Media release

1st Eastern Partnership Media Conference: Role of media in the Eastern Partnership

Photo: EU2015.LV
15 May 2015

On 19-20 May, the 1st Eastern Partnership (EaP) Media Conference will take place in Riga. It will bring together over 350 media representatives, experts, academia, civil society and policymakers from the EaP countries - Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine - and the European Union (EU). The conference will be hosted and opened by Ms Ināra Mūrniece, the Speaker of the Saeima (Latvian Parliament).

Among the special guests of the conference are Johannes Hahn, European Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations, Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga, former President of Latvia and President of the Club de Madrid, Dace Melbārde, Latvian Minister for Culture, Nils Muižnieks, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatović, OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Christian Danielsson, Director-General of European Commission Directorate-General for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations (DG NEAR), and others.

The 1st Eastern Partnership Media Conference, organised by the Latvian Presidency in cooperation with the European Commission and the European External Action Service, will address the current challenges of media freedom in the EaP countries and seek solutions for the increasing of media integrity and the improving of the media environment in the region.

The conference will be divided into three sessions. First session will analyse media environment in the EaP countries, including the legal, regulatory and policy environment, and media integrity. Second session will focus on resilient media and the role that media play in ensuring the free flow of objective information in a challenging environment. Third and the last session will outline the way forward and will discuss responses to the challenges for the media, take stock of the EU’s assistance to media in the EaP region, and look at how to enhance possible contributions to improving the overall media environment in partner countries.

On 19 May, a special event will take place during which the European Endowment for Democracy will present a sneak preview of the Feasibility Study on Russian Language Media Initiatives in the Eastern Partnership region and beyond.

On 20 May, the event will be also broadcast live on Presidency (www.eu2015.lv) and MFA’s (www.mfa.gov.lv) websites.

To find out the latest information about the conference on social media, use the hashtag: #EaPMedia.

Contact
Ivars Lasis
Press Secretary