On the occasion of the 27th anniversary of the funding of the Independent Journalists' Association of Vojvodina we talked with Nedim Sejdinović, president of this association. During the interview Sejdinović highlighted that journalists in Serbia still have to face attacks, threats and intimidation while doing their job.
Even though there is a good institutional and legislative framework defending the right to access information of public interest, some crucial issues are still unresolved.
The Romanian law that governs the access to information is the law 554/2001. This law provides that any person, Romanian or foreigner, may request any information of public interest, without justify their request, the law guaranteeing free access to information for everyone. How well structured is this law, how it is applied and how well known and accessible it is - I addressed these few questions to Ioana Avădani, executive director of the Center for Independent Journalism and to those directly involved in the accessibility of this law - journalists and those outside the guild.
For liberal democracy as we know it, the decline of professional journalism is certainly bad news — without it, vocal majorities dictate political decisions increasingly rooted in extreme, intolerant values.
In the interview for H-Alter, Croatian Culture Minister Mrs Nina Obuljen Koržinek explains her views on local media circumstances. From her point of view, prosecutions in the cases of violence against journalists are imrproving on the proper way. Mrs Obuljen also announces drafting the new strategy of media policy in this year.
Dismissed journalists, banned programmes, efforts to restrict information access rights. In Albania, freedom of press is more and more questioned by the social democrat government. On Tuesday, Albanian journalists demonstrated to denounce economic and political pressures on media. Reportage from Tirana.
Romania was among the latest countries in Europe that decriminalized homosexuality. It was not until 2001 that the article that punished homosexuality with prison was repealed. Still, the LGBT community suffers of public discrimination and has quite low visibility in mass media.
