ECPMF, European Centre for Press and Media Freedom - Stakeholders

The European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF) is a non-profit organisation that was founded in Leipzig, Germany, 2015.

It operates on the basis of  the European Charter on Freedom of the Press and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.

ECPMF’s mission is to promote, preserve and defend media freedom, by monitoring violations, providing practical support and engaging diverse stakeholders across Europe.

ECPMF is the project coordinator of the MFRR, Media Freedom Rapid Response.

Civil Rights Defenders - Stakeholders

An Expert Organisation for Human Rights. CRD 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 advances people’s rights globally. The organisation also acts as Sweden’s watchdog civil rights group.

Every year, CRD has The Civil Rights Defender of the Year Award, an award for outstanding work in defence of civil and political rights, to recognise a prominent human rights defender who, despite the risk to their own safety, continues the struggle for civil and political rights.
The award highlights the situation of human rights defenders at risk. It enhances their human rights work by providing international recognition and support to the organisation represented by the award recipient. The award recipient is a person who carries out their work without the use of violence and within an independent human rights organisation or network.

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

CRD also brings together its partners so they can exchange experiences, as well as learn from and inspire each other.

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.

European Digital Rights (EDRi) - Stakeholders

EDRi is an association of civil and human rights organisations  from across Europe aimed at defending rights and freedoms in the digital environment. EDRi's key priorities for the next years are privacy, surveillance, net neutrality and copyright reform.

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.