The Online Media Freedom Resource Centre (RC) is an open platform developed by the Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso Transeuropa and the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom.
The RC is an open and ever growing platform providing access to curated contents related to media freedom and pluralism in Europe. This online repository collects and systematizes current and existing news, reports and legal tools on media freedom and the right to freedom of expression, as well as media alerts, campaigns and practical instruments related to the safety of journalists in Europe. The RC aims to make these resources accessible and easily searchable for journalists, the larger community of media practitioners, policy-makers, scholars as well as the general public.
The creation of an online Resource Center on media freedom stems from the consideration that despite the growing pressure on European media, public awareness remains very low. Political and economic pressure, erosion of professional standards and increasing of self-censorship are gradually deteriorating the quality of information, not only in developing countries. In the last decade Europe as a whole was the second region in the world in terms of decline of press freedom – such a bad news is further aggravated by the citizens’ progressive loss of trust in the importance of media freedom.
On the other side, many associations, NGOs and professional organisations have been carrying out valuable activities of documentation, analysis and advocacy. If existing and valid sources remain fragmented, scattered around the web and therefore difficult to access, it will be impossible to develop an informed and inclusive debate on media freedom. That is why we are building this virtual space of curation as an open map in which reliable contents are selected and presented, and as a space of mutual knowledge for the ever-growing community of stakeholders, driven by a transnational idea of knowledge, responsibility and democracy.