About the Project

Young people from 15 countries will take up an active role in developing an action-oriented long-term strategy on Media Freedom, by working on a comic book and an online educational platform, for young journalists to defend and enhance media freedom in Europe.

Throughout the project, storytelling and comic art will be used as a methodology to reach out to a wider audience and to visualise the topic in an innovative way. Cartoonists from the participating countries will work on a special publication under supervision and with the support of a professional Human Rights cartoonist. The final comic book will be disseminated all over Europe, throughout the EYP network and to media freedom actors across Europe.

Main objectives:
• raise awareness on media freedom issues across Europe
• create a platform for debate and sharing of best practices among young media makers

The 15 participating countries are:
Poland, Belarus, Russia, Ukraine, Hungary, Macedonia, Montenegro, Germany, Sweden, Greece, UK, Turkey, Czech Republic, Armenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina

The big development steps of the projects are:

Action 1: Media freedom – setting the scene
What: 15 young media makers/journalists/media activists from 15 different countries will gather in Podgorica to gain insight on the concepts related to and preconditions for free media in Europe and also learn how to organize local events in their countries.
When: April
Where: Podgorica, Montenegro

Action 2: Media freedom – local reality
What: Building on the gained knowledge and acquired skills, the 15 participants of the first training will take on the role of Media Freedom Country Ambassadors and organise a one day local consultation in their own country. This event would bring together young people (students, journalists, artists, researchers, jurists and human rights activists) to debate on the situation with regards media freedom in their country.
A key activity throughout this step will be done by cartoonists: each Media Freedom Country Ambassador will closely work with a cartoonist to plan on how to transform the conclusions of a debate into a cartoon.
When: May-June
Where: in each country of the 15 Media Freedom Ambassadors

Action 3: Media freedom – ready for action
What: All 15 Media Freedom Country Ambassadors, together with the 15 cartoonists for each country, will get together in Berlin, where all results of Action 2 will come together.
In this step, the final comic book will be finalized under the supervision of an experienced cartoonist (acting as editor-in-chief). Also, this is when a long-term strategy of how the project can further develop will also be drafted.
When: July
Where: Berlin, Germany

Outcomes:
• Comic book on media freedom – a ‘Media Freedom’ comic book with 15 ‘stories’ from all participating countries gathering the discussions and conclusions of all local public consultations
• An online educational interactive platform – with information, tools and good practice examples on media freedom, also engaging and promoting experts or other media freedom initiatives

Contact details:
European Youth Press | Network of 60,000+ youth media makers across Europe, promoting the role of youth media and advocating for the freedom of press

www.youthpress.org
freedom@youthpress.org
facebook.com/youthpress
twitter.com/youthpress
#FreeOurMedia

The project is kindly funded by the European Youth Foundation (EYF) of the Council of Europe.