The Balkan Free Media Initiative (BFMI), a platform committed to bringing international attention, particularly Western Europe’s attention, to the growing political pressure exercised on independent media in the Balkans in recent years, has been launched.

The BMFI is based in Brussels and is headed by Bulgarian journalist Antoinette Nikolova. The Advisory Board is made up of internationally renowned journalists, such as John Sweeney, former director of the BBC and well-known investigative journalist; Sonia Kanikova and Olga Kuvran who both worked for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia; and US diplomat and former ambassador to Bulgaria James Pardew. Other Advisory Board members include French journalist and founder of civil society movement “EuropaNow!” Eric Jozsef, and the well-known Italian journalist and commentator on the European Union, Andrea Bonanni. “Never has media freedom been as threatened as it is today in the ‘new democracies’ of the ‘old continent’”, director Antoinette Nicolova (pictured) told SIR news agency, citing the World Press Freedom Index by Reporters Without Borders, which shows that Bulgaria ranks 112th, while Serbia is in 93rd place and North Macedonia in 90th.