Latest posts
Estonian journalists fear for their sources
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In Estonia, new draft legislation would allow journalists to be incarcerated for up to one year for protecting their sources. Protection of journalists’ sources is clearly stated in European Human rights practice. This does, apparently, not prevent...
How dear was the past Commission?
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Two days ago the European Parliament voted in the new commissioners. One day ago Dutch tv-station RTL published, how much the commissioners in the previous team spent on travelling and gifts in 2009. The story is interesting from a journalistic point...
Truly European journalism
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Slave workers in Europe. Personal tragedies, evil masterminds, fear, violence and threats to journalists. And European questions. All elements for a good story are there. Yet it took Adrian Mogos from Romania two years before he had finally publish...
Cross-questioning
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An obvious question for the incoming commissioner of agriculture tomorrow is about who gets the EU farmsubsidies, and who uses them for what. In other words a question by the Budget Control Committe (last question page 3). Why? In order to make a goo...
Reporting forbidden?
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“Media and politics – the tension between freedom of the press and personal rights in print media and the internet”. Monday November 9th, 18.30, Residence Palace, Brussels – se invitation at the bottom of this blog entry. Can only Norwegian m...
Revolution in the administration?
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The ‘presumption of confidentiality’ between EU institutions and their contacts can not be used anymore to reject access to document requests, if the European Court of Justice follows yesterday’s opinion by the General Advocat on the ‘Bavaria...
No more excuses
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Journalists sometimes say, that oh yes, it would be no problem to do this fantastic story if just…. they had a bit of extra time for the research or if just…. they had a bit of extra money to meet with another colleague to cooperate on the resear...
Slipping through the net
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€ 578 million a year is “a sort of money” – as we would say in Denmark. This is what the European Union grants to the Common European Fisheries Policies, the CFP. Spain and Poland are by far the largest recipient nations according to Commis...
Patients or industry
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The European Medicines Agency EMEA has a highly delicate balance to take care of when it comes to transparency: It has to weigh the interests of patients in knowing about the effects and side-effects of medicines against the interest of the pharmaceu...
Court in race against time
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Currently the EU has one of the more modern freedom of information acts in the world. A law that can be improved, of course, but a strong law all right. Yet it is young, and the European Court of Justice is still working on the case law. In the recen...
Danish openness + European openness = citizen in the dark?
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Mr. Wium-Andersen enjoys being in the Danish nature. He is very fond of wildlife, nature and birds – their protection is important to him. Obviously he follows closely a case, where protection through European law apparently is stronger than the pr...
Slovenia accuses Finnish journalist
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Several European journalists are fought by legal means these months: Recently a German MEP used lawyers against several journalists, writes German journalism magazine Message. Now Slovenia brings a criminal case against an award-winning Finnish colle...
Moldovan journalists document election fraud
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Yesterday, Moldova went to vote. Again. The election was a repeat of the vote in April. Already today, however, the morning following the second attempt, some observers are wondering: How comes, that the exit polls yesterday showed only 41 percent of...
