The number of women who lead media outlets - whether as editors or managers - is far from satisfactory in Bosnia and Herzegovina. We are talking about the 30% of leadership positions in the national media system...
More attacks and less freedom: that was the balance-sheet of 2017 for Kosovar journalists. “It’s nothing new to say that we are not satisfied with the Kosovo justice system, which is negligent in these cases”, explained Parim Olluri, the executive director of the online newspaper Insajderi, who was physically attacked this summer. “it is a case that if the prosecution and police got engaged in seriously, it could easily be solved. But in the circumstances of Kosovo, this negligence looks normal”, he told Kosovo 2.0.
Local Courts have ruled continuation of arrest of Şahin Alpay and Mehmet Altan, despite Constitutional Court ruling that their “right to personal freedom and security” and “freedom of expression and press” had been violated. The vice prime minister and government spokesperson Bekir Bozdağ has stated: “With its decision on Alpay and Altan, the Constitutional Court crossed the border drawn by the Constitution, it acted like a court of first instance examining evidences and making evaluations on the condition of evidence”.
Recognizing that the rights of imprisoned journalists Şahin Alpay and Mehmet Altan had been violated, the Constitutional Court (AYM) ruled their release. “I didn’t see the content of the decision but I hope it will pave the way for the release of all journalists. Freedom of expression can be maintained in Turkey”, lawyer Veysel Ok stated. Strong supporter of the Accession of Turkey to the European Union, Mehmet Hasan Altan (1953) is a Turkish academic and journalist, author of over 25 books. He was arrested during the first detention wave, following the July 2016 coup attempt. Alpay (1944) is a writer, journalist and political scientist. Back from Sweden (were he completed his PhD program) he worked for several newspaper - among them “Cumhuriyet”, “Sabah”, “Milliyet”, “Zaman” - and TV channel. He had been jailed pending trial in Zaman case.
“If Bulgaria was not an EU member, it currently would not get accession”. This was the message left by participants in a media conference held in Sofia and organized by the Union of Publishers in Bulgaria. Before foreign diplomats and international non-governmental organisations the Union presented its newest publication - “A White Paper on Media Freedom” - which unveils the highly deteriorated media environment in the country. The rank of Bulgaria in the World Press Freedom Index has dropped significantly during the last ten years (from 36 in 2006 to 109 in 2017). A representative of “Reporters without borders” said that the situation in the country is getting more and more dramatic, while several publishers revealed the methods of the government to exert pressure on their work.
Fadıl Öztürk, a journalist of Artı Gerçek news web-site was detained in a police raid carried out into his home in İzmir on January 5th. According to Artı Gerçek’s report he is charged with terrorism.
Arrested for using encrypted communication software “ByLock” (which is allegedly used by the “Fethullahist Terrorist Organization”), the former İhlas News Agency Chief of Intelligence Ömer Faruk Aydemir has been acquitted in the first hearing. In Turkey a large number of people have been detained and arrested for using ByLock.
A year ago the European Court of Human Rights had ruled in favor of Macedonian journalists physically removed from parliamentary security during the 2012 budget adoption session: on that occasion, Article 10 and Article 6 of the European Convention on human rights were violated. A year later, the book by Mirjana Lazarova Trajkovska - Macedonian judge within the Court of Strasbourg - focuses on the role played by international law in defining freedom of expression in her country.
Five years have passed since the events of December 2012, when both the opposition representatives and the journalists in the parliamentary hall were removed by the Macedonian police. Without any media coverage and political opposition, the majority approved the country budget for 2013.
After a series of evaluations, the Macedonian government decides to withdraw from its first intention to finance print media: there would be no public money from the budget.
