The general assembly of the International Press Association API-IPA today unanimously elected Hungarian journalist Katalin Halmai as its new president.

Our colleague Alvaro Sánchez, who is a correspondent for El Pais in Brussels, was detained and kept in a police van during a demonstration for the climate on the evening of 24 March in front of the Federal Parliament, Rue de la Loi. Alvaro was handcuffed, behind his back, for half an hour, despite the fact that he visibly identified himself as a journalist. He showed an accreditation badge visibly on his neck and stated that he works for the Spanish newspaper.

As their second and last two year term is coming to an end, API-president Tom Weingärtner and vice-president Kris Van Haver will have to step down. And when former vice-president Eric Maurice unexpectedly resigned last August, the API Council appointed its member Dafydd ab Iago as interim vice-president until the next assembly, conform art. 7.3a of the API-IPA statutes. This means that the 2019 General Assembly on Tuesday 2 April will have to elect a new president and two vice-presidents. 

 The International Press Association (API-IPA) is surprised and irritated about the fact that the Belgian authorities this week sent invoices, demanding a €50 payment, to several accredited foreign correspondents in Belgium. The fee supposedly covers (mandatory) security screening for obtaining accreditation to the October 2018 European summit held in Brussels.

On Tuesday 11 December, five people were killed in a random terrorist attack at Strasbourg's traditional Christmas market. Two of the victims were journalists: Italian Antonio Megalizzi (29) and his friend Bartek Niedzelski (36) from Poland. Megalizzi covered the European Parliament in Strasbourg, while Niedzelski wrote for local media and was also a well-known figure in the city's cultural life.

The International Press Association (API-IPA) – official representative of the foreign journalists in Brussels – is very concerned about the arrest, on Friday 30 November, of French journalist Rémy Buisine whilst reporting about the 'yellow vests' demonstration in the Brussels' city center.

The European Council has announced that its so-called 6-months badge for journalists wanting to attend European summit meetings, will be replaced by a badge that will be valid for one year – something that API has long asked for. It saves us the trouble of having to apply every six months: from now on once a year will be enough. Journalists can apply until the end of November.

Foreign correspondents in Brussels today commemorated Daphne Caruana Galizia, the Maltese investigative journalist who was murdered exactly a year ago, while investigating corruption at the highest political level in Malta.

In the press room of the European Commission journalists and spokespeople held a minute's silence and a commemoration was also held at the entrance of the International Press Center Residence Palace.

The International Press Association (API-IPA) is shocked by the brutal murder of Bulgarian journalist Viktoria Marinova of tv-station TVN. API-IPA strongly condemns this crime against a journalist who was doing her work, by investigating fraud with EU-funds. We expect the Bulgarian authorities to do their utmost to investigate the truth and to bring the perpetrators of this horrible act to justice. 

The API Council has unanimously chosen Council-member Dafydd ab Iago as interim Vice-President of the association, after the departure of Vice-President Eric Maurice, who recently left EUObserver and journalism for the Brussels office of the Robert Schuman Foundation.

Dafydd ab Iago, currently representative in the Council of the British media, will be Vice-President until the next General Assembly, in March 2019, conform article 7.3a of the API-statutes.

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The International Press Association (API-IPA) is greatly concerned by Austrian interior ministry instructions to national police "blacklisting" and restricting communication with government-critical media to "the most necessary". The instructions also aimed at providing preferential treatment to government-friendly media.

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Belgian authorities are reviewing their plans to charge a €50 security screening fee to journalists seeking for accreditation to European Council summit meetings.

Thanks to campaigning by the International Press Association (API-IPA), representing Brussels-based foreign journalists, together with Belgian journalist unions VVJ and AJP, Belgian authorities have now signaled an exemption for journalists.

The exemption requires an amendment to a Belgian law passed in February 2018.

(version française ci-dessous)

Last July, the International Press Association (API-IPA), representing the foreign correspondents in Brussels vis à vis the EU institutions, learned that the Belgian authorities planned to start charging initially € 50 every six months to journalists seeking EU summit accreditation, for their security screening. Recently, we learned that the € 50 fee will now be asked per year and not per semester.

(Version francaise ci-dessous)

The International Press Association (API-IPA), representing the interests of the foreign correspondents in Brussels, has learned that the Belgian authorities will start charging €50 to journalists seeking EU summit accreditation, for their security screening every six months (or €100 per year).

 The Lénaïc Fund for Quality Journalism is offering a five-month financial bursary of up to €5,000 for a placement starting in October 2018 with Politico in Brussels.

Applicants must be female EU graduates under 28 years of age, aiming to work in EU journalism, able to write in English and have a reasonable knowledge of a second EU language.

It was a couple of days after the fall of the Berlin wall on 9 November 1989 when Ullrich Schur and his wife Barbara arrived in Brussels. Barbara and "Ulli" - as he was known by his friends and colleagues – were standing in the back row of a packed Press Room on the first floor in the old Berlaymont building. No one knew then what would be the repercussions of the events. This was particularly true for Barbara and Ulli who had previously worked for the East German state news agency AND in Mongolia. But they certainly sensed more than most of the Brussels based journalists, that things to come would be totally different. 

It is with deep concern that the International Press Association API-IPA takes note of the fact that European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker does not intend to inform the international press about his discussions with heads of state and government on migration and asylum issues during the informal meeting on Sunday.  

This must sound like fake news to you, but it is the truth, simply the truth – and a fantastic truth. For the first time in its more or less glorious, but longstanding history API´s football team (FC API) managed to win the annual Subsicup tournament.