Two groups of editors from five Western Balkans countries visited the newsrooms of leading media outlets in Czechia and Slovenia between 14 and 22 June. The visits took place within SEENPM’s Resilience project.
Three editors from North Macedonia (Srebra Gjorgjijevska, Umno; Vasko Magleshov, BIRN; and Ivona Vasileva, MIM), four from Serbia (Klara Kranjc, RTV; Marina Grnja Klaić, NSSJ; and Ivan Subotić and Jelena Jovović, Fake News Tragač) and one from Kosovo (Bujar Vitija, Gazeta Shneta) spent time at the Czech RESPEKT magazine, the daily Hospodářské noviny, Czech Radio and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
Seven editors from Bosnia and Montenegro (Anida Sokol, media.ba; Ivana Erić, N1TV; Semir Hambo, Klix; Vanja Stokić, eTrafika; Vesna Rajković Nenadić, MMI; Danijela Lasica, TV Vijesti; and Maja Lalić Burzanović of RTCG) visited Radio Slovenija, Pop TV/24ur.com and the daily Večer in Maribor. They also paid a visit to the Slovene Association of Journalists, learning about the country’s media scene.
The study trips enabled the visiting editors to learn first-hand about different aspects of editorial operations at the host outlets, including editorial decision-making, news production workflow, audience engagement as well as fact-checking practices and editorial responses to disinformation and hate speech.
“The visits were good opportunities for editors from Bosnia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia to see top news operations in two EU countries whose recent histories are somewhat comparable to those of their own countries. While media freedoms and journalism standards in Czechia and Slovenia are at a higher level than in the Western Balkans, the visiting editors could relate to and possibly utilise the experiences of their Czech and Slovene colleagues,” said Tihomir Loza, SEENPM director.
A third group of editors (from Turkey, Kosovo and Albania) will visit Warsaw in September.
Funded by the European Union
The regional program ‘RESILIENCE: Civil society action to reaffirm media freedom and counter disinformation and hateful propaganda in Western Balkans and Turkey’ is implemented with the financial support of the European Union by partner organizations SEENPM, Albanian Media Institute, Mediacentar Sarajevo, Kosovo 2.0, Montenegrin Media Institute, Macedonian Institute for Media, Novi Sad School of Journalism, Peace Institute and Bianet.
This article was produced with the financial support of the European Union. Its contents are the sole responsibility of SEENPM and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.
