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Media Freedomin EuropeWhile there are nearly 4,000television channels in Europe, theThe Open Society Institute advocates fora European Union that promotes andtelevision market is highlyconcentrated in terms of bothownership and audience shares. Inmost countries, a handful ofchannels attract the vast majority ofviewers. Ownership structures arecontrolled by a few companies andoften shrouded in secrecy. Politicalpressure on regulators and publicservice broadcasters is widespread.These developments jeopardizeenforces the values of an open societyamong its members and spreads thesevalues to other countries through itsexternal policies and assistance programs.OSI undertook a variety of activities insupport of EU-related policies in 2005.pluralism and diversity inbroadcasting and threaten toundermine the pivotal contributionEUROPEAN NEIGHBORHOOD POLICYtelevision can make in supportingdemocracy, especially in the newdemocracies of Central and EasternEurope. Television across Europe:regulation, policy and independence,a monitoring report produced byOSI’s EUMAP, is the largest-evercomparative survey of television in20 European countries. Based uponthe report’s findings, OSI isencouraging the EU to establish anindependent agency to monitormedia markets and mediaconcentration in the EU and inglobal markets and to ensuretransparency of media ownership.The goal of the EU’s EuropeanNeighborhood Policy (ENP) is to foster thedevelopment of closer relationshipsbetween the EU and the countriesbordering it, based on a respect forcommon values, but without offering thesecountries full EU membership. Moldovaand Ukraine have already agreed with theEU on individual action plans, while plansfor Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia are inthe works.2005 REPORT16

ADVOCACY POLICYOSI focused its activities on promoting civil societyinvolvement in the development and monitoring of the ENPprocess, both in Brussels and in the countries concerned;supporting the transfer of knowledge and expertise about theEU from the new EU member states to their neighbors;making rule of law the cornerstone of theENP action plans; and advocating for effective EU funding forENP implementation. Ukrainian experts supported by OSImade recommendations for the EU-Ukrainian action plans inthe policy areas of judicial reform, access to justice, mediaindependence, and improvement of human rights. Most of therecommendations were included in the plans.In Moldova, the European perspective played a crucial role inuniting political and social forces around a national cause,reforming election procedures, and ensuring the independenceof the judiciary and media. OSI advocacy contributed to EUdecisions to open a European Commission delegation inChisinau, to appoint a special representative to Moldova, forthe EU to obtain observer status at the Moldova-Transnistrianegotiations, and to send a border assistance mission toSOROS FOUNDATIONS NETWORK17

reduce human trafficking, smuggling, proliferationof weapons, and customs fraud. The EU grantedMoldova important duty and quota-free access tothe EU market.EU ENLARGEMENTAfter the EU’s latest wave of enlargement in 2004, theaccession process continues to be the main driver ofdemocratic transition in Eastern and South EasternEurope. Bulgaria and Romania will likely join the EU in2007; Croatia, Turkey, and Macedonia are at differentstages of the accession and candidate process.One of OSI’s objectives is to ensurethat the EUenlargement process produces moreopen societies. To this end, OSI facilitates civilsociety input into the European Commission’s regularmonitoring reports on Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina,Bulgaria, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, Romania,Serbia, and Turkey. The reports have reflected many ofOSI’s concerns about corruption, organized crime, and2005 REPORT18

ADVOCACY POLICYthe plight of the Roma and other minorities. In order toprevent the creation of a belt of poverty and marginalizationon the EU’s borders, OSI and the European Stability Initiativeadvocate for developing EU policies that provide support forsocioeconomic cohesion to South Eastern European nations.EU FUNDING AND THE FUTURE EU BUDGETThe EU is one of the biggest foreign donors worldwide. Itsforeign assistance budget in 2005 was approximately 8.548billion euros, including preaccession aid. However, the EUalso has a notorious reputation as one of the world’s slowestand most bureaucratic donors.In a coalition with other Brussels-based NGOs, OSI iscampaigning for an overhaul of the EU’s financial regulationsand implementing rules to make EU funding for civil societyactors more effective and efficient. The European Commissionincluded several of the coalition’s recommendations in aproposed revision of the current rules. OSI is also advocatingfor continued funding for promotion of human rights anddemocracy as part of the EU’s 2007–2013 budget.SOROS FOUNDATIONS NETWORK19

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ADVOCACY POLICYRomaT H E R O M A , Europe’s largest ethnic minority, havenot benefited from the dramatic transition to democracythat has swept over Central and Eastern Europe since1989. The continued segregation, discrimination, andextreme poverty faced by the Roma are among the mostcritical deficits for open society in Europe today.The Decade of Roma Inclusion, 2005–2015, aninitiative supported by OSI and the World Bank, isan unprecedented international effort to eliminatediscrimination against the Roma and ensure thatRoma have equal access to education, housing,employment, and health care. The Open SocietyInstitute advocates for equalparticipationof Roma in all spheres of publiclife. Systemic policy reform in education forSOROS FOUNDATIONS NETWORK21

Roma remains a priority for OSI, and it provides the RomaEducation Fund with an annual contribution of 3 millionfor its efforts to ensure that Romani children have accessto a quality education based on school desegregation.NATIONAL ACTION PLANS FOR THE ROMA CONCERN FOR THEMARGINALIZED.Residents in a Romanineighborhood inSlovakia.OSI and the Soros foundations undertook a variety ofactivities at the national level during 2005, includingsupport for the advocacy initiatives of Romani civicorganizations and alliances, such as the monitoring ofnational Romani strategies, national action plans, andnational budgets. OSI’s foundation in Romania organized aseries of high-profile debates on Romani inclusion and fundeda publication program with Revista 22, a highly respectedweekly magazine. In Bulgaria, OSI supported a network ofRomani community centers to act as mediators between theRoma and local governments. Together with the World Bank,OSI funded public opinion surveys on attitudes toward Roma inall countries that have signed on to the Decade of RomaInclusion and used the results of these surveys to designeffective initiatives attacking the negative image of the Roma.2005 REPORT22

ADVOCACY POLICYEU STRATEGY FOR THE ROMAOSI advocates for the development of an EU strategy thatcombines complementary approaches to crafting governmentpolicies aimed at fighting discrimination against the Romaand achieving their full integration into the greater society.OSI promotes the effective use of existing EU funding, for newfunding instruments, and for the alignment of EU policy andfunding with the national action plans of the Decade of RomaInclusion. OSI is also a consultation partner of the EuropeanCommission on Roma and works with various EuropeanCommission departments in the areas of social inclusion,antidiscrimination, microfinance, entrepreneurship, and health.OSI’s Roma Participation Program assists Romani NGOsin using EU structural funds effectively and developing modelsfor EU and national cofunding. Since it is crucial that Romamake their own case before EU policymakers, OSI worksclosely with the Romani-run European Roma InformationOffice in Brussels and funds 10 Romani internships at theEuropean Commission.SOROS FOUNDATIONS NETWORK23

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ADVOCACY POLICYHIVT H E H I V epidemic consistently strikes those whoseaccess to information, public services, and economicopportunity is most limited: poor women, drug users,sex workers, and ethnic minorities. Discriminationmakes the epidemic worse. Sex workers and drugusers—who, for example, make up more than 80percent of those infected with HIV in the countries ofthe former Soviet Union—are sometimes subjected toforced testing, mandatory institutionalization, and massincarceration as well as to less formal but powerful formsof discrimination in housing, employment, and healthcare. Government efforts to control and contain these“undesirables” often accelerates HIV infection by forcingpeople away from services and into risky environments wheremeans of disease prevention, such as condoms, clean needles,and access to treatment or health information, are unavailable.SOROS FOUNDATIONS NETWORK25

Working with the Soros foundations network and otherpartners, OSI presses for policies that ensure access toinformation about HIV, to the means of prevention, and totreatment and care. EffectiveHIV advocacy—like the epidemic itself—extendsbeyond national borders, and, in its EQUALITY OF HEALTHDoctor verifiesa positive HIV testin Zambia.CARE.advocacy efforts, OSI regularly works with otherinternational actors, including bilateral aid agenciessuch as the U.S. Agency for International Development(USAID), the UK’s Department for InternationalDevelopment (DFID), United Nations agencies, and theGlobal Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.INFORMATION, PREVENTION, AND TREATMENT FOR ALLSince 1995, OSI has supported a range of HIV-relatedprograms, including peer outreach efforts, needle exchanges,professional training, community mobilization, and policyreform initiatives. In Ukraine, OSI and local advocates workedin 2005 to oppose broadening laws criminalizing drug abuseand to press for broader inclusion of people living with HIV inthe political process. In Russia, OSI’s International Harm2005 REPORT26

Reduction Development Programsponsored a study that documentedOSI Prevails in Suitagainst USAID ProstitutionPledge RequirementIn a victory for free speech and sound publichealth policy, a federal judge ruled in May 2006human rights violations, includingforced HIV testing, refusal of medicalcare to those with HIV, andstigmatization of drug users. OSI alsosupported increasing the availabilityof substitution treatments bythat USAID violated the First Amendment whenit tried to require recipients of U.S. funding forHIV prevention work to sign a pledge opposingprostitution. The Open Society Institute, alongwith its affiliate, the Alliance for Open SocietyInternational (AOSI), and PathfinderInternational filed the lawsuit against USAID inSeptember 2005. The Brennan Center forJustice at NYU School of Law served as OSI'scounsel.The lawsuit did not challenge the U.S.sponsoring conferences and meetingsgovernment’s authority to control how its fundsbetween international experts andpledge requirement restricted both free speechlocal authorities to press successfullyfor the inclusion of methadone andbuprenorphine on the World Healthare spent.The suit asserted, however, that theand the AIDS prevention efforts that thegrantee organizations finance with their ownfunds. Requiring health workers to condemnthe sex workers they are trying to helpintensifies the stigma and fears of thisvulnerable population and makes it harder toOrganization’s Essential Drugs List.reach them with prevention services.Thelawsuit asserted that the pledge requirementwas unconstitutional, because it requiredPrisons are a key focus of OSI’s HIV-private organizations to adopt the government’spoint of view in order to receive funding.related advocacy efforts. In Russia,AOSI is administering a government grant toOSI worked to strengthen a reformthat provides for administrative ratherthan criminal penalties for violators oflaws forbidding possession of smallimplement USAID’s Drug Demand ReductionProgram in Central Asia.The program providescapacity building for professionals; drug abuseprevention education for vulnerable groups(youth, migrants, sex workers, prisoners); andcounseling, drug treatment, rehabilitation, andother services to help people stop using drugs.SOROS FOUNDATIONS NETWORK27

amounts of drugs. In Ukraine, OSI helpedpersuade the government to begin pilot needleexchange programs in two penal institutions.With the UN and Health Canada, OSIcosponsored a global policy dialogue onprisons that focused on lessons learnedfrom countries with needle exchangeprograms and opiate substitutiontreatment programs in penal institutions.PRESSING FOR GREATERRESPONSIBILITY ATTHE UNITED NATIONSOSI worked on several fronts toensure that UN memberstates honor theircommitments to expand access toharm reduction efforts and HIV treatmentand to work to reduce the stigma attachedto HIV. OSI’s Public Health Watch broughttogether local experts in six countries to2005 REPORT28

ADVOCACY POLICYmonitor and assess how governments fulfill thesecommitments and to publish their results during 2006.OSI advocated against U.S. government efforts to make itsopposition to funding for needle exchange into a globalstandard. At the June 2005 meeting of the ProgrammeCoordinating Board of UNAIDS in Geneva, OSI and othershelped thwart an effort by U.S. officials to strike all languageabout clean needles and syringes from a document detailingthe UN’s HIV prevention strategy.STRENGTHENING THE GLOBAL FUNDTO FIGHT AIDS,TUBERCULOSIS AND MALARIAThe Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria isperhaps the single largest and most important force in HIVprevention and treatment for marginalized groups. OSIworked on several levels during 2005 to strengthen the Fund.It helped NGOs with their applications for Global Fundsupport and with efforts to turn their proposals into effectiveprograms. OSI’s offices in Washington, D.C., and Europeworked to emphasize the unique importance of the Fundand to urge greater support from donor nations.SOROS FOUNDATIONS NETWORK29

Access toInformationI N F O R M A T I O N I S the oxygen ofdemocracy. The ability of citizens to hold theirgovernments accountable and to participatefully in democratic society rests on theirability to access and comment upongovernment-held information. Humanrights and national securityare better protected when thepress and public can effectively monitorgovernment decisions. By enabling publicscrutiny, laws guaranteeing access toinformation and freedom of expression serveas safeguards against government abuse,subversion of the democratic process, and thesquandering of public assets.2005 REPORT30

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For several years, OSI, led by the Open Society JusticeInitiative, has supported efforts to expand andstrengthen access to information and freedom ofinformation around the world. In 1990, only 12countries had access to information laws. By theIn Senegal,journalists demonstratefor freedom ofinformation.end of 2005, more than 50 additional countries— A FREE PRESS.throughout Central, Eastern and SouthernEurope, Latin America, and parts of Africa andAsia—had adopted such laws, several withsupport from the Justice Initiative and Sorosfoundations.IMPLEMENTING FOI LAWSThe Justice Initiative also promotes the implementation of freedon of information (FOI) laws. Over thepast two years, it has worked with partners in Albania,Argentina, Mexico, Peru, and Romania to gain accessto information about corruption, governmentcontracts, and the salaries of government officials.In Bulgaria, a local NGO, the Access to InformationProgramme, litigated to gain access to documents that2005 REPORT32

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Access to InformationMonitoring ToolThe Justice Initiative has developedthe Access to Informationdemonstrated corruption in the useof EU funds and helped anMonitoring Tool to evaluate theimplementation of access toinformation laws and diagnoseinstitutional obstacles to release ofinformation. Transparency &Silence, a study of 14 countries inEurope, Latin America, and Africa,to be published in 2006, hasconfirmed that governmentsprovide information erratically butthat FOI laws lead to greatertransparency. Requests filed twicereceived different answers in amajority of instances; 47 percent ofrequests in all the countries studiedyielded no response at all; and,most disturbingly, requests filed byRoma, disabled individuals, andmembers of other marginalizedinvestigative journalist identify thekiller of the Bulgarian dissidentGeorgi Markov in London during1978. The Centre for Democratizationand Development of Institutions wonAlbania’s first access to informationcourt case, challenging the centralgovernment’s refusal to releaseinformation on the criteria forlicensing day care centers. In Mexico,litigation by Freedom of Informationgroups received significantly lessinformation than other requestorsand, in some countries, received noinformation at all.Mexico led to a ruling by the MexicanElectoral Tribunal that the salaries ofpolitical party officials be made public.STRENGTHENINGINTERNATIONAL STANDARDSStrengthening international andregional standards is crucial to2005 REPORT34

ADVOCACY POLICYdevelopment of the right to information. In a case in whichthe Justice Initiative filed an amicus brief, the Inter-AmericanCommission recognizedthat the freedom “toreceive” information provided for in the AmericanConvention on Human Rights includes a specific right ofaccess to government-held information and concluded thatChile’s access to information legislation falls short of theConvention’s requirements. In Europe, the Justice Initiative ispart of a working group convened by the Council of Europe todevelop the first treaty on access to official documents.The Justice Initiative has developed a set of core principles onaccess to information laws to be used in efforts to elaboratethe right to freedom of information at the international andregional levels, especially in Africa and Asia, and to opposeefforts by governments to justify restricting access toinformation inappropriately in the name of privacy,commercial confidentiali

Photography Project 166 OPEN SOCIETY INSTITUTE Offices: New York, Budapest, Brussels, London, Paris, Washington, D.C.; Chairman's and Presidential Grants; OSI Ombudsman; Application Information; Partnerships 178 2005 EXPENDITURES 183 DIRECTORY SOROS FOUNDATIONS NETWORK 5