Civil Liberties Union for Europe (Liberties) - Stakeholders

The Civil Liberties Union for Europe (Liberties) is a watchdog that safeguards the human rights of everyone in the European Union.

The team is made up of experts in human rights and communications.

Liberties works closely with a network of members in Brussels and across 18 EU countries and is registered as a non-governmental organisation in Berlin with a presence in Brussels.

Here the description ot its methods:

First, we use advocacy. This means we use our expertise to explain to people working in the EU institutions and national governments why and how they should uphold human rights.

Second, we help our members litigate. That means we give our members expertise on EU law to use in court cases, and we help our members take cases simultaneously in different EU countries.

Third, we use public mobilisation. We talk directly to you, the public, about the problems we’re working on so you can spread the word and help us put pressure on the EU and national governments to solve them.

Union of Publishers in Bulgaria - Stakeholders

Joined by 18 publishing houses producing over 40 printed products, the Union of Publishers in Bulgaria is an independent, non-governmental association united by the principles of defending the freedom of the press, the independence of journalists and the encouragement of their work so that society is objectively informed. The main goals of the Union are: to defend freedom of speech and the independence of the Bulgarian print media; to contribute for the improvement of the quality of Bulgarian press; to upgrade the public prestige of print media; to establish relations of fair competition among its members; to help in solving economic issues of common interest of the newspaper publishers; to mantain mutual trust among its members.

Center for the Study of Democracy (CSD) - Stakeholders

Founded in late 1989, the Center for the Study of Democracy (CSD) is an interdisciplinary public policy institute dedicated to the values of democracy and market economy. CSD defines itself as a "non-partisan, independent organization fostering the reform process in Europe through impact on policy and civil society". Born as a think-tank, its main goals are: to provide an enhanced institutional and policy capacity for a successful European integration process, especially in the area of justice and home affairs; to promote institutional reform and the practical implementation of democratic values in legal and economic practice; to monitor public attitudes and serve as a watchdog of the institutional reform process.

Center for Information and Bubble Studies (CIBS) - Stakeholders

Located at the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Copenhagen, the Center for Information and Bubble Studies  (CIBS) was opened in 2016 by professor Vincent Hendricks . It is an interdisciplinary center that looks at mathematics, economics and logic as well as philosophy, information theory, social psychology and behavioral studies. The CIBS aims to examine the mathematical structure and dynamics of the "bubble phenomena", trying to answer questions such as "what do you do with these bubbles once they are there? Could you intervene? Are there good bubbles or malignant bubbles or are all bubbles malignant and some benign?". The CIBS was endowed in 2015 by a grant from the Carlsberg Foundation, which runs for a 5 year period.

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.

Fög - University of Zurich - Stakeholders

Fög is a research center associated with the University of Zurich . It was established to monitor communication events, driven by three research questions:

• Social transformation, namely the long-term observation of contemporary modern societies on the basis of public communication;
• Structural transformation of the public sphere, focusing on changes in the interest patterns of public communication and their effects on society;
• Transformation of institutions, organizations and roles, investigating on how the reputation of role-bearers is transformed by the news coverage.

These issues led to three research projects, namely on on political communication (how public sphere is changing in a mediatized society), economic communication (reputation of institutions) and quality of the media. On an annual basis, Fög releases the Yearbook Quality of the Media - Switzerland.

European Newspaper Publishers' Association - Stakeholders

The European Newspaper Publishers’ Association (ENPA) is an international non-profit organisation representing publishers of newspaper and news media on all platforms. Established in 1961 and based in Brussels since 1991, ENPA aims to:

• enable European newspapers and news media publishers to speak with one voice to European institutions;
• represent and defend the interests of the press related to legislative or policy issues that might affect their freedom or economic role;
• preserve and promote fundamental rights, in particular press freedom as well as commercial freedom as a precondition for economic viability;
• act as an early warning system for pending legislation or regulation;
• provide services to members and their publishers; and
• favour pluralism and diversity of media content

Freedom of the Press Foundation - Stakeholders

Freedom of the Press Foundation supports public-interest journalism worldwide. Involving prominent investigative journalists such as Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras as well as whistleblowers such as Edward Snowden, the foundation focuses on government transparency and compliance with the law and the constitution: as they state, "we strive to make government as open and transparent as possible". To this end, the Foundation promotes advocacy campaigns to defend the rights of journalists and whistleblowers and to keep authorities accountable.

Freedom of the Press Foundation also provides direct support to journalists and media outlets, notably by launching crowdfunding campaigns aimed at supporting critical work carried out by non-profit watchdog organizations, in order to defuse political and financial pressure on them. The Foundation supports investigative reporting also by developing, advertising and teaching journalists to use a variety of tools aimed at protecting digital communications and at making whistleblower submission safer, such as the SecureDrop system. 

MEDIADEM - Stakeholders

MEDIADEM was a European research project lasted from April 2010 to March 2013 focusing on the factors that promote or conversely prevent the development of policies supporting free and independent media.

The project combined a country-based study in Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Italy, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Turkey and the UK with a comparative analysis across media sectors and various types of media services. It investigated the configuration of media policies in the aforementioned countries and examined the opportunities and challenges generated by new media services for media freedom and independence. Moreover, external pressures on the design and implementation of state media policies, stemming from the European Union and the Council of Europe, are thoroughly discussed and analysed.

The coordinator of the project has been the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy.

European Audiovisual Observatory - Stakeholders

The European Audiovisual Observatory is a public service organisation, part of the Council of Europe.

The Observatory was created in 1992 to collect and distribute information about the audiovisual industries in Europe, with the aim to promote greater transparency. The work of the Observatory focuses on the following fields: Film, Broadcasting, Home video, On-demand audiovisual services and Public policy on the audiovisual sector. The Observatory provides information from an economic and legal point of view on audiovisual markets in Europe and their financing. It also analyses and reports on the legal issues affecting the different sectors of the audiovisual industry.

The Legal Observations of the European Audiovisual Observatory (IRIS) reports monthly on the most important legal developments for the audiovisual industry in 39 European countries.

The Observatory also provides access to free on-line databases, such as AVMS Database on the transposition of the AVMS directive into national legislation, IRIS Merlin on legal information on the audiovisual sector in Europe, KORDA on funding for film and audiovisual works, Lumiere on admissions of films released in Europe and MAVISE on TV services in Europe.