Activity Details (ID# 13462)

Activity Synopsis

Due to the increasing interest in the South East European countries towards the media self-regulation issues the South East European Network for Professionalization of the Media (SEENPM) prepared 2 comparative research projects – The Business of Ethics, the Ethics of Business and the Ethics and Journalism in Southeast Europe. The two complimentary projects were implemented during the last six months in ten SEE countries – Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Macedonia, Moldova, Serbia and Montenegro, Romania and Slovenia and their results aimed at increasing media professionalism and to promote a healthy media business.

The main findings of those research projects were also presented during the conference.

Bulgaria represents the most recent good practical example in SEE in the area of self-regulation, where the key players in the local media industry (Association of Bulgarian Broadcasters, Union of Publishers in Bulgaria, etc.), media NGOs (Media Development Center, Bulgarian Media Coalition, etc.) and international actors (e.g. BBC World Service Trust, International Federation of Journalists, etc.) successfully joined their efforts to improve the professional standards in journalism and self-regulation. As a result, for the first time since the beginning of the changes in the country in early ‘90s the media community, united around a common Code of Ethics (signed November 2004) and are now in the process of setting-up a Complaints Commission. Thus, the media community in Bulgaria has huge experience to share and also represents a good case study for other countries in the region.

That is why, two influential stakeholders in the region, the South East European Network for Professionalization of the Media (SEENPM) and Stability Pact Media Task Force joined their efforts to organize this conference in Bulgaria with the logistic support of the Media Development Center, Sofia in order to draw conclusions and prepare recommendations for practical policy measures in the field of self-regulation.
 

The conference achieved the following results:

- Established best practices in media self-regulation;
- Participants shared experiences in the field of setting up self-regulatory bodies;
- Participants discussed practical guidelines on how to develop a code of ethics for the media;
- Improve media content and accountability through self-regulation;
- Established best practices of ethics in media business;
- Share experiences in the field of the business of ethics;
- Discuss practical recommendations and strategies on how to deal with ethical issues in the industry;
- Improve media products and accountability;
- Bringing those issues to the agenda not only of the targeted media, but also of the respective government institutions, involved in EU-accession processes.

Additionally the conference helped to attain the envisaged objectives by contributing to the strengthening of already existing cooperation among the main stakeholders in South East Europe in the field of self-regulation, by assisting the process of networking and expanding the SEENPM contacts and activities in new areas and regions; by building new partnerships with EU-member countries.

The conference was widely covered by all of the leading Bulgarian media (both print and electronic). It reached international coverage as well through the SEENPM website (www.seenpm.org) where all of the relevant information, documents and studies were published.

The assessment of the activity was made at the end of the conference through a special discussion panel and all of the expressed opinions were extremely positive and moreover it was recommended initiatives like this one to be constantly conducted in view of the great importance of the issue of self-regulation and media business in South East Europe.

The target group was reached to a great extend as all of the invited stakeholders actively participated in the event. Namely, 95 SEE-countries senior media managers, editors-in-chief, media owners, representatives of professional organizations (unions of media, journalists, publishers, etc.), SEE and international media experts, as well as journalists from national and local media from SEE countries.
 

The Media Development Center, Sofia (MDC) will implement a six-month project aimed at the improvement of the media self-regulation in the countries of Southeast Europe. By analyzing the existent deficits in the regulatory mechanisms and self-regulation practices as well as by using and building up upon effectively functioning positive examples the project will contribute to the further liberalization of the media, increasing its professional development to a higher level and promoting its role towards a real public watch-dog and strong pillar of the civil society. 

SEE-countries senior media managers, editors-in-chief, media owners, representatives of professional organizations (unions of media, journalists, publishers, etc.), SEE and international media experts, as well as journalists from national and local media from SEE countries. 

None 

Tanja Gerwien, Media Division, DG II