Press and media freedoms are increasingly at risk. Starting from March 2020, the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) monitors violations in all EU Member States and Candidate Countries and documents them on the Mapping Media Freedom mappingmediafreedom.org platform.
Furthermore, the MFRR provides practical and direct support to journalists and media workers who are at risk due to their work through emergency funds, legal aid, training, and shelter programmes. MFRR partners also carry out advocacy missions and awareness-raising campaigns to secure a wider engagement in European civil society with issues related to press and media freedom.
Within the project, OBCT makes further use of its Resource Centre on Media Freedom www.rcmediafreedom.eu to support evidence-informed policymaking and advocacy, and supports QCode Mag in managing the programme Journalists-in-Residence Milan (deadline 15 September).
Nicolas Kayser-Bril: Investigating the Instagram Algorithm
Nicolas Kayser-Bril, data journalist at Algorithm Watch, coordinated AW-EDJNet’s joint investigation on Instagram’s algorithm . In this video, he explains why the subject matters and how it could be approached, despite the lack of transparency of the algorithm. Data suggests that Instagram has a bias in favour of pictures of scantily clothed men or women – this has an impact both on creators’ business and on users’ views.
MEDIA Serbia: journalists don’t feel safe
Belgrade | Vukašin Obradović | 19/3/2021The media situation in Serbia continues to deteriorate, as illustrated by the recent withdrawal of five journalists’ and media associations from the Working group on safety and protection of journalists, set up by the government last December. Repeated attacks against KRIK journalists were the straw that broke the camel’s back
MEDIA Croatia: public TV against its own journalists
Zagreb | Giovanni Vale | 16/3/2021For the second time, Croatian public television HRT fires journalist Hrvoje Zovko, a defender of media freedom for many years. The employer cites a breach of contract, Zovko's lawyer Vanja Juric the desire to punish him for his trade union activity
MEDIA Serbia, vexatious lawsuits against journalists
Belgrade | Vukašin Obradović | 12/3/2021The director of the N1 television station and the editor-in-chief of the television portal have been sued with a request for one million Euros in compensation by Telenor, which is becoming increasingly aggressive towards United Media – a company that owns some Serbian media including N1
OBC Transeuropa -as member of the Media Freedom Rapid Response consortium- conducted a research on the needs of European journalists and the gaps in support mechanisms. From verbal harassment against media operators to groundless legal charges, what can be done to tackle these issues
2021
Authors: Maria Francesca Rita, Sofia Verza, Luisa Chiodi
Language: English
The project European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF) aims to protect press freedom and to promote transnational public debate on violations registered in the European Union, the Enlargement and the Eastern Partnership countries. In 2018, the project enters its fourth year of activity thanks to the renewed support by the European Commission.
The European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF) brings together different European entities working in support of media freedom - the Media Foundation of the Sparkasse Leipzig , initiator of the ECPMF based in Leipzig; the two monitoring centres Oxygen for Information (Rome) and South East Europe Media Organisation (Vienna); Journalismfund.eu (Brussels); and the Institute of European Media Law (Saarbrücken).
Press freedom and freedom of expression have a crucial role for the functioning of democratic societies. Despite this, in Europe journalists are threatened, censured or intimidated and this affects the citizens' right to information. OBC, together with SEEMO , Ossigeno Informazione , Professor Eugenia Siapera (Dublin City University) and a broad network of media partners in 11 European countries, devoted a year to studying the challenges to press freedom and the needs of journalists in Italy, South East Europe and Turkey. The project "Safety Net for European Journalists. A Transnational Network Support for Media Freedom in Italy and South-east Europe" is co-financed by the European Union.
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The Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) started in March 2020 as a one-year pilot project co-funded by the European Commission. |
