EAVI's Mission & Background

EAVI is an independent, not-for-profit international civil society organisation registered in Brussels as an AISBL - Association International Sans But Lucratif.

Mission
The mission of EAVI is to serve public interest in the fields of media. Its primary aim is to represent and advance the interests of European media users and citizens in general.

Background
EAVI has been created to facilitate the unifying process of all those who support citizens’ and consumers’ interests in the fields of media. It has been formally established with the support of the European Commission and received a Royal Decree from the Belgian authorities in March 2005.

ln 2004 the European Commission financed a European wide project whose primary objective was the creation of a public forum that will serve viewers' needs and defend their interests. "The overall aim was to create a frame of reference between television and citizens in order to enhance the participation and collaboration between media researchers, education authorities, media professional bodies, social and political institutions and - of course the users." The full title of the project was "European Association for Consumers of Television (EACTV) - Citizen first. Facilitating e-participation in media governance ".

At the time we wrote in the project: "European citizens are still facing, in many countries, a dangerous standardization and homogenization of their television schedules and 'digital revolution' is not reversing - for the time being - this trend. ln reaction, interest groups coming from a wide range of sectors - viewers, consumer and professional associations, civil society organizations, self-regulation initiatives, etc. have been created in many European countries. They have common aims - such as improving programming quality, defending viewers' rights, promoting democracy and communication welfare - but their efforts will make a bigger impact and secure better results if forces are joined in a common European platform.

As a matter of fact, the contrast between an increasingly integrated Europe wide policy and sectoral structure and a fragmented consumer / viewer interest structure is still striking. This is even more true since all the other sectors of the audiovisual industry have built their European networks: public and private broadcasters, regulators, advertisers, manufacturers, journalists, producers etc. All, but the viewers".

The specific aims of the project were to:

• Identify the current procedures that European citizens have at their disposai in order to effectively participate in media governance and the legal basis for citizens to exercise this type of rights ("Best Practices"). The analysis covers all of Europe - the 25 Member States plus Switzerland, Norway, Romania and Bulgaria including European policies and instruments.

• Give a clear picture of all the different forces engaged in the defence and/or the protection of the viewers' interests with particular attention to viewers' and consumers' associations, campaign and special interest groups, professional associations, legal & controlling bodies (Government, NRA, etc.) and obviously to broadcasters themselves.

• Explore major needs, expectations and interests of this multitude of organisations - including those who operate at European level - in order to reinforce their action through a single and clearly visible European player: the "European Viewers' Association" .

Concrete deliverables of the original project were the Broadcasting and Citizens research and the organisation of the EAVI Founding Conference in Lucca - 22nd & 23rd of October 2004 - we presented the findings from this extensive programme of research.