with employers in order to agree upon and sign a national collective contract for journalists by the end of year. Foreign media owners are requested to honour those rules and obligations in Croatia just as they do in their own countries.

EFJ supported the Croatian Journalists` Association (HND) in their request for the local and regional media and journalists to be relieved of political pressure and for the information on money which state-owned companies spend on advertisements in the local media.

EFJ also supported HND and Unions` requests for the government to help preserve the Vjesnik daily as an independent public herald and to “consistently solve the case” of Hina national news agency.

Apart from the president, an eight-member Main Committee was elected at the assembly, as well as four members of region representatives, who are invited when the Committee discussed individual regions. HND president Dragan Lucic was elected for the south-east European area, who is the only EFJ authority member from a country that is not a European Union member.

During the three-day congress, called “Promotion of basic work rights for all journalists: challenges of the digital age”, media state in individual countries was discussed, work rights, free newspaper, copyright laws for journalists, electronic journalists` rights, and guidelines for EFJ`s work were presented for the period up to 2010.