Macedonian NGOs and Media Mull Closer Partnership

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The Balkan Investigative Reporting Network – Macedonia in partnership with Center for Civic Communications, CCC, organized a debate on April 17 in Skopje entitled “Detecting common issues as a basis for cooperation between journalists and non-governmental organizations”.

 

It was first in a series of debates in the “Project for investigative journalism and cooperation between media and civil society”, which is part of the USAID Program for strengthening independent media in Macedonia.

About 90 NGO representatives and journalists debated for almost three hours, suggesting different topics of common interest. Energy, corruption, media and freedom of speech, marginalized groups, migrations, cultural policy, customer rights etc. were among the dozens of topics suggested and discussed.

The president of the CCC, German Filkov, who moderated the debate said that it was a good opportunity for NGOs and journalists to establish closer relations in order for their work to be more visible.

“Every day I get calls from journalists who ask for relevant sources. We will create a website designed to provide all information from the NGO sector, so it will be easier for journalists to write their investigative stories but also easier for NGOs to contact journalists”, Filkov said.

The debate concluded that NGO and journalists should work together as much as possible so that their work is credible and to encourage positive changes in society.

Ten priority topics will be identified as the conclusion of all suggestions from this debate. In the next two months smaller debates on these topics will be organized with the participation of journalists and NGO representatives from the given area.

At the same time, a call for 10 grants for journalists for 2013 will be published so they can apply with ideas for investigative stories.