Trade unions in Finland, Norway, Denmark and Iceland announced that on 31.01 they withdrew from the global media federation in protest because the IFJ allows journalists from Russian state media to organize media associations in the Russian-occupied territories with impunity, the Finnish trade union said.
📣 The leader of the Norwegian union, Dag Idar Triggestad, said (https://cutt.ly/h9Bzo1X) that they have been fighting for years to introduce democratic rules for IFJ elections, as well as for transparency of decisions and expenses.
“We believe that this (resignation) is the only thing that can save the IFJ,” he said. - he said.
In response, the IFJ announced that its executive committee has begun a formal procedure to suspend the membership and expel the Russian Union of Journalists.
IFJ Deputy Secretary General Jeremy Dear called the accusations of the four unions “false, defamatory and damaging” to the organization. From the very beginning, the IFJ has condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and has directed its Security Fund to help Ukrainian media workers.
💪 The Social Movement expresses its respect for this ironclad decision of Scandinavian journalists to support Ukraine on the front of the struggle to tell the truth.