Professional discussion and seminars “Backpacked Journalism” will be organized by the Media Development Center with the financial support of the US Embassy in Bulgaria.
The events will be held as follow:
– October 3, 2016, Sofia – professional discussion for representatives of the national media;
– October 4, 2016, Sofia – seminar for representatives of regional media from Southwestern and Northwestern Bulgaria;
– 5 and 6 October 2016, Stara Zagora – seminar for representatives of regional media from the central regions of North and South Bulgaria;
– October 7, 2016, Varna – seminar for representatives of regional media from Southeast and Northeast Bulgaria.
The trainings will be conducted by Kevin Sites, American author and freelance journalist. He has been covering armed conflicts from all over the world for ABC, NBC, CNN, and Yahoo! News. Called „the grandpa of backpack journalism“ by the press, Sites paved the path for fearless reporters who work independently and carry in their backpacks digital technology to shoot, write, edit and send multimedia messages from the most dangerous places around the world.
The events will cover topics such as:
– Backpack Journalism or lessons of war;
– Challenges of the profession in the digital era;
– Online media coverage;
– Improvisation, techniques for interviewing, editing, camera work;
– Ethics;
– TV, print, radio with video, text, audio.
All this will be presented in the light of the challenges that every journalist is facing while working in the modern era of rapid development of technology. For further information and registration, please contact the Media Development Centre.

The Media Development Center Child Protection Policy (the “Policy”) defines our organisation’s and employees’, volunteers’, sub-consultants and the subcontractors’ responsibility as professionals in the society and underlines our commitment to actively promote, share and sustain the key principles in child protection. This Policy purpose is to outline the steps that are intended to implement responsible behavior protecting children from both intentional and unintentional harm. We believe that child protection requires everyone to take responsibility and that all children have the right to be protected from all types of harm. The Media Development Center as organisation and all its employees’, volunteers’, subconsultants and the subcontractors are required to behave and work in compliance with Bulgaria’s child protection laws and the relevant laws in each of the countries where the Center operates, by adherence to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).

The Media Development Center is committed to:

• respecting and listening to children

• ensuring all required checks are made when recruiting employees

• maintaining child protection systems and procedures for the Center employees

• training its employees and providing a common understanding of child protection issues

• sharing information about child protection and good practice with children and parents

I. Rules for an appropriate and proper behavior

The rules are developed to ensure the protection of children and to protect adults from false accusations of an inappropriate behavior or abuse. These rules refer to employees, volunteers, and members of the board, sub-consultants, subcontractors and partners.
1. The employees of the Center do not tolerate discrimination, prejudices and hate speech based on race, culture, age, gender, disability, religion, sexual orientation or political views.

2. In communicating and working with children they use positive approaches.

3. Each employee, board member or volunteer at the Center must consider behavior and how it is been perceived and care for the language used, actions and relationships with minors and children.

4. As worse practice or potentially violent behavior will be interpreted such events as the following:

a. To have an inappropriate behavior that is sexually-provoking;

b. To justify or engage in behavior towards children which is illegal, risky or physically or emotionally violent;

II. Visual images involving children

By using visual images – photos and/or video materials – the Center applies the following principles:

• Respect the dignity of children and families.

• Never make pictures/videos of people who say they do not want to be filmed.

• Photographers should be carefully instructed in connection with the shooting of appropriate images;

• Whenever possible, photographers are accompanied by a representative of the Center.

• The persons representing the children/minors have to sign a statement of consent for the participation of children in photographs or video images.

• Supporting the standards of good taste and decency that meet the mission, goals and values of the Center.

III. Written statements and information materials

All public statements and information materials of the Center are required to align wth the following principles: – Respect the dignity of children and families.

– Do not tolerate any form of discrimination based on race, culture, age, gender, disability, religion, sexual orientation or political views either of the children, minors or their relatives, family members;

– Support the standards and good practices and the Ethical Code of Bulgarian Journalists.

The Center will provide the appropriate resources to implement this Policy and will ensure it is communicated and understood.
The members of the Managing Board, the employees, volunteers, sub-consultants and subcontractors will receive a copy of the Child Protection Policy of the Media Development Center.
The Executive Director of the Center is responsible to sustain and promote the company’s Child Protection Policy to all current and future employees and ensure the Policy is implemented into day-to-day operations and management systems.
The Center will review this Policy statement on an annual basis to reflect new legal and regulatory developments and to ensure good practice.

The project named SEE Partnership for Media Development is implemented by a consortium of media organizations from Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania. Media professionals from Kosovo and Turkey are also involved.

The Project is co-financed by the European Commission, the Civil Society Facility, Media Freedom and Accountability Programme, Europe Aid/134613/C/ACT/MULTI. The SEENPM members that are part of the project: Albanian Media Institute (Albania), Mediacenter for Media and Civil Society Development (BiH), Media Initiatives – Association for Media evelopment and Promotion of Professional Journalism (BiH), Macedonian Institute for Media (Macedonia), Montenegro Media Institute (Montenegro), Media Center (Serbia), Media and Reform Centre Nis (Serbia), Media Development Center (Bulgaria).

During the first year of the project, the partners managed to form wonderful teams and working mechanisms in all countries. Numerous studies were conducted. Now final report on the project activities is available for everyone.

The Project is co-financed by the European Commission, the Civil Society Facility, Media Freedom and Accountability Programme, Europe Aid/134613/C/ACT/MULTI.