Tzvetina Borisova 14 April 2014

The South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO), an affiliate of the International Press Institute (IPI), last Friday announced its participation in the “Safety Net for European Journalists”, a project creating “A Transnational Support Network for Media Freedom in Italy and Southeast Europe” together with the Rovereto, Italy-based Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso (OBC), part of the Fondazione Opera Campana dei Caduti; the Rome-based Ossigeno per L’Informazione; and Dr. Eugenia Siapera of Dublin City University

“The project ‘Safety Net for European Journalists. A Transnational Support Network for Media Freedom in Italy and Southeast Europe’ is an important step for SEEMO not only to better cover press freedom violations in the countries it covers, but also to better inform the public about the strong level of self-censorship present in all of the countries covered by this project”, SEEMO Secretary General Oliver Vujovic said.  "In most of the countries covered by this project, we constantly have threats or attacks on journalists and we need to see legal changes,” he added said. 

“OBC and its partners work together to establish a truly transnational public sphere, starting from the grass-roots and involving European citizens to discuss issues that are fundamental for democracy in our continent, like media freedom,” Luisa Chiodi, OBC’s scientific director, said. “With an innovative approach, we want to overcome the EU democratic deficit, strengthen the European political project and contribute to a citizens’ Europe.”

“In the first 37 days of 2014 Ossigeno recorded in Italy 73 intimidations of journalists, cameramen, bloggers and writers,” Ossigeno representative Rossella Ricchiuti said. “The data shows a 100 percent increase compared to 2012 and 2013, during which an average of one intimidation a day was recorded. With the latest episodes, the count of journalists who are victims of intimidations, threats and/or abuses since 2006 and held by Ossigeno has exceeded 1700

As part of the project – which is financed by a grant from the European Commission Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology – on Feb 1st the partners began monitoring and documenting in detail press freedom violations in Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, the Republic of Macedonia – Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia and Turkey and Italy.

News and investigations are already being published, monitoring is being carried out, violations documented and scientific research effected in 11 countries on the needs of journalists under threat. A manual will be issued showing concrete ways to support the journalists at risk. Soon, the partners will launch a platform of crowdsourcing in 9 languages will to function as a loudspeaker on the social media.

The bottom line - raise awareness and improve the situation of journalists who are at risk every day while simply trying to do their work well.

 

This publication has been produced with the assistance of the European Union. The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso and its partners and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Union. The project's page: Safety Net for European Journalists.A Transnational Support Network for Media Freedom in Italy and South-east Europe.