Participation in Long-Term Initiatives

Balkan Neighbours Network

ACCESS initiated and coordinated the Balkan Neighbours Network for daily monitoring of the mainstream press in seven Balkan countries (Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Macedonia, Romania, Turkey and FR Yugoslavia), and of eventual tendencies to biased reporting on “the image of the neighbour” and the image of minorities in the Balkans based on traditional notions, national stereotypes and prevalent prejudices.

The Balkan Neighbours regional network was set up in 1994 and has been generously supported by the OSI - Budapest for almost seven years (1994-2000). Initially monitoring the mainstream Balkan media for national stereotypes and prejudices, the network gradually expanded, as more and more organizations and individuals from Albania, Greece, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Romania, Yugoslavia and Turkey joined in. Back in 1994, networking on the Balkans was virtually pioneering work and did not look like a very rewarding idea. Less than a decade later, in 2001, the South-East European region is covered with networks promoting cooperation.

South-East European Media Association (SEEMA)

In June 2000 ACCESS set up the South-East European Media Association (SEEMA), as an initiative of the editors-in-chief of the mainstream Romanian and Bulgarian press. This initiative grew into the Balkan Neighbours Club Project (2000-2002).

The main goals of SEEMA are to work for improving the free exchange of information between the media in the  Balkan countries and to encourage closer cooperation between media and journalists from different countries. SEEMA is an open structure to all media, as well as to individual journalists from the other countries in South-Eastern Europe who share the principles stated in the Founding Declaration for close cross-border cooperation of the media and NGOs through:

-   improving objective reporting;

-   elaborating and carrying out joint projects;

-   training and education for journalists;

-   improving legal environment concerning the media;

-   transregional journalist investigations;

-   joint marketing and business-projects policy;

-   promoting European standards in the journalistic profession;

-   improving the journalists’ protection againts violence and illegal pressure.

ACCESS Association, as а network coordinator, also tried to expand its scope through some other media cooperation projects with Greece and Turkey.

South-East European Network for Professionalization of the Media (SEENPM)

ACCESS is a founding member of South-East European Network for Professionalization of the Media (SEENPM) – a network of 18 media NGOs from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Macedonia, Moldova, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Serbia and Montenegro. The Network activities target the regional media. through organizing educational and training workshops addressing various topics – reporting diversity, investigative journalism, election reporting, reporting business and economy, media management and advertising, etc. ACCESS is one of the three Bulgarian organizations recruiting journalists from Bulgaria for the network courses. ACCESS is also a member of the Network Research Committee.

South-East European Policy Institute Network (SEEPIN)

ACCESS, together with other civil organizations from the region, established closer cooperation within the South-East European Policy Institute Network (SEEPIN), coordinated by FORUM – Center for Strategic Research and Documentation, Skopje, Macedonia. Within the project ACCESS kept daily monitoring on the Stability Pact image in the press in Bulgaria and prepared monthly reports in the period 1999-2000.

Coalition 2000

ACCESS is a member of Coalition 2000, one of the first practical initiatives against corruption in Bulgaria, launched by NGOs, public institutions, international organizations, media and citizens.

The Coalition has two main objectives: 1) to help change the public attitudes to corruption and to rally public support for the crackdown on corruption by an awareness-raising campaign in the media; 2) to propose concrete solutions based on qualitative and quantitative sociological surveys and media monitoring.

Within Coalition 2000 information and educational campaign, ACCESS prepared and published the book Counteraction to Corruption in the Local Government. It is a part of a series of anti-corruption publications circulated for the purposes of this campaign.

South-East Media Organization (SEEMO)

Since 2001 ACCESS has been a member of South-East Media Organization (SEEMO), affiliate of the International Press Institute, Vienna, Austria. Within its initiatives, ACCESS was in charge of media monitoring on the image of Austria in the Bulgarian press and prepared monthly reports in 2002. ACCESS executive director was an advisor for the SEEMO board.

Civil Society Development Program

ACCESS-Sofia Foundation is implementing Civil Society Development Program 2002. The Program is developed on the basis of experience gathered with previous Civil Society Development Programs in the period 1995–1998 and Bulgaria’s participation in the Phare Access Program 1999 and 2000, which was a special program for strengthening civil society in Central and Eastern Europe. Currently the Phare CSD Program 2001 is implemented by the CFCU at the Ministry of Finance with the technical support of a consortium of Bulgarian NGOs.

The overall objective of the Program is to sustain the civil society role in Bulgaria through improving its strategic approaches and capacities towards vulnerable groups and minorities integration, fighting against the corruption and transposition and implementation of the environment, consumer protection and social Acquis.
The specific objectives of the Program include:

• Design and apply transparent grants management scheme so as to support about 15 national large-scale and about 47 regional medium-scale initiatives of NGOs for better integration of vulnerable and minorities groups, fight against corruption and implementation of the environment, consumer protection and social acquis.

• Develop cross-sectoral partnerships between NGOs, public bodies and business groups and further assist about 60 small-scale initiatives of community-based NGOs in order to facilitate the communication, interaction and inter-exchange of resources in thematic priorities areas.

PROGRAMME MANAGEMENT

The 2002 CSD Program is implemented by the CFCU at the Ministry of Finance (Implementing Agency) under the supervision of the Delegation of the European Commission to Bulgaria.
A Program Implementation Unit – Consortium consisting of Resource Center Foundation, ACCESS-Sofia Foundation, Microfond Sofia Foundation, OSC Blagoevgrad, OSC Smolian, OSC Sliven, the House of Science and Technology Vratza, Knowledge Association Lovech and Center of NGOs Razgrad will be responsible for the day-to-day management of the project.