The final conference of the European Federation of Journalists on Media Change Management is taking place Thessaloniki. Croatian representatives include Ante Pavić of the Croatian Journalists’ Association and Croatian Journalists Union President Maja Sever.
The results of EFJ’s “Experts visit exchanges” project were presented at the beginning of the conference, as part of which the President of the European Federation of Journalists Mogens Blicher Bjerregård visited Zagreb.
As we reported earlier, on the first day of the panel, “We don’t give up on journalism – how much and for how much we work”, many problems in Croatian journalism were discussed. From the fact that no legal provisions can be applied to better protect the working rights of journalists – such as the possibility of collective agreements, to the decline of media freedoms in the last few years since Croatia joined the EU.
On the second day, a collective bargaining workshop was held, which was very useful as my colleagues at the EFJ President briefed on specific issues in the media and together we tried to find a possible solution.
Continuing on the first day of the Thessaloniki conference, Turkish counterpart Mustafa Kuleli moderated a discussion on the future of the journalist union and the prospects for young people. Viktoria Papp Nagy spoke about the work of the ETUC Youth Department and explained that the union is not a coffeemaker into which you put coins and get hot chocolate, but that the union opens up opportunities for participation in decision making relevant to our work.
Students from Aristotle University participated in the discussion and explained that the role of unions should be better explained to young people. Adaptation of the presentation of the union’s work to the new time was discussed and Victoria Papp Nagyi explained very briefly and clearly – if young people take all necessary information from a smartphone then all information about the union must be on a smartphone. However, when asked by my colleague Kuleli how many organizations present at the event have an Instagram profile, only 50% raised their hand (we have – follow us!)
Alexandra Borchard of the Reuters Institute for Journalism presented in the panel Business Models and Trends in Journalism the results of a study showing that journalism is becoming a less desirable profession, although it is hoped that there are still a number of young people opting for the job that is supposed to change things for the better. However, the fact that the trend is certainly unfavorable is indicated by the fact that as many as 50 world leaders used the term “fake news” in the past year to disparage journalistic work.
As part of a conference on legal protection for freelancers, we learned how far colleagues in Europe went in trying to protect freelancers. In Croatia, our fellow freelancers are probably in the most difficult situation, so European experience will help us to make some changes here for the better.
Colleague Marijana Camović from Montenegro spoke at the panel “How to use joint actions and campaigns to improve the working rights of journalists” on the establishment of the Montenegrin Media Union and the successful completion of collective bargaining in public service.
Andy Smith of the National Union of Journalist in London spoke about the involvement of young people in the work of unions, and the common conclusion is that young people must be involved simply by involving them – but also in the work of the governing bodies of the union.