Related Project
Belgrade (Serbia), 20-22 February
From 20 to 22 February 2023, an international group of journalists with prior experience on reporting migration gathered in Belgrade, Serbia, for a three-day capacity building action. The workshop was organized by COPEAM in the framework of the EU co-funded project E3J – European Excellence Exchange in Journalism (Creative Europe Programme – CREA) and with the intention of fostering cross-border collaboration.
The 20 participants included media professionals in the field of news reporting, photography, video production, radio or multimedia, working for public broadcasters, newspapers, or as freelance journalists coming from 9 countries: Spain, Italy, Belgium, Slovenia, Serbia, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, and Georgia.
Hosted by the public broadcaster of Serbia (RTS) in the premises of Radio Belgrade, the workshop included technical sessions, guest lectures, and group work sessions. Topical discussions ranged from forced displacement, mixed migration, labour migration, and human trafficking. Professional and ethical challenges were also in the agenda, with conversations around working with vulnerable sources or dealing with migration-related mis-/dis-information.
The workshop was led by the international consultant and trainer Charles Autheman and also included the participation of delegates from a range of specialized international institutions such as the UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) the IOM (International Organization for Migration), the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights as well as Astra, a Belgrade-based anti-trafficking CSO.
The participants unanimously acknowledged the need for more coordinated efforts to broaden the diversity of the media coverage of migration. This workshop was intended to encourage the production of new contents, even in a cross-border and collaborative perspective, and hopefully to contribute to better informing the public opinion in their respective countries and the broader European region.