It reports on social, cultural and political developments across 6 EU member states, 7 candidate and potential candidate countries, and 5 countries of the Eastern Partnership (as well as de facto states) through a network of 50 correspondents from abroad, including journalists, researchers, and activists, publishing news, analysis and multimedia on a daily basis. Its archives hosts more than 10,000 items. It also produces and circulates research papers, scientific books and educational toolkits, and makes use of crowd-sourcing, social media and online debates as a bottom-up strategy. All its contents are available on Creative Commons licenses.[1]
OBC is a cross-medial, multilingual and transnational news hub, targeting CSOs, journalists, students and researchers, policy-makers, business, migrants, and the general public. Its activities combine online journalism, research, training, knowledge dissemination and policy advice.[1]
Launched in the year 2000 (then "Osservatorio sui Balcani")[2] as a forum of dialogue among civil society organizations, it aims to support transnational relations to promote the European integration of South East Europe, the development of democracy at EU level, and the easing of the East/West divide within Europe.[1]
As an autonomous project within the Peace Bell Foundation (Fondazione Opera Campana dei Caduti) based in Rovereto, OBC was supported by the Trentino Forum for Peace and Human Rights, and financed by the Department for International Cooperation of the Autonomous Province of Trento and the Municipality of Rovereto, in Italy.[3] OBC also signed a long-term partnership agreement with the European Parliament, and it has won grants and projects from the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the European Union, private foundations, state and private organisations.[1]
In September 2013, OBC was subject to a hacking attack aimed at an article about corruption in the oil sector in Azerbaijan.[4][5]
In 2016 it changed its name to Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso Transeuropa (OBCT).[6]
In 2017 OBCT moved to Trento and became an operational unit of the newly founded International Cooperation Centre (Centro per la Cooperazione Internazionale),[7] an association between the Autonomous Province of Trento, the municipalities of Trento and Rovereto, the Peace Bell Foundation and the University of Trento.[8]
The Economist journalist Tim Judah defined OBC as "Italy's top website for, as its name suggests, Balkan and Caucasus affairs".[10] In a Lonely Planet guide Annalisa Bruni defines OBC Transeuropa as a ""reliable source of news about politics and culture of the Balkans".[11]
Several of the articles, reportages and video documentaries on OBC website won national and international prizes.[12] OBC also won the "Antonio Russo" Journalism Prize on War Reporting in 2010, Internet section.[13]
The Independent Democratic Serb Party is a social-democratic political party in Croatia representing the interests of the Croatian Serbs. It holds, progressive, pro-European stances and is generally considered a centre-left party.
Trentino officially the Autonomous Province of Trento, is an autonomous province of Italy, in the country's far north. The Trentino and South Tyrol constitute the region of Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, an autonomous region under the constitution. The province is composed of 177 comuni (municipalities). Its capital is the city of Trento (Trent). The province covers an area of more than 6,000 km2 (2,300 sq mi), with a total population of 541,098 in 2019. Trentino is renowned for its mountains, such as the Dolomites, which are part of the Alps.
The European Audiovisual Observatory is a public service organisation, part of the Council of Europe set up in 1992.
The Union for Trentino is a regionalist, centrist and Christian-democratic political party active in Trentino, Italy. The party has its roots in the experience of Daisy Civic List and was founded on 7 June 2008. Most recently the party was led by Tiziano Mellarini, while its most recognisable leader has been Lorenzo Dellai.
Darko Bratina was an Italian sociologist, film theorist and politician of Slovene ethnicity. Between 1992 and 1997, he served as member of the Italian Senate.
Abortion in Albania was fully legalized on December 7, 1995. Elective abortion care can be provided until the twelfth week of pregnancy. Women must undergo counseling for a week prior to the procedure, and hospitals which perform abortions are not allowed to release information to the public regarding which women they have treated.
Centro 73 was a social and cultural centre in Chișinău and the first squat created in Moldova. The early twentieth century villa at 73 Alexei Mateevici street was a monumental building which the owner intended to demolish. It was occupied in August 2010 and evicted in December the same year.
Rovereto railway station serves the Comune of Rovereto in the autonomous province of Trentino, northeastern Italy.
The Bulgarian Turks in Turkey represent a community of Bulgarian Turks, who immigrated over the years from Bulgaria to Turkey. They are notable in Turkey for being descendants of Balkan Turks who had to escape persecution. and moreover, part of them continue to be dual citizens of Bulgaria and Turkey, which makes them a natural bridge between both countries.
Paul Radu is an investigative journalist based in Bucharest, Romania. He is the director of the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, for which he and cofounder Drew Sullivan received the Special Award by the European Press Prize. He is also one of the cofounders of the Romanian Center for Investigative Journalism. He investigates transnational crime in Eastern Europe. He has received multiple international awards for his journalism. He believes that journalists should not be activists, but should rather trust that objective journalism is a sufficient contribution to whatever causes one might otherwise advocate. He teaches at the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network Summer School of Investigative Reporting. In 2008, he sat on a Central European Initiative jury to name that year's best investigative journalist; the jury chose Drago Hedl. In 2009, he appeared on 48 Hours investigating sexual slavery and human trafficking in Romania. He has also investigated human trafficking in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Lindita Nikolla is an Albanian politician who is serving as the Speaker of the Parliament since September 10, 2021. Previously she served as the Ministry of Education, Sports and Youth in September 2013 until May 2017, where she temporarily handed over the post to Mirela Karabina as part of a pre-election agreement between the position and the opposition. Mrs Nikolla was appointed again Minister of Education, Sports and Youth in September 2017 until 2019.
The European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF) is a non-profit organisation that promotes, protects and defends the right to a free media and freedom of expression throughout Europe. It was founded in 2015 as a watchdog of the European Charter on Freedom of the Press. The vision of the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom is a society where media freedom enables open discourse and everyone can seek, receive and impart information. The main activities of the ECPMF are monitoring press and media freedom violations, advocacy and practical help for journalists, such as legal support and a "journalists-in-residence" programme, and engaging diverse stakeholders across Europe.
Access to public information and freedom of information (FOI) refer to the right to access information held by public bodies also known as "right to know". Access to public information is considered of fundamental importance for the effective functioning of democratic systems, as it enhances governments' and public officials' accountability, boosting people participation and allowing their informed participation into public life. The fundamental premise of the right to access public information is that the information held by governmental institutions is in principle public and may be concealed only on the basis of legitimate reasons which should be detailed in the law.
Valentina Hvale Pellizzer is a sexual rights human rights activist and feminist internet writer. She facilitated seminars, conferences and workshops on ICT, technology, digital storytelling, citizen journalism, digital security and privacy throughout the world. She is known for connecting women's rights, sexual rights, the internet politically and practically and as an advocate for a feminist internet in Bosnia and Herzegovina and wider. She is also known for having founded the alternative feminist portal zenskaposla.ba in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Conscientious objection to abortion is the right of medical staff to refuse participation in abortion for personal belief.
eQualitie is a Canadian digital security organisation focused on the development and distribution of free, open-source software, services and security training to civil society, NGO's, investigative journalists and independent media to protect and promote human rights and press freedom online. The group is based in Montreal, Canada.
Institute for Political Ecology is a Zagreb (Croatia) based research and educational organisation, which aspires to shape alternative development models and innovative democratic solutions for political and economic transformations of society.
Georgi Vanyan (1963-2021) is an Armenian peace activist and chairman of the Caucasus Center of Peace-Making Initiatives.
Voxeurop is a multilingual news website aimed at European audiences. Voxeurop was launched in 2014, after the demise of Presseurop.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
