News and updates from BCSDN and the region
In a special report, Reuters discovers that in some countries worldwide, including Serbia, the authorities’ legislation to satisfy FATF standards was used as a mechanism to investigate journalists, NGOs, and lawyers. In July 2020, Serbia’s financial intelligence unit sent a letter to local banks requesting private data on 50 NGOs and media outlets recognized for
Read more →The report published by the Center for Independent Journalism in Romania discusses the price of journalism and society when lacking credible sources of information. From the silence of the surveyed sources, intimidated to disclose information, to the lack of transparency of the public institutions and politicians attacking journalists for publishing the “inconvenient truth”, the report highlights the challenging
Read more →A report delivered by the Turkish freedom of expression campaign group presents the country’s complex internet censorship mechanism. It explains that Internet and social media censorship has increased over the past 15 years in Turkey, with authorities’ restraints of approximately 60,000 websites throughout the last year. The report asserts that more than 467,000 websites have
Read more →Following the release of worrying video footage from July 2020, the Bulgarian prosecution is investing the political violence during last year’s protest besides denying these cases in the first place. Before its official release on the media and YouTube, the video was presented in the Bulgarian Parliament, and four of the police officers that committed
Read more →The latest Civicus Monitor Report for Turkey, a research update provided by BCSDN and published by Civicus, covering recent information on the state of the freedom of association, assembly, and expression, reflects on worrisome trends of the civil society and journalist position in the country. Due to complete restrictions on LGBTI events, including Pride marches,
Read more →The analysis based on Reporters Without Borders (RSF) findings reflects that fake websites’ attacks on some local Serbian media contribute to lower media’s trust and revenues. Besides the ongoing online and direct threats from the governing party representatives, the Serbian independent media are also targeted by their digital look-alikes. The report shows that some of
Read more →In a statement, BCSDN’s member from Turkey, TUSEV, working on providing an enabling environment for civil society development regarding legal, financial, and functional aspects, expresses its concerns about social media and other medium narratives on CSOs receiving foreign funds. The letter points that the statements about creating suspicion and labeling institutions that receive foreign funds
Read more →ECNL welcomes the adoption of the resolutions related to the digital sphere during the 47th session of the Human Rights Council and analyses to what extent the new language of the three resolutions (‘Civil society space resolution’, ‘Human rights on the Internet resolution’ and ‘Emerging technologies and human rights resolution’) provides safeguards for online manifestation
Read more →A case study delivered by the Program Director of BCSDN’s member Civic Initiatives, Bojana Selakovic, and published by the Belgrade Centre for Security Policy, reveals the operating environment of social actors who expressed critical views of Serbia’s current political and social situation worsened significantly in 2020. The pandemic’s circumstances have contributed to the further polarization
Read more →Partners Albania for Change and Development, the National Resource Centre for the Development of Civil Society in Albania, and BCSDN are pleased to present the eighth edition of the Monitoring Matrix Report on Enabling Environment for Civil Society Development in Albania. The report covers important issues that marked the civil society development during last year, including:
Read more →The analysis identifies problems in the legislation that negatively affect media freedom and journalists’ safety in BiH. It strives to recognize constructive initiatives to amend relevant laws and positive practices to improve the legislative framework in media. It focuses on the laws at the state level and lower levels to reveal the present differences. In
Read more →BCSDN member Partners Albania prepared a comparative analysis of the legal and regulatory framework on counter-terrorist financing and anti-money laundering affecting non-profit organizations (NPOs) in Albania with the standards of FATF Recommendation 8 and its Interpretive Note. The legal and institutional assessment is established on the existing legislation related to AML and CFT, and NPOs.
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