Support centres
NGOs, unions and firms providing media and journalism professionals with legal, financial and advocacy support, protection and training opportunities, and other tools
The Media and Law Studies Association (MLSA) is a Turkish non-profit (registered as Medya ve Hukuk Çalışmaları Derneği) founded in late 2017.
The main goals of the association, as stated in its website, are:
- offering legal protection to journalists who are punished for expressing their thoughts
- promoting the public’s right to information, particularly by supporting good finance and science journalism
- promoting rights of minority groups, with a concentration on refugees and the LGBTI community.
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Legal protection
The Media Development Center (MDC) is a Skopje-based NGO, providing free legal and advocacy support to North Macedonian staff journalists, editors and media outlets. Person to be contacted for help is Dejan Georgievski (dejan@mdc.org.mk or +38978483102).
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North Macedonia
Practical support
Legal protection
Media Defence (also known as MLDI) provides legal defence to independent media, journalists and bloggers around the world who are under threat for their reporting. MLDI does this by administering an emergency defence fund, helping journalists, bloggers and independent media pay legal fees, and provides legal expertise to the lawyer(s) defending a case.
MLDI also engages in strategic litigation to challenge repressive laws and expand the space for media freedom. Through this, it seeks to advance respect for international law and norms on the right to freedom of expression. MLDI submits cases to domestic courts and international tribunals and intervenes in cases already under way, as well as supporting national lawyers to do the same.
In countries where the threat of legal action is high and constant, MLDI provides financial support and legal expertise to national organisations that provide legal defence services to journalists.
MLDI also runs training and networking programmes for lawyers in the fields of media law and human rights.
E-mail: info@mediadefence.org
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Financial support
Training
Legal protection
The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) is the union representing the people employed in the journalism sector in the United Kingdom and in Ireland. Founded in 1907, the NUJ includes quite a broad range of professionals, active in a variety of media outlets and working according to different models. The union provides information, assistance and support to its members, and it promotes campaigns to advance their causes. While the NUJ invites to get in touch with its local representatives, it is also possible to contact its headquarters at +44 020 7843 3700 or at info@nuj.org.uk.
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The Nederlandse Vereniging van Journalisten (NVJ), the Dutch journalist union, was founded in 1884 as Nederlandse Journalisten Kring (NJK). It is a member of the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) and the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ).
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The Norwegian Union of Journalists (Norsk Journalistlag) is the union representing the people working in the journalism sector in Norway, and it includes the vast majority of them. Besides acting in order to improve its members' working conditions, the union is active in promoting journalism ethics and freedom and in monitoring the state of journalism in Norway and abroad. It provides its members with legal and professional assistance, as well as with several education and grant opportunities. The union also publishes the online magazine Journalisten , devoted to media issues. Contacts to get in touch with the union are nj@nj.no and +47 22 05 39 50.
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'The Observatory of Media Freedom in Poland' is a legal program founded by the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights (HFHR) in 2008 and operates in Poland. Its focus is on the protection related to freedom of expression in traditional media as well as on the Internet.
The program provides legal aid concerning inter alia issues such as criminal defamation, press law offences, protection of journalistic sources of information, the liability of the Internet service providers etc. During court proceedings, the ‘Observatory’ can as well arrange pro bono legal assistance for journalists who cannot afford to pay for regular legal aid.
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On</the>Line is the International Press Institute (IPI)’s digital media initiative and seeks to expose and counter a range of threats against press freedom and free expression in the digital sphere – e.g. via Twitter, Facebook, email etc. – including threats of violence, of death or other harm. The website includes a specific section, the Ontheline Platform for Newsrooms , with the aim to collect and share resources and best practices for media outlets and journalists. In providing these tools to newsrooms, it aims to not only counter the negative personal and professional impact of online abuse on journalists but also help prevent self-censorship arising from online attacks that threatens the public’s access to the news.
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Ossigeno per l'Informazione grants free legal assistance for journalists to help them resist the pressure of intimidation, thanks to the cooperation with the London-based Media Legal Defence Initiative (MLDI).
The Legal Office of Ossigeno is coordinated by the lawyer Andrea Di Pietro, an expert in information and communication law and legal consultant to Ossigeno per l’Informazione.
E-mail: sportellolegaleossigeno@gmail.com
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Legal protection
It is a member of the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) and the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ).
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