On Friday, November 2nd, BaBe participated in the conference "Civil Society Facing Pressure: Impact, Reaction, Strategies" in Bucharest. The conference was also the opening of the project RESPONSIBILITY. Freedom of Expression', which aims to identify and promote strategic approaches to address the threats and challenges of hate speech, fake news and intimidation, in order to preserve the democratic values of freedom of expression.
In addition to the introductory presentation, BaBe participated in the panel 'Pressures on freedom of expression in CEE/Europe' (Pressures on freedom of speech in Central and Eastern Europe and Europe), where participants from Austria, Bulgaria, Romania and Croatia presented the situation in their countries to the audience.
A BaBa representative moderated the workshop 'Rethinking NGO strategies to resist pressure, combat fake news and build resilience to threats to civil society' (Reflecting on civil society strategies to resist pressures, combat fake news and build resistance).
The public event was attended by representatives of civil society organizations, journalists and other relevant stakeholders from all over Romania. The interactive approach allowed participants to intervene in the presented content, and the workshop gave them the opportunity to structure their own ideas and present them.
On Saturday, November 3, BaBe participated in a full-day project meeting, where they evaluated what had been done so far and elaborated on upcoming activities in more detail.
The project 'RESPONSIBILITY. Freedom of Expression' is supported by the European Union funds within the framework of the "Europe for Citizens" program, sub-programme 2 "Democratic engagement and civic participation. The project leader is the Austrian association The World of NGOs, and the partners are University of Vienna, SPOC (Bulgaria), Faragas Research Institute (Romania) and BaBe. The planned duration of the project is 12 months, and the implementation started on September 1st.
The project consists of three key components:
- Understanding how European societies perceive current threats to freedom of speech, researching how this form of freedom is used responsibly, but also where the limits of freedom of expression are in democratic environments.
- Understanding how civil society deals with current obstacles to freedom of expression and identifying effective solutions.
- Dissemination of findings; development of a manual to be distributed to organizations across Europe.
