In 1926, a group of journalists met in Paris and decided the job needed defending as much as doing. A hundred years later, the International Federation of Journalists represents 600,000 media professionals in 187 unions and associations across 148 countries, and this May it went home: the Centenary Congress, held at UNESCO headquarters in Paris, with the federation's hundred-year story hung along the railings of the Hôtel de Ville for the whole city to read.
More than 300 delegates came. They elected Zuliana Lainez as president, the first Latin American journalist to lead the federation, and voted its first gender-parity executive committee into existence. A century old, and still changing. We were proud to sponsor the week.
The argument we went to make
Our CEO Henry Peirse stood up in Paris with one argument: journalism is global, and pay should be too. A fair global minimum rates card would put a floor under what professional journalism is worth, wherever it is produced. We built a platform that guarantees journalists get paid. Arguing that they get paid fairly is the same work, carried on by other means.
Journalism is global. Pay should be too.
The card in your pocket
The IFJ's International Press Card has been issued continuously since 1927, which makes it the world's oldest identification for working journalists, and by the IFJ's own account its most reputable. You cannot buy one. It comes only through one of the IFJ's affiliated unions, 600,000 members strong across 148 countries, which is rather the point: it certifies not just that you are a journalist, but that you stand with the others.
If you carry one, journalist.net recognises it. Upload your IFJ press card to your profile and, once verified, your profile displays the IFJ badge: Verified Member. The oldest credential in journalism, doing its work on the newest.
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