“We [journalists] are the prerequisite for progress.
Dmitrij Andrejevitsj Muratov, Nobel Peace Prize 2021
We [journalists] are the antidote against tyranny.”
Europe is a major democratic space. It carries the ambition of being a global model when it comes to freedom of expression and freedom of the press. This freedom goes hand in hand with the legitimate demand of all European citizens to benefit from the right to quality information.
The European ecosystem is made up of numerous professional federations of journalists, groupings of universities and training centers, associations of media operators, publishers, unions, and civil society actors engaged in media and information literacy. These European stakeholders would benefit from getting to know one another better, in order to share best practices, present feedback from their experiences, and draw lessons from the transformations currently underway. This landmark, recurring event will be an essential crossroads for that purpose.
At a time when the war in Ukraine is bloodying the heart of Europe, it is more necessary than ever to create this space for dialogue, which is so sorely lacking, in order to reaffirm the role of a free and pluralistic press in the service of peace and democracy.
Since 2022, the association Journalisme & Citoyenneté has been running the European Agora for Journalism, with the ambition of becoming the major biannual event where professionals can debate the challenges of their profession with the public, researchers, younger generations, the political and economic world, and civil society. There is no shortage of topics: the upheaval of practices and business models; the capture of value by platforms; sweeping consolidation movements within private media; threats to the independence of public media; the fight against fake news and the need to invest in information literacy; insufficient training, growing precarity, and all-too-frequent threats to journalists’ safety.
The European Agora for Journalism, in cooperation and alternation with the Agora for Journalism in Tours and the Mediterranean Agora for Journalism, aim to become the missing event needed to support this ambition and these necessary changes.
Because information is a public good, as fragile as it is precious, serving the democratic development of the European Union.
1st edition – Being journalist in Europe today
Nov 23-25, 2022 – organised with the IHECS
- Over 800 participants
- 27 EU member-states represented
- Nearly 30 workshops and debates open to the public
2nd edition – A.I, the media, Europe & me
Nov 20-22, 2024 – Organized with the IHECS
- Nearly 1000 participants
- Over 30 countries represented
- About 300 students
3rd edition – Journalism : A democratic shield for Europe
Nov., 4-6, 2026
- 2 days and 3 evenings of debates and workshops celebrating European journalism
- Over 50 workshops & debates
