SEENPM Completes Four Projects Supported by IMS

March 31, 2008. The South East European Network for Professionalization of Media completed four research and advocacy projects sponsored by the Danish Royal Ministry of Foreign Affairs through International Media Support. In the framework of the 15 month program the following research documents were produced:

  • Labor Relations in Media (11 countries)

Project leader: Independent Journalism Center, Chisinau

See: http://ijc.md/Publicatii/resurse/Labor_Relations_and_Media.pdf

  • Public Service Broadcasting and the Digital Age (5 countries)

Project leader: Mediacentar, Sarajevo

See:http://www.media.ba/mediacentar/dsp_page.cfm?articleid=10262&urlsectionid=2928&specialsection=ART_FULL&pageid=1272&elementid=15487&PSID=20263

  • TV Prime Time Domestic News Monitoring (10 countries)

Project leader: Media Plan Institute, Sarajevo

See: http://www.mediaplan.ba/docs/Prezentacija/about.htm

  • The Impact of the EU Audiovisual Media Services (AVMS) Directive on Freedom of Speech in Post-Communist Democracies (12 countries)

See: https://seenpm.org/new/index.php?id=60

In the final phase of the program a wide variety of advocacy activities – press conferences, professional roundtable discussions, meetings with stakeholders, online distribution of documents – were implemented by the member centers of the Network in order to disseminate the findings of the research.

As part of international advocacy activities, SEENPM executive director Sándor Orbán promoted the outcome of the research projects in Brussels from March 26-30. At the European Commission he met with Maria-Luisa Fernandez-Esteban dealing with media policy issues in Western Balkan countries at the Audiovisual and Media Policy Unit of the Information Society and Media Directorate General. At the European Parliament, research documents were presented to Diana Wallis (Vice President), Ruth Hieronymi (Committee on Culture and Education), Marianne Mikko (Committee on Culture and Education), and Katalin Lévai (Committee on Legal Affaires).

Orbán also discussed the findings of the research on labor relations with Marc Gruber, Co-Director of the European Federation of Journalists and Giuseppe Zaffuto, Director of programmes at the European Journalism Centre. The report on the impact of the EU AVMS Directive was distributed to stakeholders with the assistance of Erik Josefsson, a lobbyist of the Electronic Frontier Foundation at the European Commission and the European Parliament.