News and updates from BCSDN and the region
Watchdog organizations have brought attention to a noticeable “surge in censorship” within Turkey following the May elections. The government has employed the judicial system as a means of retaliating against journalists and media outlets that expressed opposition to Turkish President Erdogan and the ruling party. Data from the Mapping Media Freedom of the European Centre
Read more →On 21 August, approximately 50 women joined together in a protest outside the Ministry of Justice in Zagreb. On behalf of nearly 40 women’s organizations and initiatives, they called on the Ministry to improve women’s safety across Croatia and establish a working group on formulating legal solutions to address femicide as well as femicide to
Read more →On 14 August, thousands of Bosnians took to the streets to demand authorities act to curb violence against women after a man last week shot and killed his ex-wife while streaming the slaying live on Instagram. Bosnia’s citizens were angered in particular because of reports that the woman who was killed on Friday in the
Read more →FATF is welcoming proposals from various practitioners, experts, and stakeholders from the NPO sector and the financial institutions for the update of the FATF Best Practice Paper to Combat the Abuse of NPOs. This project is being undertaken in parallel to the proposed amendments to Recommendation 8 and its Interpretive Note (under public consultation) to
Read more →BIRN’s recent monthly digital violations review highlights Turkey and Croatia grappling with digital censorship and growing government control. Throughout the Balkans, journalists confront escalating online challenges. In Turkey, online censorship, surveillance, and arrests negatively impact independent journalism. Croatia’s proposed Media Law sparks concerns of government control, jeopardizing investigative reporting and source protection. In July, Turkey
Read more →According to the European Commission, defending democracy is high on its agenda. But its current approach to tackling the issue via its proposed Defence of Democracy package, which focuses heavily on threats coming from outside the EU, has significant shortcomings. By focusing on some symptoms of weakening democracies, such as covert foreign interference, the Commission
Read more →Major amendments to Bulgaria’s Law against Domestic Violence look set to enter into force in the face of fierce opposition from pro-Russian parties who say the changes promote LGBTI rights at the expense of ‘traditional’ family values. Responding to anti-violence protests following a brutal knife attack on an 18-year-old girl in Stara Zagora in late
Read more →On 27 and 28 June, in Haarlem, BCSDN representatives participated in a workshop for the Global Expert Hub on AML/CFT workshop, titled “Unpacking the Tech-Security Drives, Protecting Civic Space“, organized by ECNL. Around 40 CSO representatives and experts on AML/ CTF worldwide participated in the workshop, learning and discussing issues such as emerging technologies, fintech,
Read more →Council of Europe’s anti-money laundering body MONEYVAL calls on North Macedonia’s authorities to further strengthen measures to combat money laundering (ML), financing of terrorism (FT), and financing of proliferation (FP), in particular in the investigation and prosecution fields. Moneyval further recommends authorities to step up their efforts to implement adequately beneficial ownership standards. Read more
Read more →The Croatian Journalists’ Association, HND, has strongly condemned the draft media law, noting that it represented unprecedented state interference in journalistic freedoms and in journalistic self-regulation. The draft law proposed by the Culture and Media Ministry was not previously agreed on within the working group of which journalists were members. They also condemned a proposal
Read more →At the Press Day in Turkey, on 24 July, journalists’ unions and media organizations called on the Turkish government to end pressures, violence, censorship, and imprisonment of journalists and the alleged criminalization of the journalistic profession. The Turkish press council has stated that news can be treated as ‘terrorism’ and a journalist as a ‘terrorist’.
Read more →The Macedonian Journalists’ Association (AJM) is demanding an urgent response to the explicit threats made to journalist Rita Behadini at her announcement regarding the public stance by Saraj’s social network Facebook. In solidarity with the Association of Journalists of Macedonia (AJM), the gender equality platform demands an urgent response by strongly condemning hate speech and
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