ZAGREB, October 1, 2019 - The president of the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), Mogens Bisher Bjerregaard, said in Zagreb on Monday that the EFJ expected countries to fully support the promotion of the freedom of speech, media, journalism and journalists' professional status as well as their working rights and copyright.
If there are no good working conditions and if journalists cannot live off their work, it is difficult to speak of good journalism. It is very important for the entire society to promote reporters' rights and a joint approach is needed to collective bargaining and conclusion of collective agreements in journalism, the EFJ president said.
It is also important to convince publishers and media owners that it is in their interest to have reports who can do their job professionally, Bjerregard said at a panel discussion organised by the Croatian Journalists Association (HND), the Croatian Journalists Union (SNH), and the Association for Journalist Copyright Protection (DZNAP).
SNH leader Maja Sever said that Bjerregard was visiting Zagreb as part of a project on the management of changes in the media and that as a long-standing Danish unionist, he would organise a workshop on collective bargaining for Croatian reporters.
She stressed that Croatian journalists worked in precarious conditions and that insecurity in terms of labour legislation and undermined professional standards jeopardised the dignity of the profession and journalists themselves.
HND president Hrvoje Zovko said that the current media scene was marked by unprecedented and growing pressure against journalists and the media, notably those involved in investigative journalism, as well as by disregard for the Media Act and violation of in-house statutes in print media.
"There is a terrifying silence about this on the part of people who represent the state, which very soon will take over presidency of the European Union," Zovko said.
More news about journalism in Croatia can be found in the Politics section.
