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Being a journalist in Europe today
“We [journalists] are the prerequisite for progress. We [journalists] are the antidote to tyranny.” Dmitrij Andrejevitsj Muratov – Nobel Peace Prize 2021
Europe is a major democratic space. It harbors the ambition of being a global model in terms of freedom of expression and freedom of the press. This freedom is accompanied by the legitimate demand of all European citizens to be able to benefit from the right to quality information.
Within the European Union, numerous federations of journalists, university groupings, training centers, associations of operators, publishers, trade unions or civil society organizations are acting to improve access to quality information and media literacy. However, there is no referent or recurring meeting to gather these parties and contribute to building European journalism and media literacy know-how. The first edition of the European Agora for Journalism carried this ambition.
Our goal : become the major biannual meeting where professionals will be able to discuss the challenges of their professions with the public, researchers, political and economic experts, and civil society representatives. This is why it’s free.
Today, as the war in Ukraine is bloodying the heart of Europe and smearing the right to have access to free and fair information, we need to create this space for dialogue and reaffirm the role of a free and pluralistic information system, at the service of peace and democracy.
Our topics :
- The state of journalism in Europe (including but not limited to the role of media in war zones ; the disruption of uses and economic models; the value capture by platforms; the media capture in private media; the threat to the independence of public media ; the insufficient training, precariousness and too frequent safety breaches of journalists safety…)
- Climate emergency (including but not limited to the responsibility of journalists when covering this topic; the organization of newsrooms in Europe to better cover this emergency ; journalism training ; the dialogue with scientists etc.)
- Media literacy in Europe (including but not limited to the fight against fake news, misinformation, propaganda and the need to invest in the fields of information literacy)
- Diversity and inclusion (including but not limited to media representations and representativity; the fight against stereotypes; how to build more inclusive newsrooms etc.)
The European Agora for Journalism in Brussels is intended to become a reference event to contribute to build European common know-how of a better informed society. It will work cooperatively and alternately with the Tours Journalism conference organized every year for the past 15 years, mostly for francophone journalists and media professionals, and the Tunis Journalism Conference organized every other year since 2018 and bringing together European, Arabic and African journalists and other media professionals.
Our partners: European newsrooms and journalistic organizations, European institutions as well training centers and institutes.
The European Agora for Journalism is organized by J&C (Journalism & Citizenship) and the IHECS Brussels. They complement the Agora for Journalism held in France each year since 2007, and in Tunis since 2018.
- The first edition was held in 2022 in Brussels, and gathered about 100 speakers coming from at least 25 different countries. It welcomed 600 journalists, media practitioners, researchers and journalism students from Europe and its neighboring countries.
- The second edition will take place on November 20 – 22, 2024 and will focus on the use of A.I within European newsrooms.
Get in touch if you’d like to know more and partner with us to make this event a success !
