Non-Biased Journalism in a Multicultural Community (2001-2002)

The project included two main activities: organizing two successive training seminars for young journalists from Bulgaria and Yugoslavia and publishing the seminar results in a book.

The seminars were carried out in June 2001 in Novi Sad, and in November 2001 in Sofia. The participants enjoyed interactive lectures, discussions and workshops presented by prominent Bulgarian and Serbian professors in journalism, distinguished media specialists, experts from non-government organizations and active journalists. At the seminars, a strategy and model of critical, tolerant and non-discriminatory coverage of “the others”, based on knowledge of the socio-practical atmosphere in the neighbour countries, was developed, on the basis of which the journalists from both countries would be able to adopt common professional standards.

Within the seminar in Sofia, ACCESS organized working visits to the editors’ offices of the mainstream Bulgarian press and electronic media. The discussed topics presented the media from the inside in respect to the professional and non-biased attitude towards the others.

In the final stage of the project in 2002, ACCESS published the book Bulgaria-Yugoslavia. Journalism in Intercultural Dialogue. The Bulgarian and Serbian texts outline the image of Bulgaria and Serbia from the perspective of different areas of public life: political, cultural, religious, media, etc.