UK slips down ranking in World Press Freedom Index
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) ranks the UK as number 26 in its latest World Press Freedom Index, released on World Press Freedom Day 2023.That's two places down from last year and at the Index launch Kim Sengupta, world affairs […]
AEJ joins call to release Gershkovich
The AEJ has joined partner media freedom groups to urge Russian authorities to release American journalist Evan Gershkovich immediately and to drop all charges against him. The organisations of the Council of Europe’s Safety of Journalists Platform said the […]
Northern Ireland reset?
The UK government has formally signed the Windsor Framework with the European Union after the deal aimed at resolving the bitter dispute over the Brexit Northern Ireland protocol won Parliamentary approval on March 22.But 22 Conservative MPs voted against […]
War in Europe, war on journalism
This year's annual Council of Europe report on the safety of journalists documents a record high number of attacks on journalists and a continued degradation of press freedom across the continent. The 2023 report – War in Europe and […]
News
Russian warlord investigation forces UK to tighten sanctions
The UK government has tightened its sanctions rules against Russia in the wake of revelations by openDemocracy that the UK Treasury gave sanctioned Russian warlord Yevgeny Prighozin – founder of the Russian mercenary group Wagner – permission to sue a British journalist.Exchequer Secretary James Cartlidge issued a written statement to Parliament changing the rules so that […]
Another misuse of Pegasus spyware
A joint investigation published by The New York Times and Aristegui Noticias and reported by Article 19 and PEN International shows that Mexico's armed forces used NSO's Pegasus surveillance software to spy on communications between a human rights defender and journalists who were investigating allegations that soldiers had gunned down innocent people. Surveillance experts say this […]
Culture Secretary scraps plans to privatise Channel 4
Culture Secretary Michelle Donelan has reversed plans by Boris Johnson's government to privatise Channel 4.Her department confirmed a letter to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, leaked to the News Agents podcast, in which Donelan said there are "better ways to secure [Channel 4's] sustainability and that of the independent production sector”. Donelan recommends keeping Channel 4 in […]
Media Freedom
Democracy undermined by media manipulation – AEJ marks World Press Freedom Day
Media freedom, "the cornerstone of democracy", is being undermined and manipulated "by a number of different actors who use a variety of increasingly sophisticated methods" […]
Can the Commonwealth survive without free speech?
Marking World Press Freedom Day on May 3, William Horsley questions what the Commonwealth is doing to protect free speech.Horsley is chair of the AEJ […]
AEJ joins call for Turkey to stop stifling critical reporting ahead of elections
The AEJ has joined 18 other media freedom and human rights organisations calling on Turkey’s broadcast regulator (RTÜK) immediately to stop fining broadcasters for their […]
Ukraine analysis
Russian journalism in exile
What's it like for journalists who have fled Russia since Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022? And the many independent […]
Reporting the war in Ukraine
The war in Ukraine has turned Ukrainian journalists into war reporters.At a workshop of the University of Sheffield’s Centre for Media Freedom hosted by the centre's […]
Ukraine eastern offensive historic?
One of Britain's pre-eminent military analysts says a rapid and surprise Ukraine advance in the northeastern Donbas region is historic.Ukraine in early September claimed to […]
The AEJ UK
The AEJ UK is part of a professional network of journalists and specialists active across Europe, independent of any institutional or political group and recognised by the Council of Europe, the OSCE and UNESCO. We connect the newsmakers who shape our political and economic world with journalists, broadcasters and writers on European affairs. Meetings are open to journalists, academics and Europe specialists […]
Ukraine – between Russia and the West
On 5 June at the AEJ UK, Jaroslava Barbieri, a Ukrainian-Italian expert on Russia and the former Soviet Union, will examine the roots of Ukraine’s quest for freedom as a western-style democracy, following Russia’s […]
Brexit – an audit of UK-EU relations
Anand Menon, director of UK in a Changing Europe, predicts that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's Windsor Framework agreement resetting trade rules for the island of Ireland will remain the formal template for relations with […]
The UK economy – not as bad as you might believe
Simon French, chief economist at British investment bank Panmure Gordon and former senior civil servant, says the UK's economic performance and outlook are both broadly in line with other G7 economies despite pessimism from […]
