From April 28 to May 3, a group of young media makers from all over Europe has gathered in Podgorica for a Media Freedom Ambassador training of European Youth Press and Mladi!nfo Montenegro. In the midst of the workshop we took a moment to speak to some of the participants who come from our member organizations about their impressions and motivation to participate.

Milica Zugic.

Milica Zugic, Mladi!nfo Montenegro, one of the organizers of the event:

”Part of the main agenda of Mladi!nfo Montenegro is the issue of freedom of speech, meant in a broader sense than just media freedom. Through this project we hope to take our organization ”back to the basics” and to start anew with a focus on the practice of journalism in order to engage young media makers to be more active. This project is an opportunity to go further with these goals and to create a Europe-wide network that advocates for them. There is a lot of potential for cooperation. I am really positively surprised about the enthusiasm, motivation and professionalism of all the media freedom ambassadors. The selection process has been a great success, and I am optimistic about the project to create concrete outcomes.”

Azem Kurtić, ONAuBiH:

”I have experienced aggression in my job and I wouldn’t want others to have to experience the same. By being active in this field both as individuals as well as through organizations, we can work on these issues also locally in the municipalities. In the workshops and training you bring together many different perspectives on a particular problem, and together they form the puzzle. It has been extremely interesting to learn about the situation of freedom of press in other countries. There are a lot of similarities, but also differences that we can learn from, and develop methods to tackle these issues on different levels. What I learn here in the training I can pass on in Bosnia and Herzegovina to other young journalists. Even though we have a good legal framework for freedom of press, in practice it is not realized. This we need to change.”

Aleksandar Ilioski, Mladi!nfo Macedonia (top picture):

”Because I work in the radio, I have witnessed harassment and my work has been censored. I applied for the media freedom ambassador project because I want to change this situation. Cooperation and sharing of experiences is extremely important in the fight against obstacles to free media. But this sharing and working together needs to continue also after this project. The subject is important and after this one there can be other relevant topics we could work on. Through organizations this cooperation can be continued, but also us, the media freedom ambassadors, will create a network.”

Sevil Savas.

Sevil Savas, Jugendpresse Hessen:

”My motivation for the work as a media freedom ambassador comes from the value of individual freedom. This is for me a really important value and freedom of speech and freedom of press are connected to it. When different organisations such as Jugendpresse, EYP and Mladi!nfo Montenegro come together to work on such an important topic, horizons are broadened, and we can learn a lot more about the situation in different countries and from each other’s work. It is all about individuals, the organizations work toward securing and supporting their freedom. Actually, there should be even more cooperation because this makes us stronger and more effective.”

Diana Kosolapova.

Diana Kosolapova, YNPRESS:

“The topic of freedom of media is an extremely important topic in Russia. I work in the youth development space and educate young people about media-related topics. In this project I have learned a lot about the situation in other countries, which I can make use of in my work.”

The aim of the Free Our Media! Project is to discover tools to fight for media freedom, and to provoke discussion on the topic all around Europe. The project comprises a total of three events, of which the training in Podgorica was the first one. In the five-day training the Media Freedom Ambassadors engaged in workshops led by EYP board member Mihaela Georgescu, Senior Advisory Officer Melody Patry from Index on Censorship, and illustrator and comics artist Yorgos Konstantinou.

The programme of the training facilitates the next step, which are the Local Public Consultations that the Media Freedom Ambassadors will organise in their countries in order to engage the local community in a discussion on media freedom. The two concrete outcomes of the project will be a comic book on the topic and an online platform that provides information and consultation on the issue as well as provides support for media makers. The project outcomes will be realised in the last part of the project in Berlin from July 15-19.

To learn more about “Free Our Media! Media Freedom in Europe – Limited Edition?” take a look at our press release about the project’s kick-off!