30.12.2018. – Regional Platform for advocating media freedom and safety of journalists in the Western Balkans has the honour of presenting outputs of Small Grants Programme, which took place during years 2017 and 2018 within the bigger project “Protecting Media Freedom and Freedom of Expression in the Western Balkans”. Small Grants Programme supported the forming of non-profitable local community media Open TV (OTV), the project implemented by Media Research Center from Niš.
The Media Research Center, together with its regional partners from Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro, implemented the project “Formation of local non-profit media of OTV in the Western Balkans”.
The revitalization of the media in the former Yugoslavia resulted from a one-year project implemented jointly by four organizations: Media Research Center Nis, SPONA from Berane, AKTIS from Prilep and District from Prijedor. The topics covered by the OTV were stories about people, their professions, about problems, about the work of non-governmental organizations, but also about interesting and unusual things. The result of the joint cooperation is the realization of 370 media items of different genres with topics that are not in the focus of public service media and commercial media in these countries.
The regional network of non-profit media OTV continues to operate on its own using the previous one-year experience with the idea of expanding the number of non-profit media and a large number of countries in the region of Southeast Europe.
The mission of the Media Research Centre (MRC) is to promote the role of the Media and Media Literacy in the transition to sustainable ways of living. MRC specifically focuses on the independence of the media: including the issues of local public service broadcasting, legal challenges to media freedom, violence against and intimidation of journalists, and their employment conditions, protection and promotion of human rights, respect for diversity, democracy, and a culture of peace.
Find the Open TV website HERE.
About Small Grants Programme
During 2017. and 2018. 15 projects were funded through the Small Grants Programme in two LOTs (4 regional and 11 national projects) in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Kosovo* and Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
The Small Grants Programme supported locally and regionally rooted civil society initiatives, engaging human rights activists, journalists and media, aiming to protect the freedom of expression and freedom of media.
The small grants programme was funded by IPA /EU with co-financing from the Croatian Government Office for NGOs and matching funds from grantees; it is part of a regional project Western Balkan’s Regional Platform for Advocating Media Freedom and Journalists’ Safety implemented through partnership of five regional journalists’ associations and one journalists’ union– Independent Journalists Association of Serbia (IJAS), Association of BH Journalists (BHJ), Croatian Journalists Association (CJA), Association of Journalists of Kosovo (AJK), Association of Journalists of Macedonia (AJM) and the Trade Union of Media of Montenegro (TUMM).
Croatian Journalists’ Association and its regional partner journalists’ associations thank all subgrantees and other participants for their interest and effort in engaging in the Small Grants Programme and for their cooperation throughout the whole application and project implementation process.
