ONGOING PROGRAMS

Media development

FreeEx
Freedom of expression in Romania

Media Monitoring Agency has started in August 1999 "The Freedom of Expression - FreeEx Program" that has as a mission to protect and promote the right to free expression. The FreeEx Program Romania pursues the following aims: to defend freedom of speech in Romania and to advocate particular changes favorable to this basic human right; to recognition of journalist status to government officials in Romania; to raise awareness on the importance of freedom of speech and the frequent cases of its violation in Romania. (more details)

Project initiated by the Media Monitoring Agency (MMA) in partnership with the Association for the Protection and Promotion of the Freedom of Expression and the Center for Independent Journalism (CIJ).

Financed by
Open Society Institute

Liana GANEA

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Oh, my press!
TV show

Since December 2002 MMA, in co-operation with the TV channel Realitatea TV, is producing a weekly TV show Of, presa mea! (Oh, my press!). Its purpose is to offer a critical insight of the Romanian media space and to highlight the main trends of the political and social phenomena. it reports and analyzes abusive treatments taken by governmental or unofficial forces to intimidate or punish journalists in Romania. It also reports and analyzes abusive treatments taken by governmental or unofficial forces to intimidate or punish journalists in Romania (more details)

Oh, my press - live, each Friday at 20:15!

Project initiated by the Media Monitoring Agency (MMA) in partnership with RealitateaTV.

Cora MOTOC

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FreeEx
Radio show

Since January 2004, MMA and Radio Mix Fm (100.6 FM) produce FreeEx, a daily debate about the problems of the Romanian media. Take your daily portion of freely expressed free thinking! Media professionals, no external pressures, no taboos.

FreeEx - live, Wednesday, from 9:00 to 10:00!

Project initiated by the Media Monitoring Agency (MMA) in partnership with Radio Mix Fm.

Liana GANEA

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FreeEx Romania
Economic problems of Romanian media

The project aims to strengthen journalists' status by improving their knowledge on labor related rights and by facilitating the establishment and the development of journalists trade unions. Other relevant objectives of the project are the identification of the economic problems within media institutions' management, compilation of a report on media economic problems, aiming at strengthening the advocacy programs of the media community, enhancing the management capacity of the organizations members of the Media Organizations Convention, by involving them in the project activities. Direct beneficiaries: journalists community, editors within local, regional and national media, Media Organizations Convention. (more details)

Project initiated by the Media Monitoring Agency (MMA) in partnership with the Association for the Protection and Promotion of the Freedom of Expression (APPLE) and the Center for Independent Journalism (CIJ).

Financed by
European Union: Phare Program Civil Society 2001 - Civic Education. Independent Media

Liana GANEA

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Consolidation of the Convention of Media Organizations (COM)
Improvement of Romanian journalists' managerial abilities

The program is aiming to increase COM members' managerial and institutional capacity. At the same time, the program pursuits to promote high professional standards, by adopting and promoting within COM of an Ethical Code for Journalists. In parallel, COM will elaborate a Journalist's Statute, describing the journalist's place in a democratic society and the way he/she relates to the media patronage, to the readers and editing staff. The way labour rights are respected within the journalistic profession will be given a special attention. (more details)

Project initiated by the Center for Independent Journalism (CIJ), in partnership with the Media Monitoring Agency (MMA).

Financed by
European Union: Phare Program Civil Society - Civic Education. Independent Media

Ioana AVADANEI

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Mass media and the judiciary
Guide of conduct

The project aims to edit a Guide of conduct in the press-justice relationship. The next step is the testing and evaluation of the guide via the training courses and workshops where the parties in the dialogue would be present, i.e. professional journalists and jurists involved in legal procedures, who at the same time are the direct target groups as well. The guide will be distributed among the direct target groups and not only, following its monitoring in the everyday practice, achieving a public referential data base accessible on/line. The project will contribute to the "normalization of inter-professional collaboration between mass-media and legal practice and will indisputably suggest to finalize public communication legislation in the area, using the data of monitoring. (more details)

Project initiated by the Hungarian Journalists' Association in Romania in partnership with the Media Monitoring Agency (MMA) and the Center for Independent Journalism (CIJ).

Financed by
European Union: Phare Program Civil Society - Civic Education. Independent Media

KARACSONYI Sigismund

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MEDIASIS
Mass media integrated system for secondary schools

The aim of this project is the intervention into the educational system via a concrete education tool that youngsters can use and clearly distinguish an unbiased media message - build in a professional manner - from a manipulator and propagandistic one. The main objectives of the project are: the achievement of a better and improved work tool - the Media Manual for high school (by way of improving and re-editing the first edition of the Media Manual, we carry on a former MMA project through which the manual was launched), a national "advertising" campaign which will promote "Mass Media" as a discipline, an awareness campaign of the necessity of studying it and last but not least the conception of a network of social sciences teachers that will develop a common working method for teaching "Mass Media" in secondary schools.

Project initiated by the Media Monitoring Agency (MMA) in partnership with the Ministry of Education, Research and Youth Romania.

Financed by
European Union: Phare Program Civil Society - Civic Education. Independent Media

Nicoleta FOTIADE

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Investigative Journalists in the Defense of Public Integrity

The program aims to improve the quality of investigative journalism in Romania. The main target group are the investigative journalists on local level, subjected to pressures caused by the concentration of media institutions' ownership and of the control over them. Secondary, the target groups also consist of: local media, insufficient informed public, state bodies relevant in combating the corruption phenomena, as well as other NGO's (advocacy or think-tank groups).

Project initiated by Transparency International (TI) in partnership with the Romanian Centre for Investigative Journalism (RCIJ) and the Media Monitoring Agency (MMA).

Financed by
European Union: Phare Program Civil Society - Civic Education. Independent Media

Oana ZABAVA

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INFO RURAL
Media raising-awareness campaign on agriculture and the process of European integration

The project aims to increase the level of knowledge on future changes of public policies and legislation on agricultural issues by improving the quality and the quantity of the information available in the Romanian press on this subject. The campaign will target journalists, professional agriculture associations. Direct beneficiaries of the project are people living in rural areas and small and medium entrepreneurs in agriculture.

Project initiated by the Media Monitoring Agency (MMA) in partnership with the Association for the Protection and Promotion of the Freedom of Expression (APPLE).

Financed by
European Union: Phare Europa Fund

Ramona LUPU

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Minority rights

STEPS TOWARD TOLERANCE
National raising-awareness campaign

The program intends to involve the majority in the process of improving the situation of Roma communities in Romania through a media - raising awareness campaign. (more details)

Project initiated by Media Monitoring Agency (MMA) in partnership with Romani CRISS - Roma Center for Social Intervention and Studies, McCann Erickson Romania and the Ministry of Education, Research and Youth.

Financed by
European Union: Phare Program Civil Society Development

Ramona LUPU

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VICTIMS OF DISCRIMINATION
Awareness campaign

The project is aiming to defend and promote the fundamental human rights and freedom by opposing any form of discrimination. Media Monitoring Agency - MMA is going to run an advocacy campaign in order to improve / increase the access of the discriminated persons to the services that are being currently offered on the basis of the law no. 48/2002 by the National Council for Combating the Discrimination (NCCD).

Project initiated by the Media Monitoring Agency (MMA).

Financed by
Open Society Foundation Romania

Ciprian NECULA

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FREE YOUR MIND!
Promote diversity in schools

The project aims to promote diversity via a series of multicultural education sessions based on the definition and structure of racism, extremist behaviour, patterns and practices of discrimination and segregation. The educational sessions are targeted for 9th grate (freshmen) students and will take place in various high schools from Bucharest, Romania. The students will also receive a guide (FAQ) on racism and discrimination attitudes, study cases, The publication is going to be edited and conceived by MMA's team of experts.

Pilot project initiated by the Media Monitoring Agency (MMA). Technical support provided by the National Ministry of Education, Research and Youth.

Financed by
Council of Europe: European Youth Foundation - Pilot Projects on Human Rights Education

Ramona LUPU

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Communication and PR courses
for Roma NGOs

The project is being developed by Media Monitoring Agency - MMA and implemented with the support of Romani CRISS - Roma Center for Social Intervention and Studies. The main activity to be undertaken in the project is a series of 4 training sessions in the field of communication and public relations. The targeted audience consists of young Roma active in Roma NGO's.

Project initiated by the Media Monitoring Agency (MMA).

Financed by
European Union: Phare Program Civil Society - Training for NGOs and projects in partnership

Ciprian NECULA

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Anticorruption

COVERING CORRUPTION AND ORGANIZED CRIME
Courses and information sessions for journalists

The project is being developed under The Stability Pact Media Task Force (National Working Group, Romania 2003). It proposes a series of courses and workshops for local media professionals, irrespective of the type of media (print or electronic) or form of property (private or public). The targeted areas are cities reputed for their "track record" in corruption cases, abusive representatives of the local power, weak or harassed independent media.

Project initiated by Center for Independent Journalism (CIJ) in partnership with Media Monitoring Agency (MMA).

Financed by
The Stability Pact for Southeastern Europe

Teo ZABAVA

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ANTICORRUPTION ALLIANCE
Journalist and civic activist supports the citizen

The program is planning to create a diagnosis and intervention long-term network, by having the full cooperation of the NGO and journalists communities. Primary beneficiaries would be the public opinion at large, victims of corruption attitudes.

Project initiated by Transparency International (TI) and Media Monitoring Agency (MMA), in partnership with Pro Democracy Association (PDA).

Financed by
World Bank Resident Mission in Romania

Teo ZABAVA

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COMPLETED PROGRAMS

ROMA NEWS
The Roma Center for Communication and Media Relations

The Roma Center for Communication and Media Relations is a Roma news agency that intends to develop a medium term strategy for the promotion of an alternative image of the Roma population in the media, by offering journalists an authorized source of information, on a national level. (more details)

Program initiated by Romani CRISS - - Roma Center for Social Intervention and Studies in partnership with Media Monitoring Agency (MMA).

Romani CRISS

Financed by
European Union: PHARE Program - Partnership Fund for the Roma

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ANTICORRUPTION ALLIANCE
Mass media, NGOs and trade unions in action
(2002-2003)

The project addressed the unsatisfactorily level of current involvement of civil society organizations, trade unions and citizens in the fight against corruption in Romania while capitalizing the experience of the investigative journalists and challenging authorities' lack of transparency in attitude and practice. Project initiators intended to establish a coalition of NGOs, trade unions and journalists to serve as a trigger of the public participation against corruption process.

The coalition has actively and effectively engage in the fight against corruption by providing:

• a realistic, independent and updated assessment of corruption at the level of several urban communities based on media monitoring and surveys;
  
• a citizens' guide for reporting corruption;
• a coalition bringing in and better capitalizing together their respective distinct and valuable resources.

As a follow-up and continuation, the initiators of this project launched a public campaign against corruption which involves citizens' signals to the authorities and the subsequent monitoring the received (or non-received) responses.

Financed by
The Stability Pact for Southeastern Europe

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ROMANIAN MEDIA AND THE EU ACCESSION
(2002)

The aim of the project was to identify media impact on issues regarding Romania's accession in the European Union activity that was followed by the designing of a "Integration Map" - a contact list with both media institutions and journalists involved (either explicitly or implicitly) about the integration issue. The program was carried out through semi structured interviews with key individuals involved in the process of meeting the EU integration requirements: public servants of relevant ministries, various experts of embassies / international institutions, members of highly qualified specialized research institutions, non governmental institutions, etc.

Financed by
Open Society Foundation Romania

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NATIONALIST MESSAGE IN MASS MEDIA
(1998 - 2001)

The program aimed to improve the public speech via useful instruments of fighting against the inter-ethnic hatred in East and Central European countries. The main goals of the program were to make the public communicators more aware of the ethnic minorities problems and to reduce the access of the nationalist message to the public. The program was designed for politicians, journalists and key leaders of ethnic minorities. A final report on comparative media monitoring was released within a regional conference organized in February 2001 in Bucharest. MMA together with Roma Press Center - Hungary, MEMO 98 - Slovakia and Media Works - Federal Republic of Yugoslavia were the promoters of the program.

Financed by
Freedom House - USAID / Regional Networking Program (2000-2001)
Open Society Foundation Romania (2000-2001)
Ethnocultural Diversity Resource Center (2001)
Roi Baudouin Foundation- Belgium (1998)
European Cultural Foundation (1998)
Project of Ethnic Relations (1998)

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COMPETENCE IN PERCEIVING MASS MEDIA
(1997 - 2000)

MMA designed "Competence in perceiving mass media" as a manual intended to implement a new discipline for undergraduate studies. The aim of this new subject matter is to get young people to take a stand against persuasion and manipulation - techniques that are being promoted via print and electronic media. The Ministry of Education and Research approved the manual as an optional class for secondary schools curricula (Socio-humanities). The project was put together by a team of researchers, professors and journalists like Dorina Chiritescu, Angela Tesileanu, Ioan Buteanu, Sorin Botoseneanu, Bogdan Ficeac, Nora Agapi, Codruta Popescu, Bogdan Patrascu, Mircea Toma.

Financed by
Academia Catavencu
USAID - World Learning Program
Open Society Foundation Romania

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ACCURACY OF MEDIA IN COVERING THE ELECTORAL CAMPAIGN
(2000)

The program aimed to evaluate the behavior of mass media in reporting political issues during the electoral presidential campaign. The group targeted to be monitored were among politicians themselves, twelve daily magazines, three TV stations (national coverage), 16 local newspapers (both Romanian and Hungarian language). The outcome of media monitoring were issued in 3 different stages between the months of October and December.

Financed by
German Marshall Fund of the United States

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MASS MEDIA DURING ELECTIONS
Workshop Cluj Napoca
(1996)

In partnership with media researchers coming from various academic or civil society backgrounds MMA has organized a debate-forum regarding the conduct of the Romanian media during the elections.

Financed by
European Union: PHARE Program - Democracy
PER - Project of Ethnic Relations

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