Grantees in the Spotlight

Grantees in the spotlight

civil society

The future depends on all of us: collective action and lessons from Poland

A governmental attempt to restrict women’s rights in 2020, a proposed tax reform in 2021 that can shrink the space for independent media, and governmental efforts to curtail the judiciary’s independence marked an eventful period for civil society organisations in Poland. Amidst all developments, Polish civil society has learnt that united actions have more impact than individual attempts to counter the worrying trends.

15/07/2021

independent journalism

PressOne inspires their readers through reporting about solutions, not only problems

For Civitates’ partners from PressOne, an independent journalist organisation based in Romania, public-interest journalism is “a powerful way to make people understand the reality that surrounds them and a powerful tool of change” as Adrian Mihaltianu, PressOne’s managing director, shared.

20/05/2021

digital public sphere

Enjoying the internet while staying safe online

BIRN, together with SHARE foundation, has been monitoring how digital rights violations in Central and South-Eastern Europe are impacting democracy and human rights even before the pandemic changed people’s lives. With the pandemic, however, they saw a tremendous growth of rights violations linked to Covid-19.

30/03/2021

civil society

CSOs in France unite to react to controversial bill

By working together, members of the coalition led by VoxPublic unite strengths and expertise to promote and defend the rights of civil society actors and to provide response strategies to the growing repression experienced by associations.

04/03/2021

Further Stories

Bulgarian civil society organisations as the immune system of democracy

28/07/2020

A draft law in Bulgaria proposes an amendment to the Non-profit Legal Entities Act in two parts – the part regarding the functioning of the Civil Society Development Council, as well as proposing the creation of a new legal framework on declaring and controlling the funding of NGOs received from a foreign country or from a foreign natural or legal person. In view of these developments, Civitates met the grantees from Citizen Participation Forum and the Bulgarian Center for Non-for-profit Law, Iva Taralezhkova and Nadia Shabani, to shed a light on the situation in Bulgaria and the work of the coalition.

Examining Russian disinformation in both Western and Central-Eastern Europe

02/07/2020

Examining Russian disinformation in both Western and Central-Eastern Europe Published: 2 July 2020 “Russian propaganda is constantly shifting strategies, focusing more and more on amplifying messages rather than creating its own. So it’s both evolving and becoming less detectable at the same time,” – Rumena Filipova, research fellow at the Center for

Covid-19 misinformation: understanding its scale and scope

04/06/2020

The phenomenon of junk news and its dissemination over social media platforms have transformed political debates in Europe. Civitates supports the Oxford Internet Institute, which is currently producing a series of research related to misinformation about the Covid-19 pandemic.

Better transparency tools to put pressure on platforms

19/05/2020

Better transparency tools to put pressure on platforms “While it is clear that algorithmically driven intermediaries shape public discourse, we do not know the exact details. That is why transparency is one of the most important regulatory goals,” – Mackenzie Nelson, project manager of ‘Governing Platforms’ at AlgorithmWatch. In order to tackle

United in support of democracy and human rights in Bulgaria

23/04/2020

United in support of democracy and human rights in Bulgaria Published: 23 April 2020 “The Covid-19 crisis highlights the need for civil society to adopt a proactive mindset”- Svetlana Mihaylova, Director of Strategic Partnerships for the Bulgarian Fund for Women. Bulgarians have an overwhelmingly low level of trust and participation in