Joint recommendations advance rights-based digital platforms and media governance in the Western Balkans
UNESCO has supported the adoption of 197 multi-stakeholder recommendations to improve the governance of digital platforms and media in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia.
Developed within the EU-funded project ‘Building Trust in Media in South-East Europe: Support to Journalism as a Public Good’, the recommendations promote a rights-based and multi-stakeholder approach to digital platform governance, while strengthening journalism as a public good in the region and addressing disinformation.
The recommendations build on the regional study and related national annexes ‘Governance of Social Media Platforms and Regulation of Online Media’, produced by the South East European Network for Professionalization of Media (SEENPM) with UNESCO support. The study examined existing regulatory frameworks governing social media platforms and online media, as well as how platform rules, algorithms, and content moderation practices affect the visibility and circulation of journalistic content online.
The multi-stakeholder recommendations complement the national annexes, translating their findings into practical steps aimed at improving the digital media environment at the national level.
Their adoption follows an extensive consultation process, including two series of national workshops organised in 2025 and 2026 by Partners Serbia and local partners, with the support of UNESCO. The workshops provided a space for stakeholders to review, discuss, and amend the recommendations produced by SEENPM.
Participants included representatives of relevant authorities, regulators, media associations, self-regulatory bodies, civil society organisations, journalists’ unions, fact-checking organisations, investigative journalism networks, academia, intergovernmental organisations, and other stakeholders.
Following the last series of workshops, held between April and May, participants and selected key stakeholders provided final comments and contributed to the publication of a common set of multi-stakeholder recommendations in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia.
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