«BOUNDLESS» Cultural Diversity Media Award and Training in Intercultural Journalism

The 30th September 2007 the call for canditates to participate in «Boundless - Cultural Diversity Media Award» - an international initiative carried out in partnership by COPEAM,WDR,EBU,FranceTélévisions,
UNESCO, NPS/Netherlands - was closed.

56 applications have been received from 25 countries of the Euro-Mediterranean region and beyond. 15 young professionals have been awarded to have better represented in their works the idea of Cultural Diversity.

Among the covered subjects, the minorities' habits, the friendship between different cultures, the interreligious dialogue, the refugees' life.

The awarding ceremony was held in Paris on the 22nd November 2007, in the framework of the Conference «Migration and integration. A challenge for Europe: what role do the Media play?», organised by EBU, France Télévisions, WDR, and ZDF at the premises of UNESCO, under the aegis of EBU.
A training session in Cologne - Euro-Mediterranean Young Academy for the Intercultural Journalism - and periods of professional internships at the broadcaster members of both EBU and COPEAM will be offered to the winners of the competition during the 2008 summer, in order to allow them to widen their professional experience in the field in a “diverse” context.Closing phase of "Boundless" - Cultural Diversity Media Award

The training of the Young Euro-Mediterranean Academy for Intercultural Journalism which took place within the The "Boundless" Cultural Diversity Media Award ended on the 20th June 2008 with a presentation of the results at the WDR headquarters, in Cologne.

During one month, the training programme has been structured into 4 phases: 10 days at the WDR devoted to seminars and preliminary researches; an internship period of research and video shooting in the field at the TVs members of EBU and COPEAM; a workshop and a multimedia production in Cologne again with the presentation of the final results.

The Academy has dealt with cultural diversity and intercultural dialogue : migration and integration in Europe and in the Euro-Mediterranean region.
15 young journalists from 8 countries (Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Italy, Armenia, Algeria, Sweden, France/Israel) have been selected to take part in this Academy, after an international competition which counted more than 50 young professionals from the whole Region.

Thanks to the cooperation between WDR, EBU and COPEAM- partners of the initiative with UNESCO, France Télévisions and NPS/Netherlands- these participants had one-week didactic stay in different cities of the Euro-Mediterranean area : Amsterdam, Mainz, Riga, Ljubljana, Tunis, Paris and Amman, during which some reportages have been achieved with the logistic support of the hosting public televisions.

COPEAM has contributed to the organisation of 4 participants’ internships: the German Nadia Jessen and the Dutch Eren Önsöz, who were hosted in Tunis and directed by the Tunisian Television. Their reportage dealt mainly with DJ Danger, a Tunisian DJ, very famous among young people. In the reportage, the view of this Arab and Muslim young man, open to the world, comes out through his statements but also through his music, which is a mixture of occidental, Arab and oriental influences.

Carmen Té from Italy and Iman Naji from Germany carried out, in Amman, with the support of the JRTV, a reportage on the private radio Al Balad, a station that talks, in a modern and direct language, about the problems and the worries of young people.

On the 6th November 2008, the results of Boundless project were presented in the European Conference on Media and Integration that the Dutch television NPS organized in Hilversum.
(more info: http://www.diversityshow.nl). By that occasion, WDR prepared a DVD containing the reportages realized that UNESCO will distribute worldwide
.