Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso Transeuropa (OBC Transeuropa or OBCT) is a

think tank A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-govern ...

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 newsp ...

based in

Trento Trento ( or ; Ladin and lmo, Trent; german: Trient ; cim, Tria; , ), also anglicized as Trent, is a city on the Adige River in Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol in Italy. It is the capital of the autonomous province of Trento. In the 16th centu ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

, and specialised on South East Europe. 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 The Eastern Partnership (EaP) is a joint initiative of the European External Action Service of the European Union (EU) together with the EU, its member states, and six Eastern European partners governing the EU's relationship with the post-Sovi ...

(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 Active citizenship or engaged citizenship refers to active participation of a citizen under the law of a nation discussing and educating themselves in politics and society, as well as a philosophy espoused by organizations and educational insti ...

, the European public sphere,

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 The European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) is a foreign relations instrument of the European Union (EU) which seeks to tie those countries to the east and south of the European territory of the EU to the Union. These countries, primarily developing ...

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 Local development is a relatively young theory in social sciences based on the identification and use of the resources and endogenous potentialities of a community, neighbourhood, city, municipality or equivalent. The local development approach co ...

human rights Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hu ...

minority rights Minority rights are the normal individual rights as applied to members of racial, ethnic, class, religious, linguistic or gender and sexual minorities, and also the collective rights accorded to any minority group. Civil-rights movements ...

, 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 Rovereto (; "wood of sessile oaks"; locally: ''Roveredo'') is a city and ''comune'' in Trentino in northern Italy, located in the Vallagarina valley of the Adige River. History Rovereto was an ancient fortress town standing at the frontier b ...

, 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 Trentino ( lld, Trentin), officially the Autonomous Province of Trento, is an autonomous province of Italy, in the country's far north. The Trentino and South Tyrol constitute the region of Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, an autonomous region ...

and the Municipality of

, in Italy. OBC also signed a long-term partnership agreement with the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the Legislature, legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven Institutions of the European Union, institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and in ...

, and it has won grants and projects from the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are located primarily in Europe, Europe. The union has a total area of ...

, 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 Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of th ...

. 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

, the municipalities of Trento and Rovereto, the Peace Bell Foundation and the University of Trento. OBC is partner of the

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...

-based

European Centre for Press and Media Freedom The European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF) is a non-profit organisation that promotes, protects and defends the right to a free media and freedom of expression throughout Europe. It was founded in 2015 as a watchdog of the European ...

, for whom has developed and run the Online Resource Centre on Media Freedom.

Praise and accolades

The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British weekly newspaper printed in demitab format and published digitally. It focuses on current affairs, international business, politics, technology, and culture. Based in London, the newspaper is owned by The Eco ...

journalist

Tim Judah Tim Judah (born 31 March 1962) is a British writer, reporter and political analyst for ''The Economist''. Judah has written several books on the geopolitics of the Balkans, mainly focusing on Serbia and Kosovo. Early life Tim Judah was born in ...

defined OBC as "Italy's top website for, as its name suggests, Balkan and Caucasus affairs". In a

Lonely Planet Lonely Planet is a travel guide book publisher. Founded in Australia in 1973, the company has printed over 150 million books. History Early years Lonely Planet was founded by married couple Maureen and Tony Wheeler. In 1972, they embark ...

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.

Notes

External links

* {{authority control Italian news websites Think tanks based in Italy 2000 establishments in Italy Trento European integration think tanks

History

Praise and accolades

See also

Notes

External links