Minority media are cultural heritage, the conclusion of the Second European Conference dedicated to minority and local media in Novi Sad, held on November 15 and 16 at the Collegium Europe in Novi Sad.
This year’s conference, which has been discussing and analyzing the environment and developments in the minority and local media sector for seven years now, but also in the media in general, which last year turned into a European platform, offered the public an introductory question to consider “Are minority media a cultural heritage?” and during the two conference days, through various angles, tried to give a concrete answer to the question.
The answer was certainly confirmed, with the conclusion that even these media should not remain “preserved” because their existence is not an end in itself, but their purpose, as a medium that is part of the entire public information system, is timely, objective and impartial informing .
On the second day of the Conference, a constructive dialogue on the role and possible directions of media development in the focus of this event was launched during the four panels, and students of the Mihajlo Pupin School of Electrical Engineering from Novi Sad, who attend the media literacy course, received a great contribution.
The first panel of Multiculturalism and Cultural Heritage moderated by Robert Čoban, Director of Color Media Communications, addressed the topic of multiculturalism as a way of life and communication in the context of the European Year of Cultural Heritage, set up by the European Union, from various angles. Panelists Goran Tomka, Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Sports and Tourism in Novi Sad, and guest lecturer at the Uneske Department of Cultural Policy and Cultural Management at the University of Art in Belgrade, Miodrag Bogić, Film and Television Director, Director of MAGMA Film, Belgrade and Natasha Heror, Director Heror Media Pont, through personal experiences and attitudes, offered to the public concrete ways in which multiculturalism and interculturality can be lived in personal lives and in the public sphere.
Minority media should establish specific self-regulatory mechanisms precisely in the context of the recent elections for national councils of national minorities, is one of the conclusions of the second panel entitled Self-regulation of minority and local media and entrepreneurial journalism, moderated by Vladimir Dorchova Valtnerova, editor-in-chief of the Storyteller portal. Panelists Davor Marko, Media Enrichment Enhancement Project, Media Support Team Leader, IREX, Gordana Novakovic, Secretary General of the Press Council, Violeta Jovanov Peštanac, Editor-in-Chief of the portal www.pancevomojkraj.rs and Gwyn Nissen, self-regulation of minority media in Europe , Der Nordschleswiger agreed that every medium, without exception, must have and develop journalistic ethics and professional standards in its agenda. At the same time, everyone agreed that both minority and local media must follow the trends in the field of journalism, the media sector and digitization, and accordingly develop new business models as well as products and services for financial stability and sustainability.
Within the third European Minority Production Group moderated by Natasha Heror, Director of Heror Media Pont, their media were presented by guests from Europe: Gwyn Nissen, Editor-in-Chief, Der Nordschleswiger, Denmark, Marc Marcè, Editor-in-chief Regió7, Catalonia, Spain, Janek Schäfer, Editor-in-Chief, Serbske Nowiny, Germany and Rajmund Klonowski, Editor-in-Chief Kurier Wilenski, Lithuania.
Participants of the fourth panel, Djordje Vukmirovic, Assistant Secretary of State for Culture, Public Information and Relations with Religious Communities in charge of the media, and Dalila Ljubicic, Executive Director of the Media Association, with a video address by Andor Deli, MP in the European Parliament and moderator of Valentin Mike, editor-coordinator of the weekly in the Romanian language “Libertatea” discussed minority media as bridges of cooperation between the countries in which minority communities live and their countries of origin. To a large extent they concentrated on the development of a new public information strategy in the Republic of Serbia, whose draft should be published by the end of this year.
The organizers of the Conference are Heror Media Pont, Magyar Szó, Association of Media, Center for Minority and Local Media Development in cooperation with MIDAS and sponsors Ministry of Culture and Information, Provincial Secretariat for Culture, Public Information and Relations with Religious Communities, Provincial Secretariat for Education , administration, regulations and national communities, the Administration for Culture of the City of Novi Sad and the Foundation Novi Sad EPC 2021.
Source: Media Pont
Photo by: Dragan Kurucić