Index on Censorship - Support Centres

Index on Censorship (Index) is an international NGO based in London and operating all over Europe.

The Freedom of Expression Awards Fellowship celebrates individuals or groups who have had a significant impact fighting censorship anywhere in the world. Index awards fellowships in four categories (Arts, Campaigning, Digital activism, Journalism) and works with the winners to provide longer-term assistance to help fellows maximise their impact and broaden their networks. More details here.

Europe’s journalists subjected to increasing levels of harassment Friday 22 January 2016 - Infographic

  This infographics offers a visual representation of the outcomes of the monitoring activity conducted by Index on Censorship’s Mapping Media Freedom project. Turkey, Italy and Hungary appear ... Index on Censorship provides an overview of the violations of media freedom recorded through the project Mapping Media Freedom. Between 1 May and 30 September 2015, 285 violations of media freedom

Media in Turkey in Last Three Months of 2015: You name the title - BìA October-December 2015 media observation report - Reports

The title of Bianet report for the period October-December 2015 provocatively invites the readers to name the title for this issue: indeed, it could be not much different from previous ones appeared in the last 5 years, as the situation is constantly worsening

Discourse in danger. Attacks on free expression in Putin's Russia - Reports

The report “Discourse in danger. Attacks on free expression in Putin's Russia” illustrates the increasing effort by the Russian government to shape the information space, from the Internet, to children’s literature, to any independent cultural spaces, including theater and academia

A Toolkit: ‘Hate Speech’ Explained - Manuals

In this toolkit, ARTICLE 19 provides a guide to identify ’hate speech‘ and how to effectively counter it, while protecting the rights to freedom of expression and equality

Filtering, blocking and take-down of illegal content on the Internet - Reports

A comparative study on filtering, blocking and take-down of illegal content on the Internet in the Council of Europe member states

Bad Practices, Bad Faith: Soft Censorship in Macedonia - Reports

The practice of soft censorship is undermining the media industry across Macedonia through financial incentives and partisan influence

Index of Censorship - Mapping media freedom - Monitoring tool

Journalists and media workers are confronting relentless pressure simply for doing their job. Mapping Media Freedom identifies threats, violations and limitations faced by members of the press throughout European Union member states, candidates for entry and neighbouring countries

Council of Europe - Platform: protection of journalism and safety of journalists - Monitoring tool

In 2015, the Council of Europe established the Platform to promote the protection of journalism and safety of journalists to facilitate the compilation, processing and dissemination of information on serious concerns about media freedom and safety of journalists in Council of Europe member States

RESOURCE CENTRE | About - Article

What?

The Resource Centre on Media Freedom in Europe is an open and ever growing platform providing access to curated contents related to media freedom and pluralism in Europe. Items range from reports to academic sources, from legal tools to practical instruments such as trainings and manuals, as well as opportunities for media professionals and young journalists.

Who?

The platform was developed by Osservatorio Balcani Caucaso Transeuropa (OBCT) as part of the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF). Launched in 2000, OBCT is a think tank focused on South East Europe which supports transnational issues that are crucial for European democracy: one of them is exactly media freedom, and for this reason it has contributed to ECPMF activities since the very start in 2015.

Curated by OBCT, the Resource Centre on Media Freedom in Europe is now a platform that is part of the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR), a mechanism co-funded by the European Commission which tracks, monitors and responds to threats to journalists and violations of press and media freedom in EU Member States and candidate countries.

How?

Thanks to a real-time research by its curators, the Resource Centre collects and catalogues existing contents and provides different options to access them: by country and by topic. A tools section shows the existing tools for monitoring media freedom, the support centres, stakeholders and training opportunities available, legal resources and datasets.

The first goal of the platform is to make any source easily searchable for different target groups: journalists, policy-makers, scholars, as well as ordinary citizens interested in these crucial issues. The Resource Centre also functions as a networking tool, encouraging the exchange of knowledge among a broad range of actors committed to support media freedom all over Europe. This is done particularly through the crowdsourcing platform, where users can upload and share their own contents. The platform aims to encourage the participation and mutual knowledge of the media community.

Where?

OBCT is based in Italy (Trento), but the Resource Centre has its mind set on Europe (in the broad sense of the term): it was born to be a transnational endeavour to tackle the European dimension of media freedom issues.

When?

The Resource Centre is a young project: it was launched in December 2015. Nevertheless, with over two thousand resources already uploaded, we can say it is a fast-growing kid.

Why?   

The creation of an online Resource Centre on media freedom stems from the consideration that despite the growing pressure on European media, public awareness remains very low. Political and economic pressure, erosion of professional standards and increasing of self-censorship are gradually deteriorating the quality of information together with the new challenges posed by the digitalisation.

On the other side, many associations, NGOs and professional organisations have been carrying out valuable activities of documentation, analysis and advocacy. If existing and valid sources remain fragmented, scattered around the web and therefore difficult to access, it will be impossible to develop an informed and inclusive debate on media freedom. That is why we are building this virtual space of curation as an open map in which reliable contents are selected and presented, and as a space of mutual knowledge for the ever-growing community of stakeholders, driven by a transnational idea of knowledge, responsibility and democracy.