Description

A History of the International Movement of Journalists reviews how journalism evolved as a profession since the late nineteenth century and how journalists became internationally organized over the past one hundred and twenty years. The story begins in Antwerp in 1894 at the first conference of 'press people', leading to the foundation of the International Union of Press Associations which began to meet annually in different European countries. After World War I the Press Congress of the World was established in the United States. These were preludes to the first trade union-oriented association of professional journalists, the Fédération Internationale des Journalistes, founded in 1926 with the support of International Labour Organization. It was followed after World War II in 1946 by the International Organization of Journalists in Copenhagen, only to be torn apart by the Cold War, which in 1952 gave rise to the International Federation of Journalists. Each of these associations had difficulties in navigating between professionalism and the politics of their time. This vital part of media history has never before been presented in full.