PAR Visibility & Communication Project maintains network of local journalists even during the pandemic crisis
In cooperation with the project beneficiaries, the EU Delegation and with great help of the EU Info Centre, a team of journalists was formed in mid-2019 to deal with PAR-related topics. This is a group of about 20 media outlets - national media, public broadcasting service, local media, influential and newspapers and web portals, which deal with topics of importance at a certain period and follow the project action plan. The collaboration began with the first media briefing organized over the summer of 2019. So far, about 50 articles, stories, interviews, broadcasts on PAR-related topics have been published, and we have been cooperating with journalists on a daily basis, as well as through media briefings and trainings – 4 of these have been held so far.
The project team continued to maintain contact with the network of journalists after the commencement of COVID-19 related emergency situation. The project experts immediately started providing the network journalists with relevant information to contribute to dealing with the emergency. Accordingly, journalists were provided with the information for promoting available digital solutions and e-services, essential for citizens during the pandemic crisis to support the official “stay at home” policy. The following media products were produced by the network of journalists in March (in Serbian):
- RTS - enrolment in schoolsthrough the e-government portal
- TV Zona Niš – e-kindergarten, an example of good local practice
- Telegraf.rs – how to use the e-government portal and stay at home
- TV Galaksija Čačak - e-kindergarten as an example of e-governmentfunctioning at the local level
- Media&Reform Centre Niš – study online during a state of emergency
- Introducing the Digital Solidarity portal (e-government):
Bearing in mind that the project is preparing a new PR campaign on PAR, we have expanded the list of media, and the development of accompanying activities is under way, planned to be launched in May.