Journalist Association of India (JAI) - Support Centres

JAI is a Non-Profit and Non-Govt. organization which fights to protect freedom of speech and expression. It represents journalists in all sectors of media. It focuses on promoting independent and quality journalism.

Protection of Freedom of Speech: Promotes media freedom within the country and world wide. It documents attacks on journalists and dangerous environments for the press.
Welfare: Provides legal and financial support to journalists.
Training: JAI organizes coaching, feedback sessions, and seminars to improve the proficiency of journalists, editors, writers,and others in the media industry.
Promotes Diversity: Works for the representation of women and minorities therefore enhancing pluralism.
Encourages the free flow of information.
Media Concentration: JAI monitors the impact of media conglomerates and advocates for the preservation of media ownership controls.

Contact:

Dr H K Sethi, Secretary General

Email: journalistassociationofindia@gmail.com

National Foundation for India - Support Centres

In the year 1990, Bharat Ratna recipient, late C. Subramaniam, late Dr. Kamla Choudhary, and Dr. M. S. Swaminathan along with personalities from the worlds of art, media, business, academia and the government came together to seed National Foundation for India (NFI).
 

Fellowships: NFI offers financial assistance and resources to support independent journalists, particularly those from marginalized communities or difficult geographies. 

Grants: NFI provides grants to media organizations that promote independent journalism and public interest reporting.

Capacity Building: Helps journalists aiming to pursue investigative journalism, digital storytelling and data journalism.

Advocacy: NFI advocates for media freedom and pluralism. 

Awareness: Spreads awareness about issues affecting journalists. Organizes campaigns against censorship and harassment of journalists.

Address: Upper Ground Floor, Core 4A, INDIA HABITAT CENTRE, Lodhi Rd, Institutional Area, Lodi Colony, New Delhi, Delhi 110003
Tel: 91-11-24641864, 24641865, 24648490, 24648491
Mail: info@nfi.org.in

Free Speech Collective (FSC) - Support Centres

The Free Speech Collective was founded in 2018. It is a collaborative initiative composed of individuals from various backgrounds like journalists, activists, lawyers and academics. The main aim of the collective is to  protect the right to freedom of expression, promote free speech and the right to dissent. 

Monitoring: FSC tracks violations of free speech and categorizes them, besides tracking the status of the case.

Analyzing trends: Based on the monitoring and documentation of violations, it  regularly publishes trends, developments, news alerts and briefs.

Solidarity and Support: FSC provides support and solidarity to individual journalists, bloggers, activists, artists and performers and organizations that face attacks on their freedom of expression and campaign against violations.

Email:  freespeechcollectiveindia@gmail.com

Pro Bono Italia ETS - Support Centres

Pro Bono Italia ETS is the first non-profit association of lawyers, practitioners, law firms, corporate lawyers and bar associations to promote a culture of pro bono in our country. It is an independent, apolitical and nonpartisan entity, founded in 2017, which now has about 50 members and a network of about a thousand people, including lawyers, corporate lawyers, nonprofits and academics. It has promoted the creation of a social and legal ecosystem for the promotion of a pro bono culture in Italy. With its registration in October 2023 in the Official Register of Third Sector Entities (RUNTS), the association assumed the status of ETS, thus confirming its vocation as a nonprofit entity.

Website: https://probonoitalia.org

Vita Activa - Support Centres

Vita Activa works as a helpline and a solutions laboratory for women journalists, activists and women’s rights defenders who are facing online violence and want to change the ways they face and combat perpetrators and attacks. Responders trained in psychological first aid, conflict resolution and strategic thinking work with women journalists who have faced harassment to build solutions tailored to their cases.

E-mail: apoyo@vita-activa.org

EU Human Rights Defenders Relocation Platform - Support Centres

We are a global platform of national, regional and international organizations involved in programmes for the temporary relocation of human rights defenders at risk. Our activities are diverse and include identifying HRDs in need of relocation through our close work with them, providing temporary shelter within the same country, hosting HRDs in countries in their region or outside it, providing services or capacity-building opportunities to relocated HRDs, and contributing to the protection of HRDs on the ground.
Our website is a portal for members of the platform, as well as a source of information for actors interested in knowing more about HRDs, temporary relocation, and getting involved involved in temporary relocation programmes.
An initiative of the European Commission, the development and coordination of the platform is currently in the hands of ProtectDefenders.eu, the European Union Human Rights Defenders mechanism.

Shelter City - Support Centres

Shelter City is a nationwide initiative of Justice and Peace Netherlands to protect human rights defenders, in cooperation with a growing number of Dutch cities and local organizations.

Human rights defenders defend the rights of themselves and of others. Through their work they play an important role in the promotion of democratic values, political freedoms, and civil rights. This is a challenging and dangerous fight: they are often silenced, threatened, arrested, tortured and sometimes they disappear.

Justice and Peace established Shelter City in 2012 on the request of their network of international human rights defenders. After the first Shelter City in The Hague, Middelburg joined in 2014, followed by Nijmegen, Maastricht, Utrecht, and Amsterdam in 2015, Tilburg and Groningen in 2016 and Zwolle and Haarlem in 2017. In 2018 Deventer also joined the Shelter City network. Rotterdam followed in 2020. Tbilisi & Batumi (Georgia), Dar Es Salaam (Tanzania), Cotonou (Benin) and San José (Costa Rica) have joined the network as International Shelter City Hubs. The expectation is that other cities (in or outside the Netherlands) will join in the future as well. The growing number of applications from Human Rights Defenders under threat shows that new Shelter Cities are strongly needed.

In every Shelter City the municipality, local organizations, universities, and Justice and Peace provide the shelter and take care of the program for the human rights defender. Together with the human rights defenders they organize meetings and workshops that contribute to the raising of awareness about human rights issues among the inhabitants of the Shelter Cities.

Shelter City is affiliated with the EU Human Rights Defenders Relocation Platform

Civil Rights Defenders - Support Centres

A support centre that partners with and supports human rights defenders who work in some of the world’s most repressive regions on four continents.

Through advocacy, litigation, and public campaigns, CRD advance people’s rights globally and also act as Sweden’s watchdog civil rights group.

Among the support activities, there are security training, emergency support, expertise, organisational development, and long-term financial support.

Protect the Protest. Stopping SLAPP. Defending Dissent - Support Centres

A task force of nonprofit organizations that have long dealt with SLAPP threats (threats coming from strategic lawsuits against public participation).

The organizations of "Protect the Protest" have combined their expertise and collective power to protect the free speech of public interest advocates in the United States.

They declare: "An attack on one is now an attack on all".

The task force includes experienced lawyers, journalists, communications professionals, and activists, in order to stand together as one to expose courtroom bullying, and protect the right to boldly speak the truth.

The approach is threefold:

● Building Resilience to SLAPPs - providing resources and training for civil society organizations, community leaders, journalists, and the broader public on how to best protect themselves from SLAPPs and what to do if they’re targeted. This includes a network of attorneys to defend those facing SLAPPs, especially individuals and small organizations with extremely limited resources.

● Exposing SLAPPs and Those Who File Them - drawing on their own organizations’ campaigning, communications, and legal expertise to support public interest advocates and watchdogs targeted by SLAPPs. This includes campaigning against the biggest SLAPP offenders, as well as legal defense where resources allow.

● Campaigning on Strategic Issues - When a specific SLAPP poses a broader threat to civil society or to democracy, they mobilize their collective resources to protect the rights to free speech and peaceful protest. Likewise, when opportunities arise to advance anti-SLAPP policies or laws, we engage in close collaboration with other stakeholders.

GIJN Help Desk - Support Centres

The Global Investigative Journalism Network, an international association of journalism organizations, offers the access to a network of experts and resources able to help reporters around the world.

The helpdesk integrates hundreds of tip sheets, how-to stories, conference videos, in a sort of library, mirroring the aim of the network which is the training and sharing of information among investigative and data journalists—even in repressive regimes and marginalized communities.

GIJN helpdesk is presented as "a space designed to help investigative journalists around the world".