V.A.N. Observatory – A Press Freedom Tool
The European Communication Institute[1] , with the support of the European Parliament[2] teams up with the Media Governance & Industries Research Lab of University of Vienna[3], J.A.J. [4] , and S.E.E.M.O[5] in an attempt to develop and curate an Observatory on Violence against, not just Journalists, but on the entire News Producing Community.
World Press Freedom Day comes in 2017 as a central theme in Fora, Social Media platforms, conferences, citizen groups, even political Agendas (see US president Trump’s use of ‘Fake News ’, challenged Media reliability, and more)
It is common sense to regard News Quality in the Digital age as determining a) everyday Life quality, and b) Democracy itself. Therefore all issues affecting the re-invented properties of a “Newsperson” are of importance.
This is the starting point of this Initiative.
Experience has it that all staff, all ranks, skills, all members of the Press Industry, are potential victims of Violence. VAN is where these incidents are gathered, processed, compared, forming data for meaningful analysis and future Policy making. Further it is a User Generated Content meeting point, where those events are categorized and shared.
Violence is more than Physical assault. The Project invites recordings of semantic, psychological, hierarchic and other types of Violence on the VAN timeline. As most incidents fall under more than one category it aspires that an organized glimpse in this dark aspect of News Making, will alert societies and change the ways the News profession is regarded.
VAN’s official Presentation was made at the main Europarliament hall in Athnes, on May 3rd, 2017, World Press Freedom Day.
ECI aspires that VAN is the first step, towards developing a Freedom of Press Index which shall assist Academia, the Press Industry and the Business community to make better informed choices. Hopefully its findings will also assist Policy Making be it in a local, regional or European level.
[1]Synergy of Austrian & Hellenic Public Entities in Higher Education and Research
[2] Support by the Hellenic Representation of the European Parliament
[3] http://mediagovernance.univie.ac.at/
[4] Journalists about Journalism, www.jaj.gr
[5]South East Europe Media Organization