Asociacioni i Gazetarëve të Kosovës (AGK) - Association of Professional Journalists of Kosovo - Stakeholders

Based in Pristina, the Association of Professional Journalists of Kosovo (Asociacioni i Gazetarëve të Kosovës - AGK) is a non-governmental organization affiliated to the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ). The AGK aims to ensure freedom of expression by defending Kosovarian journalists from threats, pressures and physical assaults.

Italian Coalition for Civil Liberties and Rights (CILD) - Support Centres

Founded in 2014, the Italian Coalition for Civil Liberties and Rights (Coalizione Italiana Libertà e Diritti Civili, CILD) is a network of civil society organizations that protects and expands the rights and liberties of all, through a combination of advocacy, public education and legal action.

CILD also coordinates a Centre for Legal Action that operates as a clearing-house, facilitating the interactions between law firms and non-profit associations in need of legal assistance. 

- Legal information: CILD offers information support, in some remote cases, for anyone who asks for help in the field of civil liberties. A sort of emergency legal aid, for a concrete action orientation of protection.

- Strategic Litigation: When the only communication and lobbying is not enough, CILD supports the judgment actions with strategic litigation, a specific legal action capable of activating a regulatory change, promote awareness and debate around a theme, mobilizing public opinion, to push policy makers to overcome regulations that violate the fundamental rights of individuals.

- Pro bono legal advice: CILD arranges a free legal aid service, as an interface between civil society organizations and lawyers. Requests may concern: legal opinions, statutory acts, comparative research or case law, legal and, in exceptional cases, translations, initiation of litigation.

- Access to information: CILD monitors the implementation of the Italian FOIA

E-mail: legal@cild.eu

Mass Media Defence Centre - Stakeholders

The Mass Media Defence Centre is an NGO working in the field of media rights protection and the promotion of freedom of expression standards in Russia. Its primary purpose is to protect the rights of media outlets and provides practical support for journalists.

The MMDC is part of the Media Legal Defence Initiative network. The MMDC Director Galina Arapova is a member of the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF). 

Regional Platform for Advocating Media Freedom and Journalists’ Safety in Western Balkans - Stakeholders

The Regional Platform for Advocating Media Freedom and Journalists’ Safety in Western Balkans is a network of journalists' associations and media trade unions established in January 2016. The Platform has been produced with the assistance of the European Union and functions as an early warning and prevention mechanism, monitoring attacks against journalists. It provides an accessible way to report violations and to search through six regional centers' databases of attacks.

Participating organizations are: BH Novinari for Bosnia Herzegovina, Croatian Association of Journalists (HND) for Croatia, Association of Journalists of Kosovo, Trade Union of Media of Montenegro, NUNS for Serbia and ZNM for Macedonia. 

Media, Conflict and Democratisation (MeCoDEM) - Stakeholders

The project ‘Media, Conflict and Democratisation ’ investigates the role of traditional media and ICTs in conflicts that accompany and follow transitions from authoritarian rule to more democratic forms of government.

The project si funded by the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme until 2017, and it is coordinated by the School of Media and Communication at the University of Leeds.

The project will investigate the interplay between media and democratisation conflicts in four countries: Serbia, Egypt, Kenya and South Africa.

ECPMF Alarm Centre for Female Journalists under Threat - Support Centres

On 8 March 2016, the ECPMF has created a special Women’s Reporting Point to address and raise awareness on increasing threats against female journalists.

Threats can be reported via encrypted messaging. The secure emails will only be opened by female staff at ECPMF headquarters and their contents will remain confidential. To provide appropriate legal assistance and solidarity to female journalists or media workers who report their cases, ECPMF is partnering with the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) and its Italian branch FNSI.

The rationale of this support measure stems from the consideration that female journalists are not only attacked because of their profession, they are also threatened because they are women, as pointed out also by the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media. Gender-based threats, such as sexual and abusive comments, threats of rape or publishing pictures and phone numbers on sex and dating websites target women more often than men.  

ECPMF encourages all women to report attacks in order to seek help, but also to make the dimension of attacks against journalists visible: the reported cases will be collected in a database – with details of the woman’s identity removed in order to protect her – as basis of an analysis to show the scale of the problem across Europe.

UNESCO - Stakeholders

UNESCO is the UN specialized agency with the mandate to promote "the free flow of ideas by word and image", and to nurture freedom of expression, media development, and access to information. It provides governments with technical advice on legal, regulatory, policy and other critical issues, and educates and builds capacities of journalists, media professionals and institutions.

UNESCO has a long-standing experience of promoting freedom of expression and media development in transitional countries, particularly in South East Europe and Turkey. In this respect, UNESCO contributed to the Guidelines for EU support to media freedom and integrity in enlargement countries 2014-2020.

From 2009 until 2011, UNESCO implemented the project "Alignment to International Standards in the Media Sector of South East European countries". From 2013 to 2015, a second project was implemented under the title "Media Accountability in South East Europe". In January 2016, the project "Building Trust in Media in South East Europe and Turkey " was launched, with the aim of supporting media accountability mechanisms, internal governance of media entities and media and information literacy in EU candidate and potential candidate countries with financial support of the European Commission, DG Near. 

Mérték Media Monitor - Stakeholders

The Mertek Media Monitor is a watchdog organisation and think tank founded in 2011 in Budapest to contribute to the Hungarian and European discourse on freedom of expression and press freedom. Mertek Media Monitor promotes the transparency of media policy decisions, evaluates media policy measures and lays out its own policy proposals.

European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) - Stakeholders

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) is the largest organisation of journalists in Europe, representing over 320,000 journalists in 72 journalists’ organisations across 45 countries.

The EFJ fights for social and professional rights of journalists working in all sectors of the media across Europe through strong trade unions and associations. The EFJ promotes and defends the rights to freedom of expression and information as guaranteed by Article 10 of the European convention on human rights.

The EFJ supports its affiliates to foster trade union development, to recruit new members, and to maintain or create environments in which quality, journalistic independence, pluralism, public service values, and decent work in the media exist.

ARTICLE 19 - Stakeholders

ARTICLE 19  takes its name from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). Headquartered in London since 1987, it operates worldwide to actively promote freedom of expression and information. It campaigns with people around the world for the right to exercise these rights, in particular designing laws and policies that protect free expression, holding abusers and governments to account, and advocate for legal reforms.

ARTICLE 19 also provides practical support for journalists and media practitioners under threat.