First stakeholder meeting takes place in Budapest

The first stakeholder meeting for the Illiberal Turn project took place on 25 September 2019, hosted by the Centre for Media, Data and Society at the Central European University in Budapest. The meeting was attended by a distinguished panel comprised of representatives of media regulators, journalistic organisations and media NGOs from all four countries that are the focus of the research project (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Serbia). In addition, members of several European-wide organisations were represented at the event, including the European Platform of Regulatory Authorities, European Centre for Press and Media Freedom, Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom and the Ethical Journalism Network.

The main purpose of the meeting was to bring together representatives of key stakeholders from the region that are likely to benefit from the outcomes of the project, and to gather ideas that will shape both the project’s research design as well as the its impact activities, especially the final project report that will contain recommendations for policy makers and regulators, media professionals and media-related NGOs. These objectives were successfully achieved during the full-day event, which saw some stimulating and lively debate on topics such as research-led and evidence-based media regulation, journalistic practices, media literacy and citizen empowerment.

In attendance:
Project team – Václav Štětka (Loughborough University), Fanni Tóth (Loughborough University)
Local partners – Marius Dragomir (CEU), Éva Bognár (CEU)
Stakeholder representatives – Natalija Bratuljević (external consultant for IJAS, human rights activist), Tamara Filipovic (Independent Journalists’ Association of Serbia), Aida Kaisy (Ethical Journalism Network), Ciarán Kissane (Broadcasting Authority of Ireland), Emmanuelle Machet (European Platform of Regulatory Authorities), Krisztina Nagy (Mérték Médiaelemző Műhely, Budapest University of Technology and Economics), András Pásztor (Menedzsment Fórum – mfor.hu, Privatbankar), Małgorzata Pęk (National Council for Radio and Television, Poland), Gábor Polyák (Mérték Médiaelemző Műhely, Univeristy of Pécs, Hungary), Tomáš Samek (Czech Television Council), Lucie Sýkorová (European Centre for Press and Media Freedom), Mario Viola de Azevedo Cunha (Centre for Media Pluralism and Freedom, Florence).