Speakers Announced for Upcoming BFMI Event: Will the European Media Freedom Act Enhance Media Freedom in the Balkans?
On November 20, BFMI will convene experts at the European Parliament, at an event hosted by MEP Andrey Kovatchev, EPP Spokesperson for Enlargement and Southern Neighbourhood.
The event will feature a 1-hour panel discussion moderated by BFMI’s Peter Horrocks CBE, former BBC Director and current member of the content board of Ofcom. Speakers will provide invaluable insight into the impact of the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA) in the Balkans, its role in fostering media resilience, and actionable recommendations for improvement.
BFMI director, Antoinette Nikolova, will also present the findings of our forthcoming report: The Invisible Hand of Media Censorship in the Balkans: A Closer Look at Media Ownership in the Balkans and the European Media Freedom Act.
Speakers:
→ Maja Kocijančič, Foreign Policy Advisor in the cabinet of the President of the European Council, Charles Michel.
Maja is covering the Western Balkans, EU enlargement, Türkiye, and migration.
Previously she was a member of the cabinet of the Commissioner for the European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement, Oliver Várhelyi. For 10 years she was a spokesperson for the EU's Foreign and Security Policy, working with High Representatives/Vice-Presidents Federica Mogherini and Cathy Ashton. Before joining the EU institutions she was a Slovenian diplomat, including during Slovenia's Presidency of the EU Council in 2008. She started her career in journalism and has strong foreign policy and communication background.
→ Tom Gibson, EU Representative for the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
Tom Gibson joined the CPJ in January 2017, and is the lead advocate in Brussels covering the institutions of the European Union. He works to strengthen the EU’s positions on press freedom, domestically and internationally.
Between 2014 and 2016, Gibson managed Protection International's Burundi and Congo desks, advocating for stronger state accountability for the protection of human rights defenders and journalists as well as developing emergency responses and protection measures. Previously, he worked in Amnesty International's Africa program from 2005 to 2014, based in London and Nairobi, during which he mainly researched human rights violations in the Great Lakes region of Africa.
→ Igor Božic, Editor-in-Chief, N1 Serbia.
Igor Božic is Editor-in-Chief at N1 Serbia, with over 30 years experience in journalism. From the very start of N1, he has led its Serbian newsroom. Previously, he was Editor-in-Chief of B92 Info, Serbia's first 24/7 news channel.
A dedicated champion of independent journalism, he's shaped Serbian news media across decades.
→ Mark Nelson, Member of the BFMI Management Board.
Mark Nelson is a media, governance, and democracy expert, currently based in Washington D.C. Since 2020, Nelson has served on Facebook's News Integrity Expert Circle, which is advising the company on ways to improve the quality and transparency of news products shared on the platform.
He is former Senior Director of the National Endowment for Democracy where he headed the Center for International Media Assistance (CIMA). Nelson joined CIMA from the World Bank, where he spent 17 years in Paris and Washington as a media and governance expert.
From 1985 through 1996, Nelson was European diplomatic correspondent for the Wall Street Journal, based in Brussels, Berlin, and Paris. He covered the negotiations leading to the Maastricht Treaty, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the war in Bosnia. From 1992 to 1993 on leave from the Wall Street Journal, he was a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where he focused on the conflict in former Yugoslavia.
We look forward to hearing from our esteemed panellists on November 20. To attend the event in person, please register by visiting our events page here.
