What can be opposed to the seductively simple communication of populists? What to do about anti-European narratives? And how can the cooperation of journalists and spokespersons be improved? These questions were the focus of this year’s South East Europe Government Communication Conference in Belgrade on 18th October 2019. The sixth edition of the conference was attended by government spokespersons and communications experts as well as journalists. The organisers were the KAS Media Programme South East Europe and SEECOM (South East Europe Public Sector Communication Association).


This year, around 70 PR experts and representatives of ministries, EU institutions and other organisations as well as journalists from all over South East Europe and experts from Italy, France and Great Britain gathered for the conference. SEECOM Secretary General Vuk Vujnović, who opened the event with Hendrik Sittig, Head of KAS Media Programme South East Europe, and SEECOM Chairman Ognian Zlatev, led through the day.

"Populists are surfing on a wave that is becoming larger, the weaker the democratic institutions become and the more trust in governments, parties, authorities and media is decreasing," says Hendrik Sittig. "Unfortunately, right wing parties are again on the rise in Europe." These parties play excellently on the keyboard of political communication, using social media on all channels 24 hours a day. They are much more professional in this than established parties and governments.

Ognian Zlatev underlined the importance of working with communicators in South East Europe and how important it is to work long term: „The commitment of communications officers has led to a high voter turnout in the recent European election. With even more precise and focused messages we can achieve more positive results. This is important in Europe today especially with its crises and challenges.”

Afterwards, Mladen Bašić, Media Adviser to Prime Minister of Serbia, summed up the impact of populists: “The world is changing very fast and there are a lot of things, that we can learn from populists. They communicate to the weak side of community; our job is to communicate to every-one.”

The following panel dealt with the topic: “Govern-ment communications in the age of clickbait – How to capture citizens’ attention, imagination and interest”. Moderated by Dinka Živalj, Head of Communication/Spokesperson to EU Office of Kosovo, Karine Badr, Political Analyst at the OECD, and Krešimir Macan, CEO of Manjgura Consultancy, debated with Kristina Plavšak Krajnc, Director of Government Communication Office of Slovenia as well as Vincenzo le Voci, Secretary General of the Club of Venice, on current challenges in government communications.

More in the event report here.