07. 02. 2014

"PARTNERSHIP FOR DEVELOPMENT OF SOUTH EAST EUROPE MEDIA" PROJECT LAUNCHED

(Media Center) Eight members of the SEENPM network, which brings together media organizations from South East Europe, together with an umbrella organization of Budapest, have begun the realization of a four-year project "Partnership for Development of South East Europe Media", which supports the development of independent and responsible media in the Western Balkans.

The Center for Independent Journalism in Romania (CJI) is the lead partner in the project aimed at strengthening the capacity of media organizations and media outlets to improve the working conditions and educational skills of journalists, as well as the dissemination of knowledge on advocacy and media literacy. The project also aims to inform and generate an educational public debate about freedom of expression, in particular about media freedom, and provide civil support for media reform processes.

SEE Partnership for the Development of Media brings together organizations from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Bulgaria and Romania. Media experts from Kosovo and Turkey will also be included. Key themes of the project are the working conditions of journalists, education and the media and freedom of expression.

"The working conditions of journalists are one of the most sensitive issues because the media landscape evolves, and business models are changing. The goal of this partnership is to bring new stakeholders in the public debate on freedom and independence of the media and the creation of synergies between the media and trade unions, organizations dealing with freedom of expression, teachers, parents, politicians, actors and so on," said Joana Avadani, executive director of the Center for Independent Journalism in Bucharest and project coordinator of the SEE Partnership for Media Development.

Project activities include research to identify issues to be addressed in each IPA country; training which aims to offer participants the necessary knowledge, skills and attitude development in order to further engage them in advocacy actions, advocacy actions that would be in accordance with the main directions set out in the national workshops, analysis and comparison, as well as the coordination of action on common principles among the five IPA countries involved in the project. For this purpose a regional policy of recommendations will be developed to monitor the "hot" topics at the European level and suitable for advocacy actions in Brussels.

In Serbia, the project is implemented by Media Reform Center Nis and Foundation Media Center, while SEENPM members who participate in the project are the Albanian Media Institute, Media Center for Media and Civil Society (BiH), Media Initiatives - Association for Media Development and Promotion of Professional Journalism (BiH), Macedonian Institute for Media , Montenegrin Media Institute and Media development Center (Bulgaria).

The project is co-financed by the European Commission, the Civil Society Facility, Media Freedom and Accountability Programme, EuropeAid/134613/C/ACT/MULTI.

For further information please contact: Cristina Lupu , communication expert (cristina@cji.ro), Mihaela Danga, Project Assistant (mihaela@cji.ro) or in Serbia Mladen Velojic, Director of Media and Reform Center Nis (mladen@mirc.rs) and Gordana Mladenovic with the Foundation Media Center (mladenov@mc.rs).