"This study evaluates the implementation of the Alliance to better protect minors online (‘the Alliance’). Officially launched in 2017, the Alliance is a multi-stakeholder platform through which companies make a series of commitments to address emerging risks that minors face online. The initiat
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ive focuses on protection from harmful content, conduct and contact, and seeks to identify possible areas within these three categories that would benefit from a coordinated approach from companies and other stakeholders to overcome them. In general, the evaluation finds that the Alliance is an original, relevant means to protect minors online. There is however unrealised potential to foresee, discuss and forge common solutions across different stakeholder types, including on new and emerging threats to the safety of minors online." (Executive summary, page 5)
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"This book is a guide on how to build a community network, a shared local telecommunications infrastructure, managed as a commons, to access the internet and other digital communications services. It was written collectively by a group of community network pioneers in Europe, activists and researche
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rs during a writing residency week held in Vic, Catalonia in October 2018. It was a time of hard work and fast writing, but also of discussions in a friendly environment. Meant for a wide audience, the book includes practical knowledge illustrated by several hands-on experiences – a set of 32 real-life stories – as well as legal, technical, governance, economic and policy material extracted from netCommons, a three-year-long research project supported by the European Commission. Its goal is to guide the reader through a set of actions aimed at setting up and fostering the growth of a community network, but also, for policy makers, local administrations and the general public, to create the right conditions to let community networks bloom and flourish. Starting with presentations of successful community networks, and an introduction to the importance and the role of community networks, it provides stepby-step guidelines and concrete information on the resources needed to start a community network, get it running, and keep it sustainable in the long term. From technical options to economic models, governance choices, legal requirements, and the various skills involved, this lively resource proposes ways to engage with a local community at every stage of a community network." (Publisher description)
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"A list of 30 EU member states' national media support projects between 2005 and 2018 "where the European Commission, after a preliminary examination, finds that no doubts are raised as to the com
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patibility with the common market of a notified measure, in so far as it falls within the scope of Article 87(1) of the EC Treaty." (commbox)
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"This volume offers an up-to-date analysis of film and television co-production in Europe. It brings together the voices of policy professionals, industry practitioners and media industry scholars to trace the contours of a complex practice that is of increasing significance in the global media land
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scape. Analysis of the latest production statistics sits alongside interviews with producers and the critical evaluation of public film policies. The volume incorporates contributions from representatives of major public institutions - Eurimages, the European Audiovisual Observatory and the European Commission - and private production companies including the pan-European Zentropa Group. Policy issues are elucidated through case studies including the Oscar-winning feature film Ida, the BAFTA-winning I am not a Witch and the Danish television serial Ride Upon the Storm. Scholarly articles span co-development, co-distribution and regional cinemas as well as emerging policy challenges such as the digital single market." (Publisher description)
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"Against the backdrop of the war in Syria BBC Media Action produced and broadcast 150 episodes of the radio drama Hay el Matar (Airport District) between 2015 and 2017. Funded by the European Commission
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as part of a broader project aiming to help build an open and inclusive society in Syria, the drama and an accompanying weekly discussion programme was available online and on BBC Arabic. Set in a fictional Damascus suburb, Hay el Matar followed the daily lives of residents and featured love affairs, family feuds and tragedies. Each episode was scripted by a team of Syrian writers and touched on a different issue - from violence, radicalisation and migration, to economic insecurity and forced marriage. To understand how listeners engaged with Hay El Matar, BBC Media Action commissioned and trained local non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to conduct focus group discussions with listeners in Syria and Lebanon. We found that the drama prompted listeners to think about topical issues, challenges stereotypes and have a view of the Syrian conflict that extended beyond their own personal experience. It also challenged their assumptions and prompted them to talk about and reflect on other people’s multi-faceted experiences of the conflict." (https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaaction)
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"The ability of the media and especially journalism to operate freely is crucial in order on the one hand to hold governments and other institutions accountable for their actions and on the other to allow citizens to make informed decisions. To discuss the current state of affairs for media and jour
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nalistic freedom in Europe, the authors draw on the findings of two of independent projects awarded a grant by the European Commission —the Safety Net for European Journalists and the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ecpmf). First, the article offers insights as to current threats and other impediments experienced by journalists, and highlights their structural basis. In the second section it shows how, despite the European commitment to media freedom, developments in 2015-16 suggest that both the «war of attrition» and the ‘toxic environment’ identified by Safety Net are expanding and apply to more countries in Europe." (Abstract)
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"This book is the first to incorporate current academic literature on European, transnational, and international media law into a comprehensive overview intended primarily for students. It introduces the legal framework for globalised communication
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via mass media, and considers the transformative effect globalisation has had on domestic media law. Engaging case examples at the beginning of each chapter and questions at the end give students a clearer idea of legal problems and encourage them to think critically. A wide variety of topics - including media economics, media technology, and social norms concerning media publications - are discussed in relation to media law, and numerous references to case law and suggestions for further reading allow students to conduct independent research easily." (Back cover)
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"The first part of the study focuses on the EU’s internal policies in the field of online content regulation. Drawing on case-studies of three EU directives – Directive 2000/31/EC on e-commerce, Directive 2011/93/EU on combating the sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of children and child porn
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ography and Directive 2004/48/EC on intellectual property rights enforcement – the study seeks to illustrate how dealing with alleged illegal content through blocking, filtering and take-down of content within co- and self-regulatory frameworks shaped around ‘Internet intermediaries’ challenge freedom of expression and information. The directives presuppose, accept or encourage self-regulation and, combined with schemes of limited liability, subject the intermediaries to an increasing pressure to implement public policy in the online domain. However, these practices and their limitations to freedom of expression are rarely framed as human rights issues, nor do they have the required safeguards. Based on analysis of the EU directives, the study explores the weaknesses – seen from a human rights perspective – of the European approach towards tackling illegal content on the Internet. The study provides a number of suggestions to ensure that the EU addresses the human rights implications of co- and self-regulation, including the strengthening of safeguards and guidance for Member States and intermediaries to implement the said EU policy. Also, the study calls for a comprehensive EU freedom of expression and information framework, covering both its internal and external policy. In line with this, the EU should consider the freedom of expression and information implications of current and new policies when reviewing them according to the Digital Single Market Strategy.
The second part addresses the external policies of the EU with a focus on the protection and support of Human Rights Defenders using digital means (‘Digital Defenders’). For this purpose, EU policies and instruments of relevance for Digital Defenders are analysed, including the implementation of the Internet Freedom Strategy and the No Disconnect Strategy. The programmes under the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights are reviewed with respect to their relevance for human rights activities online, taking into account the recent EU Guidelines on Freedom of Expression Online and Offline. This part of the study also explores the related issues of the safety of journalists (which are often citizen journalists), export control of surveillance technology by the EU Member States and the cooperation with other international organisations active in the field of online rights. Proposals are offered on how to improve the general environment for Digital Defenders and their right to freedom of expression and information, and how to improve the coherence of EU action in this field. The newly created Human Rights Defenders Mechanism can play a pivotal role in this regard, as could updated EU Guidelines on human rights defenders." (Executive summary)
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"The majority think their national media provide a diversity of views, but most say it is not free from political or commercial pressures. Two thirds of respondents (66%) agree that their national media provide a diversity of views and opinions, and the majority in all but one Member State agree (Gr
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eece is the only exception). More than four in ten EU citizens (44%) say the level of diversity of views and opinions in the national media are the same as it was five years ago, 29% think there is more diversity, while 18% say there is less. Almost four in ten respondents (38%) agree their national media provide information free from political or commercial pressure – the majority disagree (57%). There are only nine Member States where the majority agree. Just over a third of respondents agree their national public service media are free from political pressure (35%), but the majority (60%) disagree. Almost half (45%) think their national media are as free and independent as they were five years ago, while 18% say it is more free and independent, and 28% think it is less so. A small majority (53%) agree their national media provide trustworthy information, while 44% think it does not. In 19 Member States, the majority of respondents agree their national media provide trustworthy information. Radio is most likely to be considered reliable (66%), followed by television and newspapers (both 55%). Far fewer respondents consider social media to be reliable (32%). Radio is considered the most reliable media in 25 countries." (Key findings, page 4)
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"For this assessment more than 390 surveys were made in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey [...] In addition to the survey a further 150 in-depth interviews were held, complemented by a Focus Group in each country, which
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provided useful background and analytical information for the narrative parts of this report. The baseline assessment focused on the 4 objectives of the Guidelines: 1. Enabling environment and resulting responsibilities of main actors, 2. Advancing media to a modern level of internal governance, 3. Qualitative and trustworthy investigative journalism available to citizens and 4. Increasing capacity and representativeness of journalist professional organisations. In respect of the enabling environment the survey findings show that most countries have made reasonable or good progress in the field of establishing legislation and most have sufficient provisions to guarantee freedom of expression. However, there remains a serious problem in the proper implementation of the legislation ..." (Page 10)
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"This chapter explores the South African experience in attempting to achieve a more diverse and representative media that articulate the aspirations of the country, after decades of apartheid which skewed the media towards white people. South Africa has not developed a diversity measurement tool, su
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ch as the one developed for the European Commission to assess risks to media plurality in member states.1 A key problem the country faces in tracking the extent of concentration and diversity is that it has no ‘objective’2 means of assessing the extent of diversity, which up to this point has simply been ‘read off’ the number of existing media outlets. While a plurality of outlets may arguably be a necessary condition for diversity, it is by no means a sufficient condition." (Abstract)
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