{"id":1151,"date":"2019-05-13T04:59:12","date_gmt":"2019-05-13T04:59:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tim-dawson.com\/?p=1151"},"modified":"2022-01-17T14:02:16","modified_gmt":"2022-01-17T14:02:16","slug":"baltic-exchange-europes-journalists-confer-in-tallinn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tim-dawson.com\/?p=1151","title":{"rendered":"Baltic exchange: Europe’s journalists’ confer in Tallinn"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A report on the general meeting of the European Federation of Journalists in Tallinn, Estonia 9 \u2013 10 May 2019<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Listening to Estonia\u2019s president (pictured above), it would be easy to feel optimistic about press freedom and media plurality. Kersti Kaljulaid\u2019s address to around 100 attendees at the European Federation of Journalist\u2019s (EFJ) general meeting was, from a head of state, a refreshingly unambiguous commitment to the need for unfettered reporting and openness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She basked in her country\u2019s impressive 11th place in the Reporters Sans Frontiers ‘press freedom’ rankings<\/a>, and made it clear that retaining such a position required determination and bravery on the part of legislators. \u201cWithout the open windows of a free media, a society quickly becomes musty\u201d, she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just hours after the president\u2019s speech, however, the Estonian journalists\u2019 union, EAL, painted a significantly darker picture of the state of their national media. It raised current threats to limit media freedom that are more quickly evident in smaller countries. It drew attention to the open talk of closing the Estonian State Broadcaster or taking its content under political control and the calls for critical newspaper journalists to be punished. Those Estonian politicians who refuse to engage with critics in the press were highlighted, as were faltering economic models and struggling freelances. EAL\u2019s motion concluded that without significant additional action, Estonia faces an \u2018Orwellian future\u2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The distance between those visions represents, in microcosm, the EFJ\u2019s challenge \u2013 and, indeed, that of all of use who advocate for free journalism. We must find ways to represent the deeply challenging conditions in which we produce honest journalism in an environment where being beguiled by comfortable platitudes is easy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Retaining a sharp focus on this task has tested every one of Europe\u2019s journalist unions. Dramatic headcount losses in newsrooms brought on by tumbling circulations and free-falling advertising revenues have dominated the landscapes for the past decade. Unsurprisingly, it has been no less an issue for our European federation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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EFJ President Mogens Blicher Bjerregard
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

On the basis of the outcome of the meeting in Tallinn, most European affiliates are satisfied with the current leadership\u2019s approach to this. It certainly represented a personal triumph for Mogens Blicher Bjerregard, the Dane who defeated Italy’s Anna Del Freo, to be elected EFJ president for a third and final term. Critical voices were eliminated from the EFJ\u2019s steering committee, however, with a ruthlessness that looked defensive and may well be interpreted as hostility by some affiliates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To the untutored eye, discerning the fault lines between the factions that vie for influence in the EFJ is not easy. For most of its recent history, the federation\u2019s leadership has been dominated by an alliance of Scandinavians and Germans. The core of the opposing block is drawn from the UK, France, Italy and Spain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the few points where ideological differences were exposed came in discussion of a motion of the EU\u2019s recently adopted Copyright Directive. The original motion, submitted by SNJ-CGT (France), EAL (Estonia), NUNS (Serbia), FSC-CCOO (Spain) included the line: \u201cA call to open the text to amendments was lost by just 5 votes\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This referred to an attempt made, very late in the passage of the Copyright Directive, to completely reopen negotiations on its contents. Those who supported this position argued that the directive might yet be improved. Opponents of reopening the text said that limitations on legislative time would mean that that \u2018reopening\u2019 would have the effect of shelving the Directive for a decade or more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even though these events are now historical, reference to this initiative hit a nerve. The implication of this line was that the EFJ would have preferred the text to have been reopened. The motion\u2019s proposer and his opponents were dispatched to confer in private. Half an hour later, agreement to delete the offending sentence had been reached.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Such a slight point of contention might be interpreted as an organisation at ease with itself. That the meeting stuck on that wrinkle, however, even for just a moment, showed up the separating contours. On one side a more corporatist, consensus-seeking Scandinavian approach, on the other one shaped by a sense that workers\u2019 and employers\u2019 interests rarely coincide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Along the way, good motions were adopted that called on the EFJ to intensify work to protect journalists from violence at work, support Belarusian freelances, oppose the jailing of journalists in Turkey, support the independence of news agencies and develop a fresh strategy to deal with the media\u2019s gender divide. Attention was also drawn to such individual cases as the murder of Lyra McKee, and the imprisonment of Swedes Gui Minhai in China and Dawit Isaak in Eritrea. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Such a. meeting provides only limited opportunities to better understand a host country\u2019s culture, alas. The importance of Estonia\u2019s recent story to its national consciousness, however, was shown up in a tiny tableau that I witnessed as I picked up my conference credentials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The desk was staffed by long-standing activists from the Estonian Journalists Association. As one of them stuck the conference passes to attendees\u2019 lapels, she asked with a smile \u201cwhen was your association founded?\u201d In most cases, their answer allowed her to observe that the EAL, having been founded in 1919, pre-dated them. Her evident pride in her union\u2019s longevity was heartwarming. Indeed, reflecting on her repeated question, I wished that I had affected ignorance that the NUJ is 12 years the EAL\u2019s senior.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I can\u2019t imagine a British NUJ activist troubling to make a similar point. But, perhaps, were we not so complacent about our national narrative, the UK\u2019s current trajectory would not be quite so convulsed in confusion?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I attended the conference at the invitation of the EFJ’s steering committee to be a member of the three-person presidium that ran the conference. I was joined in this role by Gregor Kucera from GPA-djp (Austria) and Dominique Pradali\u00e9 from SNJ (France).<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Images \u00a9 Tim Dawson<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A report on the general meeting of the European Federation of Journalists in Tallinn, Estonia 9 \u2013 10 May 2019 Listening to Estonia\u2019s president (pictured above), it would be easy to feel optimistic about press freedom and media plurality. Kersti …<\/p>\n

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