Projects

CURRENT PROJECTS:

HEDAYAH

The Association of Journalists of Macedonia in cooperation with Initiative for European Perspective (IEP) and the Institute for peace, security and policy research Konica in the period from December 2019 to December 2020 will implement the project “Building resilience against violent terrorism and extremism through reinforced journalists, media and government officials.” The main objective of this project is to strengthen the capacity of the media and state authorities to communicate violent extremism and terrorism in a way that reduces the threat of it. The AJM budget for the implementation of this project is 34,098 euro.

Key priority of this project is the education of future journalists, professional journalists, editors and broadcasters. Addressing the current challenge of reporting about violent extremism and terrorism that in most cases fails to adequately investigate the radical narrative and, at worst, aids their goals.

Sigrid Rausing Trust

The Association of Journalists of Macedonia has been awarded an institutional grant from Sigrid Rausing Trust (SRT) in the amount of 45,000 pounds, it has a duration of 12 months and starts its implementation in June 2019. The purpose of the grant is to help the work of the AJM in the direction of fulfilling the mission and vision of the AJM, as well as the strategic goals of the Association envisaged in the Statute and the three-year strategic plan.

The SRT which is based in London, United Kingdom, was established back in 1995 and functions as a foundation that provides support and financial assistance for the protection of human rights globally.

The purpose of SRT is to promote the values and principles of human rights and freedoms, equality and the rule of law, and to preserve nature from further degradation. The Trust supports advocacy, creativity, research and scholarship to these ends.

European Union

Regional Project “Western Balkan’s Regional Platform for advocating media freedom and journalists’ safety”.

In cooperation between six independent Journalists’ Associations from the Westerns Balkans, АЈМ (Macedonia) will work together with partner organisations from Bosnia, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, Serbia to advocate the application of EU standards of media freedom and media pluralism and improve the safety of journalists.

Specific objective of this project is the establishment of an online platform for Early Warning and Prevention System as a mechanism of joint advocacy for implementation of EU standards in the field of media and prevention of malpractice, through capacity building, networking and exchange of knowledge between six regional journalists’ associations.

The project is funded by the European Commission as part of the media programme to support regional thematic networks of Civil Society Organisations.

FINISHED PROJECTS:

Embassy of the Netherlands in North Macedonia

In 2019, the Association of Journalists of Macedonia will implement the project “Safe Journalists for Credible Information in Macedonia”. This project is supported by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Macedonia and aims to improve the level of safety of journalists in Macedonia, to raise the awareness about the importance of professional journalism as well as to monitor the institutions that are relevant to the media and the safety of journalists.

Within the framework of this project, we will organize trainings for journalists and members of the police, two publications and protocols will be published for the journalists, the police and the judiciary. Also, at the end of the year, an annual report with indicators on the safety of journalists will be published, scoping the legal environment for the work of the media, as well as the social situation of journalists and media workers.

OSCE Mission to Skopje

The Association of Journalists of Macedonia and the OSCE Mission to Skopje on March 28th, 2018, signed a Memorandum of understanding, which envisages the organization of a series of activities aiming to improve the safety of journalists and to improve the quality of journalists’ reporting. The memorandum of cooperation envisages six trainings for journalists and members of the police that will be dedicated to the way high risk events are being be covered by journalists. Within these activities, a manual on Journalist safety will be published as well, and a joint event will mark the 2nd of November, the International Day for the Fight against Impunity of Violence against Journalists.

The cooperation between AJM and the OSCE Mission to Skopje will continue in 2019 as well. Within the joint activities, we will organize trainings for journalists and representatives of the police, as well as representatives of the courts and the public prosecutor’s office, and the main focus will be on increasing the safety of journalists in Macedonia. In addition, two policy documents will be published. We will also work on creating a new strategic plan of the AJM which will be implemented from 2019 to 2023 and will be assisted by the OSCE Mission to Skopje.

Civica MOBILITAS

The Association of Journalists of Macedonia since March 2015 is a beneficiary of institutional grants under Civica Mobilitas program to support civil society that began implementing in October 2014 and will last until September 2018.

Civica mobilitas supports civil society in promoting social change in the (strategic) areas such as good governance, decentralization and development of civil society. Also, it supports civil society in reference to three “transversal themes”: gender issues, ethnic relations and migration.

The program consists of three components: Support, networking, learning; grant scheme and research and development; and the total value is about 8 million Swiss francs.

Civica Mobilitas is a Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation project that is implemented by NIRAS from Denmar, the Macedonian Center for International Cooperation (MCIC) and the Swedish Institute for Public Administration (SIPU)

French Embassy to Skopje

The Association of Journalists of Macedonia and the French Embassy in Skopje on 06.08.2017 signed a cooperation agreement by which the embassy will financially support the preparation of the analysis of the decision of the court case Selmani and others against the Republic of Macedonia by the European Court of Human Rights. After the preparation of this analysis a seminar will be held on “Implementing the decision of the ECHR and implementing positive jurisprudence in Macedonia”, organized by the Association of Journalists of Macedonia. The aim of this cooperation is to create a platform for judges and journalists, where they can get acquainted with the rule of law of the ECHR through the specific verdict. The seminar is expected to improve the cooperation between the journalists and judges and to improve the transparency, accountability and mutual trust.

The Association of Journalists of Macedonia has launched the EU-funded project “Journalists’ Network for Media Freedoms in Macedonia”, under the media freedom priority of Instrument for Pre-Accessing Assistance (IPA).

The project aims to develop AJM’s network of journalists and raise awareness about ethical reporting, media self-regulation and help improve the national practice in line with the EU principles and the standards of Council of Europe.

Creating an enabling environment for free media and to improve the protection of journalism is the main goal of this Project. By strengthening the capacities of both the Association of Journalists of Macedonia and the self-regulatory bodies we aim to increase the effectiveness and credibility in assessing situations of unprofessional and unethical journalism.

As follow up on previous projects carried out by AJM we will continue to monitor the national court practice, in particular on issues involving journalists or media outlets in cases of libel and defamation. The project foresees awareness raising activities through training of journalists as well as judges and lawyers on freedom of expression obligation in compliance with Article 10 of European Convention of Human Rights.

Finally, the Project tends to enforce a dialogue with the government, policy makers, judiciary, the media and international actors to help bring the media legislation and practice in line with the European standards.

The European Federation of Journalists as our external partner has a crucial role in the implementation of this project, with additional of at least three sub-grantee CSO’s at the local level. The project will run until 2018.

jaune — This project is funded by the European Union

Initiative for editorial freedom: New policies and data driven advocacy

The Institute of Social Sciences and Humanities – Skopje in partnership with Association of Journalists of Macedonia (AJM) since February 2017 is implementing the project: Initiative for editorial freedom: New policies and data driven advocacy. The Overall objective of the project is to assess the policy effects on editorial freedom resulting from program regulations in the Law on Audio and Audiovisual Services and create data driven advocacy for proposed policy solutions.

One of the specific objectives is to produce a comprehensive regulatory impact assessment of the policies prescribed by the Law and implemented by the national regulatory body with focus on its effects on the freedom of expression, i.e., editorial freedom created by programmatic legal overregulation.

The project will also address the lack of effective dialogue trough building consultation mechanisms among with key stakeholders for introducing policy interventions on issues concerning regulation of media and freedom of expression in terms of policies. Data driven advocacy campaign will aim to explain and convince the stakeholders and the general public in the adequacy and relevance of the policy interventions proposed as a result of the assessment.

In addition, the project will work on strengthening the capacity of grass-root and formal civic initiatives in the area of the freedom of expression in the media through for policy oriented research and the use of data in advocacy (data driven advocacy).

The project is implemented under the program Civil Society Facility under the Instrument For Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA II).

Embassy of the USA to Skopje

Projcet: Promotion of Photojournalism

The grant is requested by the Association of Journalists of Macedonia as a support in achieving its strategic goals to increase the professional standards of the journalists in the country.

This project has а tendency to directly engage at least 20 professional photo reporters who are willing to upgrade their knowledge in a joint process of know-how in cooperation with professionals from the United States. The project will have outreach for broader audience thought engagement of other journalists and wider public. Intensive training with a US based photojournalism expert was provided to journalists in the city of Ohrid. Furthermore, in the upcoming period we are planning to have similar activities in Skopje.