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.

Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) - Stakeholders

The Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) consists of individual member-organisations, registered in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Kosovo, Macedonia, Romania and Serbia. As a group of editors and trainers, BIRN enables journalists in the region to produce in-depth analytical and investigative journalism on complex political, economic and social themes. Through the production of Balkan Insight, BIRN`s online publication, the network trains local and regional journalists, demanding the highest international standards. BIRN emerged from the Balkan programme of the London-based Institute for War & Peace Reporting, IWPR, in 2005.

Digital Security First Aid Kit for Human Rights Defenders - Training

This kit, written for computer non-experts, approaches the issue of digital security with simple answers and links to more exhaustive resources for additional support

State-Media Financial Relations in Macedonia: Media Freedom Curbed with Public Money - Reports

In Macedonia, the funds allocated to the media by the government increased over the years, feeding corruption and clientelism

State-Media Financial Relations in Albania. Nurturing client-based media practices - Reports

This study, implemented within the SEE Media Observatory Phase 2 research component, focuses on financial relations between the state and media in Albania

Press Council in Bosnia-Herzegovina - Stakeholders

The Press Coucil BiH is a self-regulatory body for print and online media, whose aim is to mediate between unsatisfied media readers, and print and online media as well as to supervise the application of the BH Press Code. Furthermore, it contributes to improve professional standards in print and online media of Bosnia-Herzegovina in order to protect public from unprofessional and manipulative journalistic reporting and media from political and economical pressures that jeopardize freedom of informing and freedom of media.

The complaints commission, which operates as an adivory body within the Association, considers monitoring results and public complaints about the writings of media in BiH. It monitors the implementation of the Press Code of BiH in all newspapers and publically reacts to breaches of ethical journalism standards foreseen by the Press Code of BiH.

Association of Journalists of Macedonia - Stakeholders

The Association of Journalists of Macedonia (AJM) is an independent, non-governmental and non- political party organization whose purpose is to be the protector and promoter of professional standards and freedom of expression.

It also offers practical support.

Specific objectives of the AJM include:
-Defend freedom of press, radio, television and other media;
-Fights against their abuse, the creation of monopolies and any form of censorship that affects the determination of truth, complete, unbiased, updated public information;
-Protects and promotes the freedom of rights and responsibilities of journalists, based on the Constitution and laws of the Republic of Macedonia, Statute and Acts of AJM, and international documents concerning the freedom of the media, and the exercise of expression and information as basic Human Rights.
-Protect the reputation and dignity of the journalists and the journalistic profession and protects and promotes freedom of critical and creative work.
-Represent its members in front of the community and actively participates in the preparation of legislation and inter-national conventions of interest to the profession and defend the journalistic interest in regards of the Code of Ethics.

The Association was founded in 1946 and is a member of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ). AJM publishes in Macedonian, Albanian and English.

Spain: Press freedom in a moment of change - Reports

Compiled by an international group under the auspices of the IPI, the report "España: La liberdad de prensa en un momento de cambio" brings to the public responses by Spanish politicians confronted with deficiencies in honoring citizens' rights amid a period of major crisis

European Press Prize - Opportunities

The European Press Prize is an award programme for excellence in journalism across all 47 countries of Europe. It was founded in 2012 by seven European media foundations

Press freedom in Turkey's inter-election period - Reports

Pressure on journalists operating in Turkey has severely escalated in the period between the two parliamentary elections held on June 7 and November 1st 2015. The report has been produced following an Emergency Press Freedom Mission conducted by 8 organizations in October 2015. It assesses the rising pressures and threats on journalists as a serious obstacle to free and fair elections