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Scrutinizing political communication in South East Europe

KAS-Medienprogramm Südosteuropa zu Gast beim "Club of Venice"

Christian Spahr, Head of the Media Program South East Europe, contributed to the plenary meeting of the "Club of Venice" on 23rd and 24th November 2017 in Venice. At this occasion, he presented the latest findings of a KAS opinion poll and discussed challenges of political communication in the Balkans.

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Several times per year, the "Club of Venice" gathers leading communication experts from EU institutions, national governments and NGOs. This year they discussed the strategic communication efforts of the EU as well as trust in media and political communications.

"The impact of the new media and communication landscape on the public communicator’s profession and ethics" was the topic of the plenary session in which Christian Spahr took part. He explained new trends in the media landscape and challenges of citizen dialogue in South East Europe. "In times of European crises and the need of substantial reforms, political leaders should invest more than ever before in professional communication", commented the Head of the KAS Media Program South East Europe. "Politicians and their spokespersons need to guarantee responsible dialogue with citizens, explain political decisions transparently and publicly support common European values."

In this context, Christian Spahr presented the latest findings of a representative opinion poll amongst Bulgarian citizens commissioned by KAS Media Program South East Europe. The survey captured the attitudes of the participants towards topics such as fake news, political communication and media freedom. The survey showed: Only 11 percent of the Bulgarians feel satisfied with the communication of politicians. 72 percent of the respondents have been confronted with fake news in the media. And only 10 percent believe that the media in Bulgaria are independent.

The survey also covers the public’s attitude towards the EU and other stakeholders in international politics. The findings display that the EU enjoys the highest confidence of the Bulgarian people among the most relevant payers in European politics (38 percent "high" or "very high"). Russia follows on the second rank (33 percent) and Germany on the third (31 percent). NATO and the US both enjoy less trust. The results of the survey show how divided the Bulgarian population is in terms of foreign policy and the view on the communist past. Delays in the EU enlargement process as well as Russian, Turkish and Arabic influences present challenges for European public diplomacy on the Balkans. "The EU has to present itself as a strong and reliable partner. This can only be achieved by developing new trust through intensive dialogue with the citizens", emphasised Spahr. He went on by describing an information deficit in the region, and explained that both the EU and national governments have to work together. "Strategic communication has to include an active exchange with local organisations, the civil society and economic stakeholders of candidate countries in order to create a positive and lasting effect."

Just recently, the KAS Media Program South East Europe published an expert book on new trends in political communication which particularly describes the challenges for new EU member states and candidate countries. The publication is available here.

Author: Kristin Puschmann

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