(IPI/IFEX) – The following is an IPI press release: South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO) Founded In a meeting held by the International Press Institute (IPI) on 14-15 October in Zagreb, representatives of 23 media organisations in nine South Eastern European countries agreed to form an umbrella organisation to protect and further freedom of the […]
(IPI/IFEX) – The following is an IPI press release:
South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO) Founded
In a meeting held by the International Press Institute (IPI) on 14-15 October in Zagreb, representatives of 23 media organisations in nine South Eastern European countries agreed to form an umbrella organisation to protect and further freedom of the press and improve the standards and practises of journalism in South East Europe.
The new South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO) will be an affiliate of IPI aimed at providing a platform for debates on relevant regional issues; informing journalists and editors in the region about on-going activities in the media field; developing exchange programmes; looking for areas of cooperation between local journalist organisations and serving as a link to international press freedom organisations.
Participants in the two-day SEEMO founding conference created four committees: on print media, chaired by Radomir Licina, Danas (FRY); on electronic media, chaired by Dragos Stefan Seuleanu, Romanian Radio Broadcasting Corporation (Romania); on news agencies, chaired by Ljubica Marcovic, BETA News Agency (FRY) and Frrok Cupi, Albanian Telegraphic Agency (Albania); on media legislation, chaired by Sasa Mirkovic, B-92 (FRY), in cooperation with the ANEM legal office; and on NGOs networking, chaired by Victor Roncea, Ziua & Civic Media Association eu.ro.21 (Romania) and Svetlana Nedimovic, Media Plan Institute (Bosnia Herzegovina). At the conference it was also decided that Oliver Vujovic, Belgrade correspondent for the Austrian daily Die Presse, will serve as General Secretary until the SEEMO Constitutional Conference, scheduled for September 2001.
Johann Fritz, Director of the International Press Institute, welcomed the new organisation and said: “Press freedom can best be achieved when local journalists and editors join in the fight. It is a process that should begin at the grass-roots level; international organisations can support it, but not impose it from above”.
