Three Years of Advocacy with the Balkan Free Media Initiative.
On this day three years ago, myself and leading media experts launched the Balkan Free Media Initiative (BFMI), driven by a shared commitment to advancing media integrity in a critical region of Europe: the Balkans.
As a journalist with experience in Bulgarian media, I have personally faced the realities that journalists throughout the region confront almost daily. From losing jobs over politically inconvenient reporting to facing pressures from both authorities and employers, there arose an urgent need to address the growing gap in advocacy and accountability surrounding media freedom.
With the help of Dayton Accord negotiator and U.S Ambassador James Pardew and media veteran Peter Horrocks CBE, we rapidly drew international support from fellow industry leaders and established BFMI to address this need.
Our goal is distinct: to augment, not duplicate, the work of existing organizations by focusing on under-explored structural issues. Our efforts have produced three comprehensive reports that dissect the complexities of media censorship and disinformation within the region alongside impactful advocacy campaigns. These reports, endorsed by key figures like the late President of the European Parliament, David Sassoli, have shed light on these hidden mechanisms and profoundly impacted understanding of the issue.
Our advocacy campaigns have yielded concrete results, securing commitments from various parliamentary groups and civil society organizations. Following our most recent report, "Defunding Disinformation in the Balkans: How International Brands Support Russia’s Agenda" (December 2023), BFMI initiated engagement with companies in Serbia and Bulgaria to withdraw funding from media outlets disseminating Russian disinformation. Notably, several brands, including Lidl Serbia, have terminated their media partnerships.
Despite these successes, we acknowledge that much work remains. The state of media freedom in the Balkans is deteriorating: external malign forces, national shifts towards authoritarianism, escalating hate speech, and an erosion of democratic values - all compounded by deep-rooted structural issues – poses mounting threats to media independence.
Our commitment to combating these dangers has never been more crucial. As we look to the year ahead, our focus will be on enhancing media resilience by addressing key structural problems like media ownership, regulation, and transparency with institutions, organizations, and policymakers.
Our dedication to preserving media freedom continues to be driven by our steadfast commitment to upholding democratic values and promoting a free and independent media landscape in the Balkans.
We invite continued support and collaboration from stakeholders at all levels—local, regional, and international. Together, we can safeguard the fundamental right to free press across Europe.
Antoinette Nikolova, Director of the Balkan Free Media Initiative
