Media Development Center (MDC) is a non-profit, non-partisan organization established in 1998 to promote independent media in Bulgaria and to foster capacity-building of the media. The latter has been done by encouraging good practice in journalism, stimulating professional ethics, and institutionalizing dialogue among the state administration, the media and the NGO sector.
One of the aims of MDC has been to boost networking and cross-border cooperation of media professionals in the region of South East Europe and EMEA. MDC has been developing and implementing media projects in Bulgaria and abroad, and its main areas of activity are:
- education and training for media professionals and journalism students in Bulgaria
- media literacy trainings and campaigns
- whistleblowers protection initiatives
- support for the development of the free media market
- research, consultancy and information services on media and for the media
- publication of media-related researches and surveys
- media events: conferences, round-tables, discussions.
One of the MDC’s most important projects “Media Literacy LANDSCAPE SELFIE” envisaged the design of the first evidence-based pool of information about the current state of media literacy in the Bulgarian high schools and empowered young Bulgarians with a self-assessment tool for evaluation of their media literacy and critical thinking level. MDC developed a pilot online tool to collect and analyze information on the needs of pupils and teachers in Bulgarian high schools for education on media literacy, and organized visits of famous Bulgarian journalists to schools.