Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso Transeuropa (OBC Transeuropa or OBCT) is a
think tank and
online newspaper
An online newspaper (or electronic news or electronic news publication) is the online version of a newspaper, either as a stand-alone publication or as the online version of a printed periodical.
Going online created more opportunities for newspa ...
based in
Trento,
Italy, and specialised on
South East Europe
Southeast Europe or Southeastern Europe (SEE) is a geographical subregion of Europe, consisting primarily of the Balkans. Sovereign states and territories that are included in the region are Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia (al ...
.
It reports on social, cultural and political developments across 6 EU member states, 7 candidate and potential candidate countries, and 5 countries of the
Eastern Partnership (as well as ''de facto'' states) through a network of 50 correspondents from abroad, including journalists, researchers, and activists, publishing news, analysis and multimedia on a daily basis. Its archives hosts more than 10,000 items. It also produces and circulates research papers, scientific books and educational toolkits, and makes use of crowd-sourcing, social media and online debates as a bottom-up strategy. All its contents are available on
Creative Commons
Creative Commons (CC) is an American non-profit organization and international network devoted to educational access and expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has release ...
licenses.
[About Us]
, Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso
OBC is a cross-medial, multilingual and transnational news hub, targeting CSOs, journalists, students and researchers, policy-makers, business, migrants, and the general public. Its activities combine online journalism, research, training, knowledge dissemination and policy advice.
[
Its themes of interest include conflict transformation, politics of memory, active citizenship, the ]European public sphere The European public sphere refers to the public sphere where ideas and information are exchanged by citizens of European societies that can influence the European political life (especially that of the European Union). It is to have an "arena for EU ...
, media freedom
Freedom of the press or freedom of the media is the fundamental principle that communication and expression through various media, including printed and electronic media, especially published materials, should be considered a right to be exerci ...
, EU enlargement
The European Union (EU) has expanded a number of times throughout its history by way of the accession of new member states to the Union. To join the EU, a state needs to fulfil economic and political conditions called the Copenhagen criteria ...
, the European Neighbourhood Policy, international cooperation
In international relations, multilateralism refers to an alliance of multiple countries pursuing a common goal.
Definitions
Multilateralism, in the form of membership in international institutions, serves to bind powerful nations, discourage u ...
, local development, human rights, minority rights, migration and asylum, gender and welfare; all seen from a bottom-up, transnational perspective.[
]
History
Launched in the year 2000 (then "Osservatorio sui Balcani") as a forum of dialogue among civil society organizations, it aims to support transnational relations to promote the European integration of South East Europe, the development of democracy at EU level, and the easing of the East/West divide within Europe.[
As an autonomous project within the Peace Bell Foundation (''Fondazione Opera Campana dei Caduti'') based in Rovereto, OBC was supported by the Trentino Forum for Peace and Human Rights, and financed by the Department for International Cooperation of the Autonomous Province of Trento and the Municipality of Rovereto, in Italy. OBC also signed a long-term partnership agreement with the European Parliament, and it has won grants and projects from the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the European Union, private foundations, state and private organisations.][
In September 2013, OBC was subject to a hacking attack aimed at an article about corruption in the oil sector in Azerbaijan.
In 2016 it changed its name to Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso Transeuropa (OBCT).
In 2017 OBCT moved to Trento and became an operational unit of the newly founded International Cooperation Centre (''Centro per la Cooperazione Internazionale''), an association between the Autonomous Province of Trento, the municipalities of Trento and Rovereto, the Peace Bell Foundation and the ]University of Trento
The University of Trento (Italian: ''Università degli Studi di Trento'') is an Italian university located in Trento and nearby Rovereto. It has been able to achieve considerable results in didactics, research, and international relations accor ...
.
OBC is partner of the Leipzig-based European Centre for Press and Media Freedom, for whom has developed and run the Online Resource Centre on Media Freedom.
Praise and accolades
The Economist journalist Tim Judah defined OBC as "Italy's top website for, as its name suggests, Balkan and Caucasus affairs". In a Lonely Planet guide Annalisa Bruni defines OBC Transeuropa as a ""reliable source of news about politics and culture of the Balkans".
Several of the articles, reportages and video documentaries on OBC website won national and international prizes.[Our prizes]
Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso OBC also won the "Antonio Russo" Journalism Prize on War Reporting in 2010, Internet section.
See also
* Western Balkans
The Balkans ( ), also known as the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throughout the whol ...
* European Centre for Press and Media Freedom
Notes
External links
*
{{authority control
Italian news websites
Think tanks based in Italy
2000 establishments in Italy
Trento
European integration think tanks