By bringing together independent cultural and media organisations across Europe—from Portugal to Georgia, from Norway to Greece— the Reset! network has at its core the responsibility to document the situation of its members and peers. Given the multiple threats facing independent players, such as an ever-growing far right, budget cuts for culture, a propagandisation of culture and media supported by corporate economic aggressiveness through takeovers, and a significant concentration of ownership, it seems more than necessary to analyse the political realities of each European country in order to monitor changes and evolving challenges.
Each month, Reset! therefore devotes its newsletter to a specific country going through a particular political situation, be it elections, budget cuts, an abuse of power, or any other news that makes the headlines. The twist, when compared to the regular media coverage of this news, is that Reset! tries to analyse it through the following lens: how does this political situation affect the autonomy of all cultural organisations, especially independent cultural and media structures?
In this way, the Reset! newsletter makes it possible to put independent players, who are often forgotten or overlooked, at the centre of the analysis. Thus, this monthly work has become one of the network’s advocacy tools, with more than two years of documentation on the attacks on artistic and informational freedom and cultural independence. It is now important to think about how to make this content live better over time, and one answer is to be found in archiving and compiling.
If their goal was to make us fear, then yes it was a success. It was in our heads, and it still is! [...] The fear is here.” He argues that it was never about transparency. “I don’t have anything to hide, I can show to everyone how little (or no) money we make working in cultural media.”
-Peter Bokor, MMN Mag & Lahmacun Radio
Discover Reset! Chronicles Newsletter Compliation 2025 month by month:
Kosovo’s Path: Elections,
Independence,
and Cultural Resilience
in North Macedonia:
Realities, Challenges, and Regional Cooperation
May
Culture and Media amid
Romania’s Fight Against the Far-right
June
Hungary’s Latest Attacks on
Independent Media and
Cultural Scene
July
Georgia’s Theatre on Trial
September
Resisting the Status Quo: Independent
Culture Against Gentrification
in Portugal
'This Could Be the Last Time’:
Lithuania Defends its
Artistic Freedom
Political Paralysis,
Editorial Coordination
Manon Moulin
Art direction, design and graphic production
Julien Roche
Contributions
Quentin Ariès ∙ Bianca Bălănescu ∙ Kalina Dukovska ∙ Manon Moulin ∙ OC Media, Andrei Petre
Interviewees
In order of appearance
Besa Luci ∙ Sadie Suhodolli ∙ Viktor Buckovski ∙ Cristina Lupu ∙ Mihaela Michailov ∙ Gábor Kardos ∙ Kató Somos ∙ Peter Bokor ∙ Buka Tolordava ∙ Anuki Bubuteishvili ∙ Gega Gagnidze ∙ Jesualdo Lopes ∙ Sofia Craveiro ∙ Steven MacKay ∙ Indrė Kiršaitė ∙ Karolis Vyšniauskas ∙ Samantha Lippett ∙ Julius Praleika ∙ Sébastien Desprez ∙ Nathanaël Havez
