Between €70 and €200 in Bulgaria; between €200 and €250 in Croatia; between €25 and €125 in Poland; between €50 and €130 in Italy; round €100 in Albania: these are the minimal and most charges {that a} freelance journalist can hope to earn per article in every nation. They will not be official figures, however numbers which have emerged from the work of Pulse undertaking journalists (the primary a part of this sequence was printed right here).
While In France there’s a price scale for freelancers, most European international locations depart it to the market, to the media shops, to the great – or dangerous – judgement of the editorial employees, leaving employees on the mercy of a declining and unregulated market, with no fastened minimal sum that may enable them to refuse excessively low charges and prohibit newspapers from providing them.
Describing the scenario of freelancers within the Czech Republic, Petra Dvořáková of Deník Referendum says that whereas “there is no such thing as a information on common salaries, 83 p.c think about their salaries inadequate. Another large drawback is ‘false self-employed’ journalists, who’re registered as self-employed, however typically work for just one employer.”
The common wage within the nation is round €1,611 gross monthly. “Most journalists I do know earn much less,” says Dvořáková, including that “freelance charges per article are unsustainable: between €40 and €200 per article, even when it’s a report that takes per week to put in writing.”
And what about authorized help? “The few occasions I’ve obtained any, it was from a few of the larger media shops and solely on the ultimate stage, after sending textual content, pictures or multimedia content material,” explains Martin*, a 32-year-old journalist specialising in migration dynamics and human rights. “It’s apparent that the organisation is extra involved in defending its popularity than safeguarding the freelancer,” he provides.
Low paid, extremely motivated
“Journalism is much from well-paid, and there are not any established channels for funding impartial investigations or on-the-ground reporting,” says Bulgarian journalist Emilia Milcheva. “This is why social networks are flooded with podcasts: it’s a lot simpler to inundate the general public with narratives financed by nameless sources than to provide individuals info backed by in-depth analysis.”
After 30 years of expertise with a number of nationwide newspapers, together with as editor-in-chief, Milcheva has been freelancing for 5 years, writing usually for Deutsche Welle, Euractiv and Bulgarian newspapers. She factors out that “the media hardly ever feels obliged to make editorial insurance policies public. What occurs is that many newspapers function as non-public corporations, and freelance journalists usually must adjust to the calls for of advertisers and the pursuits of homeowners.” As for assist in case of authorized motion, Milcheva confirms its absence, and says that “this not solely places freelancers in a weak place, but in addition will increase the final sense of uncertainty, and undermines public belief within the media.”
The wage of a journalist working for a newspaper or information website in Sofia is between €750 and €1,000 monthly, whereas TV journalists earn between €1,250 and €2,500 monthly. Earnings can often attain between €3,000 and €5,000 monthly for probably the most skilled journalists in administration positions, however these are extraordinarily uncommon circumstances, as Krassen Nikolov of Mediapool explains.
‘We give a voice to those that don’t have one, however we neglect about ourselves, when in reality we must be becoming a member of forces to combat for our rights’ – Anna*
Nikolov provides that journalists in Sofia earn lower than the common wage within the metropolis, which is €1,150 and rising. Coupled with low pay, the workload, obligations and dangers of the occupation make it an unattractive profession alternative for younger individuals. The lack of commerce unions or any sense of journalistic group additionally performs a big half in Bulgarian journalists’ sense of insecurity, Nikolov concludes.
Sotirios Triantafyllou, president of the Panhellenic Federation of Journalists’ Unions and college lecturer, explains the present scenario to Efsyn: “Journalism has been arduous hit by the financial disaster, which has led to wage cuts and job losses. Although unemployment has now fallen, salaries stay low and there are not any collective-bargaining agreements within the non-public media sector.” Greece additionally has a very extreme drawback concerning assaults on journalists: “One of the primary points going through journalists is SLAPPs (lawsuits supposed to censor or intimidate journalists), and there are ongoing issues for the security of journalists within the efficiency of their duties, as much as and together with circumstances of homicide (e.g. the circumstances of Sokratis Giolias and Giōrgos Karaivaz).”
Fake freelancers and hybrid freelancers
So, how do freelance journalists truly make a dwelling? For many, quitting is just not an possibility. There are these like Sara* who handle to scrape by, hopping from piece to piece whereas making use of for grants, and being rejected as a rule. There are those that additionally do “one thing else” in parallel with freelancing. Miteva*, who freelances in Croatia, produces audio documentaries, lectures in a journalism college, leads media training programmes, collaborates with worldwide journalism groups, and works with scientists, artists, activists and worldwide organisations. “If I solely wrote, it will be troublesome to make a dwelling,” she explains. For Martin* too “it’s completely essential to have one other supply of revenue.” He and lots of of his colleagues are “pressured to do odd jobs in eating places, bars, cafés, or work on the entrance desk in hostels and resorts, or as cooks, waiters, and even as musicians or artists.”
In Albania, Joni* explains that there are journalists working “in communications, translation, on tasks with NGOs, or producing content material for worldwide media shops.” Anna*, a reporter in Poland, needed to ask her mother and father for assist “after I was incomes round €215 for a month of full-time work, and my hire was 250 euro and I couldn’t take one other job on the similar time.”
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In Bulgaria, Albania and Greece too, freelancers at all times must do one thing else, in line with the professionals interviewed. Moreover, nobody is counting such employees, and even is aware of how to take action, since there is no such thing as a clear and standardised definition of their employment standing, not to mention an affiliation or register.
The first step in counting is counting your self
These ambiguities, these ill-defined boundaries, depart room for equally blurred labour relations. You are solely a freelancer on the finish of the month whenever you ship out an bill (at all times addressed to the identical purchasers). In reality, you’ve the duties, burdens and rhythms of a employed employee, however none of the advantages. “Everything happens with no contract and with out insurance coverage,” Joni factors out, “which makes it much more unattainable to assist your self with freelance journalism alone in Albania.” Accustomed to navigating clear however immeasurable vulnerability, European freelancers look towards an unsure future.
According to Vesela*, a 27-year-old Bulgarian freelancer specialising in information journalism, “the democratisation of content material may promise a fantastic future, but it surely all will depend on how editors and folks in positions of energy have a look at freelancers.” Martin* sees a bleak future for himself and his colleagues “with no job or a parallel exercise”, and wish to see devoted organisations for every metropolis or every nation that “assist regulate fee requirements, appreciation of labor and respect for contributions.”
“We give a voice to those that don’t have one, however we neglect about ourselves, when in reality we must be becoming a member of forces to combat for our rights,” says Anna*, who’s fearful and pessimistic in regards to the prospect of synthetic intelligence. “It will exchange us, as will the industrial channels on TikTok and Instagram.”
Joni additionally raises the problem of pluralism and high quality of data: “In Albania freelancers are beneath menace, however the rising curiosity of worldwide media and impartial platforms may result in formal contracts, respectable pay and respect for copyright.”
None of those three important situations at present exist in Croatia, the place Miteva* requires “standardised charges, like there are for translators, in order that freelancers don’t have to barter charges from scratch every time and accept pitiful pay.”
According to the Croatian journalist, one potential resolution is to incorporate freelancers as public sector employees, in the identical method that some impartial artists have their well being and pension contributions lined by the state. “Instead, journalism is just not recognised as a public good,” she factors out.
During the commercial revolution, the physicist Lord Kelvin (1824-1907) mentioned “if you happen to can’t measure it, you’ll be able to’t enhance it.” More and extra freelancers are actually saying the identical factor. Does this spell revolution? Perhaps, however provided that freelancers will not be too busy making an attempt to outlive. As Miteva* says, “generally you don’t actually have time to face up to your rights.”
*The names are fictitious.
