The panel discussion was organized by BIRN Macedonia in partnership with Center for Civil Communications.
Education and youth was the fifth panel discussion organized as part of the “Project for Investigative Journalism and Cooperation between Media and Civil Society”.
The project is funded by the USAID Programme for Strengthening Independent Media in Macedonia.
The NGOs tried to explain the problems they face in their bids to reach audiences important to their work, and highlighted the difficulty of increasing interest in the media in these topics.
The journalists noted, and all participants agreed, that NGOs should focus on cooperation with those journalists that they already established, and not to spend time and effort on changing the mindset of the media at large.
It was also noted that the traditional press conference is no longer an efficient tool of communication and other means of bringing the results of the work of NGOs should be used.
The panel was the sixth in a series of 10 organized as part of a project for investigative journalism and cooperation between media and civil society.
The subjects were selected at a meeting between journalists and NGOs in mid-April.
Others include health, cultural policy, education and youth, human rights EU integration, inter-ethnic relations, environmental issues and marginalized groups.