About us
”Media 21” Foundation is a non-governmental organization founded in Bulgaria in 2011. The Foundation was created as a non-profit organization to the private benefit.
So far, “Media 21” Foundation has successfully implemented several international and national projects.
The project for “New media literacy in the new media environment” under the “Leonardo da Vinci” program of the European Commission (2012 – 2014) in partnership with organizations from Romania, Slovakia and Malta focused on the professional training of journalists in the Internet age and in the rapid development of the new media platforms.
The Compact project of the European Commission under the Horizon 2020 Program (COMPACT https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/762128/news/de), brought together 15 European organizations for joint activities on the promotion of the latest issues and technological discoveries, related to convergence and social media (2017 – 2021).
The pursuits of the “Media 21” Foundation for the period 2022 – 2024 were aimed at the successful completion of the EurOMo (Euromedia Ownership Monitor) project, coordinated by the University of Salzburg, whose aim is to improve the transparency of the ownership and control of news media in the European union countries. EurOMo first developed as a pilot project co-funded by the European Commission and as a part of the European Democracy Action Plan. The country report contains interesting observations based on the information gathered, including data from various registers, laws, the regulations and annual reports of public service media and journalistic publications. It also provides recommendations for the development of an “efficient regulatory framework” which, in addition to the transparency of media ownership, also regulates the so-called “cross-ownership”. https://media-ownership.eu/findings/countries/bulgaria/
In the course of work, the “Media 21” Foundation also translated the EurOMo material on media literacy for students aged 16 – 18 into Bulgarian, adapting it to the needs of academic education.
In 2023 – 2024, the Foundation put efforts in the preparation of a report on the National Assessment of the Internet development in Bulgaria through the adopted framework of the UNESCO Internet Universality Indicators, supported by the Council of Europe, carried out by a consortium under the auspices of the Ministry of Electronic Governnance of Bulgaria, public procurement Reg. No. D-4 / 24.03.2023 The expert team of the “Media 21” Foundation contributed to the successful completion of this unique task in a consortium with two other organizations united in the Civil Association “Law, Internet, Media, Communication and Culture”. (https://egov.government.bg/wps/portal/ministry-meu/strategies-policies/digital.transformation/itis-project)
The report examines and analyzes a set of 109 core indicators and 21 contextual indicators from UNESCO’s Framework of Internet Universality Indicators (ROAMX) (https://www.unesco.org/en/internet-universality-indicators/roam-x).
The “Media 21” Foundation also expands actively its educational activities. The organization published in Bulgarian language the Council of Europe’s handbook on cultural diversity and intercultural dialogue (2009) and participated with expertise and publications in other missions and endeavors related to the freedom of the media at home and abroad.
The Bulgarian translation of the UNESCO handbook “JOURNALISM, FAKE NEWS AND DISINFORMATION” (2020 – 2021) is the Foundation’s latest publication on media literacy issues. The electronic version of the book is available at https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000377660, as well as at the present site.
President
Bissera Zankova graduated in law from Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridsky” and specialized in editorial and publishing at the Faculty of Journalism and Mass Communication (FJMC) of the same university. She holds a master (1999) and a doctoral degree (2005) in comparative constitutional law from the Central European University, Budapest. For many years, Bissera Zankova has been a Council of Europe expert in the field of freedom of expression and the media, a member of the Steering Committee on Media and Information Society (CDMSI) and its Bureau. She participated in many Council of Europe’s missions in various European countries. She is currently an independent researcher and consultant as president of “Media 21” Foundation, registered in Bulgaria, which deals with research projects in the field of freedom of expression, media and journalism.
Dr.Bissera Zankova’s interests are in the field of media policy and media regulation. She has published extensively in Bulgarian and foreign journals on topics related to public media, media regulators, new forms of journalism and the role of the new media.
D-r Bissera Zankova
president of “Media 21” Foundation
bzankova@gmail.com
тел.00359888832013
European Journalism Observatory (EJO)
The European Journalism Observatory (EJO), a network of 13 independent non-profit media research institutes in 11 countries, aims to bridge journalism research and practice in Europe, and to foster professionalism and press freedom.
Projects with the participation of the "Media 21" Foundation
- 2012 - 2014 New media literacy for media professionals in the new media environment under the Leonardo da Vinci program of the European Commission 2012-1-SK1-LEO04-04370 6
- 2017 - 2021 Compact under the Horizon 2020 European Commission Program - COMPACT: FROM RESEARCH TO POLICY THROUGH RAISING AWARENESS OF THE STATE OF THE ART ON SOCIAL MEDIA AND CONVERGENCE, Project Number 762128
- 2022-2023 г. EurOMo (Euromedia Ownership Monitor Pilot Project / Media Ownership Monitor System - Pilot year 2, AGREEMENT NUMBER — LC-01901373 – EurOMo12.
- 2023 – 2024 National assessment of the development of the Internet in Bulgaria through the adopted framework of the UNESCO Internet Universality Indicators, supported by the Council of Europe, carried out by a consortium under the auspices of the Ministry of Electronic Governance of Bulgaria, public procurement Reg. No. D-4 / 24.03.2023
- 2025 - “Euromedia Ownership Monitor 2025”REFERENCE NUMBER OF THE CALL FOR PROPOSALS: Creative Europe – CNECT/2024/4167000
- The participation of experts of “Media 21” Foundation in the preparation and publication of a special issue of Central European Journal of Communication concerning media capture is an important project today when more and more people live in places where free expression is in crisis. One of the serious threats against the freedom of expression is to strip the media of their ‘four power’ fu8nction or the so-called "media capture". As early as 2012, Alina Mungui-Pipidi (2012) defined media capture as a situation where the news media is controlled "directly by governments or by vested interests networked by politics". In 2018, Sage Journals published a special issue on this topic “Seizing the Media: Government and Corporate Capture in the 21st Century.” The political transition and digital technologies that were expected to liberate the media did not do that. Instead, forms of government control in tandem with business have grown tremendously and become powerful truth suppressors in both old and new democracies. The phenomenon has grown, and twelve years after that warning, a new special issue of the Central European Journal of Communication, organ of the Polish Communication Association is out, discussing cases of media capture on four continents. The new situation is commented on by renowned and young specialists who have studied various bad media practices. Readers meet again with Prof. Alina Mungui-Pippidi, who in her interview connects captured media to the era of disinformation and categorically states that "media freedom is a function of the quality of democracy." Link: https://cejc.ptks.pl/Browse-Journal/Volume-17-No-2-36-Special-Issue-2024