Justice for Journalists Foundation (JFJ)

History

Justice for Journalists Foundation (JFJ) was founded by Mikhail Khodorkovsky (founder of the Open Russia movement) and Leonid Nevzlin (businessman, philanthropist, founder of the NADAV Foundation, and co-owner of Israeli newspaper Haaretz) in 2018 after the murder of three Russian journalists – Orkhan Dzhemal, Alexander Rastorguev and Kirill Radchenko in the Central African Republic.

Geographic scope / network

Global / Post-Soviet states

Key actions and/or campaigns

Grants for investigating violence and abuse against professional and citizen media workers;

• Media risk mapping via monitoring, analysing and publicising violence and abuse against media workers;

• Training and education via online and offline media safety trainings in Orkhan Dzhemal Media Safety Academy;

• Raising public awareness about the realities of media work worldwide via visual and print materials, and conferences, roundtables, and seminars in support of such initiatives and activities conducted by other charitable organisations involved in the protection of the right to free expression.

Key outputs

We believe security is the essential basis for work in the media. The public right to know is the cornerstone of democracy and any attacks on the free reporting is a threat to its values. We raise awareness about the violence and abuse the media workers are facing around the world and educate professional and citizen journalists how to mitigate their various risks. Along with our partners, advisors and supporters, we fight impunity for crimes against media.

Methodology of key outputs

https://jfj.fund/about-us/

Key Priorities for next 2 years

In the next 2 years we would like to focus on extending cooperation with our current partners and building new partnerships. This year we have been recognised as Registered Charity, therefore our main aim is to attract funding to continue our operations. As we are working really close with the Council of Europe to raise awareness about abuse against media workers, we would like to strengthen our cooperation with other high-profile institutions as UNECSO and UN. As part of the Media Safety Academy, we will continue to educate Russian-speaking media workers how to mitigate risks. Besides that, we would like to focus more on journalists in exile providing psychological support to them and opportunities for networking. Together with the UK and global universities and academics we would like to focus on the issues of safety and security of independent journalists working in exile.

Monitoring of threats to journalism safety

Yes

Types of threats monitored

Physical, non-physical, digital, legal

Methodology of monitoring

Together with its partners, JFJ carries out daily monitoring of attacks against media workers in post-Soviet countries, excluding the Baltic states, the results of which are published on the Media Risk Map in English. The Media Risk Map covers the period from 2017 onwards. Our partners collect the data from open sources in Russian, English, and the relevant state language. The data is also provided directly by journalists subjected to the attacks.

The term ‘media workers’ includes journalists, camerapersons, photographers, other employees and managers of traditional and digital media, bloggers, and online activists. JFJ is also a partner of the Safety of Journalists Platform (Council of Europe). We provide information about the attacks from Risk Map to the Platform’s website. Besides that, JFJ contributes to Stakeholder Submissions to the UN Human Rights Committee of Universal Periodic Review.