5th August 2013
By Alexandre Leclercq

Director’s Letter: August 2013

Dear Friends,

The holiday period has eased the travel schedule, but the EJN is continuing to move forward. Our communications work is being revamped with the help of Stefanie Chernow, formerly with the Global Editors’ Network, who has helped set up our EJN LinkedIn group as well as a new Twitter account (@EJNetwork). We are now in the process of renewing the website for a relaunch next month.

The network will be holding a meeting in Brussels on September 3rd at the offices of the Association of Commercial Television.

We shall be discussing the future EJN hosting arrangements and our working programme for the second half of 2013 and for next year. The meeting will start at 11.00 am and there will be a working lunch for those able to attend.

The major events on the agenda for the rest of the years include

  • an activity in the Middle East being organised with the Norwegian Institute for Journalism and co-operation with the Independent Association of Egyptian Editors;
  • a survey and meeting with the UN Alliance of Civilisations to help raise awareness on the threat of hate-speech in media and journalism;
  • a keynote role at the upcoming Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union conference in Hanoi; and
  • launch of a couple of surveys internal self-regulation and paid for journalism.

The planning for our major conference, the Bali Media Forum, in Indonesia from November 5-8 is on track when we will launch a new EJN paper defining our key objectives on ethics, governance and self-regulation.

This is part of an on-going discussion about the future of journalism in the context of the growing impact of social networks and Internet expression on the news business. These issues – and the crisis of funding journalism in the years to come – will figure in EJN discussions in Brussels and beyond over the coming months.

Best,

Aidan White