Open Doors events continued with Danish Embassy hosting students of Faculty of Political Sciences with the aim of opening a debate about the role of civil society and freedom of media.
Session was hosted by Danish Ambassador Michael Borg-Hansen and, within the initiative, students also had an opportunity to speak to Professor Snjezana Milivojevic and representatives of Slavko Curuvija Foundation, Ilir Gasi and Jelena Curuvija.
After explaining foundation of strength of the Danish civil society, Ambassador commented the importance of media.
“Role of media is extremely important because they are the only one to inform citizens and society about the relevant issues of common interest. Executive authorities are often part of this issue which is why independence of media should be encouraged through public debates, which is exactly what our Embassy strives for: promoting independence of media in other countries,” Ambassador said.
Noting that Denmark is one of the five countries that use all funds aimed at development of media and the country in which civil society plays a major role, Michael Borg-Hansensaid said that this issue was of great importance for Serbia and its EU path as well.
He explained the role of his country in the development of civil society in Serbia: through the support provided to private sector, agriculture in South of the country in particular.
They, however, take the greatest pride for their support to Slavko Curuvija Foundation.
“We are particularly pleased to take part in their activities regarding the promotion of media freedom. We cooperate with Ombudsman in a smaller-scale project. He is in touch with our Ombudsman, whose institutional model is very old and enjoys great respect. It has been used as a model on many different occasion in other countries. Still, differences arise, because in Serbia, Ombudsman is engaged in human rights as well, while in Denmark this is dealt by a different institution. Denmark finances the drafting of law on citizens’ rights in times of natural disasters, such as last year’s floods,” says Ambassador, reminding that Serbia currently lacks the law that would stipulate citizens’ rights in emergency scenarios.
Ilir Gasi Director of Slavko Curuvija Foundation brought students closer to Foundation’s goal which encompass support to local media, education for young journalists on the topic on investigate journalism, techniques needed, and improvement of ethics and journalism standards.
“Nowadays, journalists tend to only transmit information, they no longer put it in context or ask questions. What we are trying to achieve is to teach young students to engage in investigative journalism, gathering and fact checking. Investigative work is full of facts and each one of them needs verification. Media reality encompasses every other reality. What we actually want to achieve by coming here is to hear what you, future journalists, think about Serbian media, in order to improve your work,” Gasi said.
Although the idea of strong, stable and critical media was born a long time ago, Professor at the Faculty of Political Sciences Snjezana Milojevic believes that in this part of the world things are different due to years of fighting for them. She said that the way media served civil society was highly important, as well as the way civil society served media.
“Why have only one watchdog when we could have two of them? We should join our critical forces for the sake societal development because both truths are focused on burning issues. Civil society is essential for open debate and encourages democratic society,” Snjezana Milivojevic said.
Debate stimulated the question of new online media, seen by participants as a good path towards authentic and free press. Apart from fear of tabloidisation of media and caving of journalistic ethics, one student questioned the role of media as watchdog.
“The world is facing media revolution and the role of a new journalist is to maintain social debate. In times when we are flooded with irrelevant information, journalists should send all important topics and information to public. There are new challenges, the ones we simply must face. It is nothing new. This is the moment of change led by media and civil society which, on the other hand, have to find a new method,” said Professor Snjezana Milivojevic.
