Summary:
With the LEAD project, the partnership presents examples of limitations of freedom of expression and highlights acts of resistance to these limitations to reinforce the importance of protecting democratic values today, especially the right to express dissenting opinions.
Collecting testimonies from time witnesses who opposed authoritarian restrictions of freedom of expression and educating people about the consequences of authoritarian and totalitarian regimes, the project processes the past to act for the present and future, strengthening citizens’ trust in democratic processes and institutions and recalling the importance of democracy in people’s daily life.
Creating occasions for the intergenerational exchange of European values, such as democracy, the rule of law and fundamental rights, the consortium draws on Europe’s 20th-century experience and addresses the fragility of democracy and continuous need for people to engage and defend democratic institutions and values. The project also engages experienced journalists in intergenerational transfer of professional standards together with aspiring journalists from all over Europe.
Within the project, journalists also contribute to improving local youth’s media literacy skills as an answer to current challenges to democracy such as disinformation and foreign interference. Bringing together decision and policy makers in dialogue with citizens, the project critically approaches the current development of democracy in the context of past transitions from authoritarian and totalitarian regimes. Through its activities and results, the project provides a nuanced understanding of the democratic transitions in Europe and outlines both shared patterns and national specificities of the periods of transition that continue to shape Europe today.
Donor
European Commission – European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA)
Main Objectives
The project promotes remembrance, education and intergenerational dialogue about various democratic transitions in Europe as processes that restored the fundamental right of freedom of expression and carry important lessons for civil resilience and democracy today.
Specific Objectives
- Promote resistance to totalitarian and authoritarian regimes and illiberal democracies through collection and promotion of testimonies in the partner countries.
- Create new didactic materials using witnesses’ testimonies with concrete working methods and learning activities for use in formal and non-formal education.
- Engage youth in learning activities connected with the project’s topics.
- Enable face-to-face meetings of time witness with young people and policymakers: to enable intergenerational exchange of European values such as democracy and freedom of expression and to raise awareness about the fragility of democracy.
- Provide learning and mentoring opportunities for aspiring journalists: to support transgenerational exchange of professional journalistic standards.
- Involve journalists in media literacy activities for youth: nourishing critical thinking and promoting media literacy, the workshops will provide occasions for young people to meet with professional journalists and improve their competences that contribute to a more resilient society.
- Provide opportunities for policymakers and citizens to address together challenges to democracy: connecting the consequences of past authoritarian and totalitarian regimes and the legacy of dissent of the democratic transitions with current challenges to European democracy.
- Address the project topics with gender lens: considering how gender, gendered differences and power imbalances, impact the target groups and their needs.
Target groups
Journalists, the youth, teachers and educators from formal education, youth workers and educators from non-formal education, policymakers and general public.
Main Implementer
Documenta – Centre for Dealing with the Past
Partners
Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN Hub)
Instituti për Demokraci, Media dhe Kulturë (IDMC)
Erkenntnis Durch Erinnerung (EDE)
Euroclio RS
Universitat de Barcelona