The European Commission will draft new guidelines following Gong’s appeal

Following Gong’s complaint to the European Ombudsman concerning the participation of President von der Leyen in a HDZ election campaign video, the European Commission decided to develop guidelines for the participation of its members in national election campaigns. The European Ombudsman, the body to which Gong reported Ursula von der Layen‘s participation in the HDZ’s…

Civil Society Priorities for the Croatia’s EU Presidency

Croatian civil society organizations, gathered in the informal network Forum 2020, through in-person consultations in five cities (Rijeka, Varaždin, Split, Osijek and Zagreb) as well as online consultations, have come to an agreement on the priorities for the Presidency of the Council of the European Union from January to June 2020. We are cognizant that…

Gong’s Report: European Parliament elections

In its election report, Gong wrote that the European Parliament elections were conducted according to legal regulations and international good practice election standards. However, some shortcomings were noticed so Gong issued recommendations for the next election with the goal of improving the legal framework for conducting the election and improving the operations of responsible authorities.…

We have to get the exact costs for Facebook campaigns

The data from the SEC financial reports and the social media reports for the European Parliament election show that the amount spent, which Gong warned about even before the election, is not possible to precisely define and it is necessary to more clearly regulate political advertising on social media and digital platforms The New Rulebook…

Some political parties not respecting silence

According to non-anonymous reports to Gong, the election morning went by peacefully with few reports about irregularities. The majority of reports were related to violations of election silence on social media, where specific political parties and candidates are posting paid ads (Živi zid, HSP). Additionally, SMS and messages on social media (SDP, IDS, Narodna stranka-reformisti)…

Ads are not labeled as political, and some don’t even appear

The election campaign for the European Parliament in 2019 was the first election campaign in which we have had a somewhat better insight into a political advertisement on social media, especially on Facebook. In accordance to the promise of increasing transparency in advertising which Facebook has given to the European Union, the campaign has provided…