KAS MP SOE

Journalists from seven Southeast European countries took part in the workshop of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung in Varna

KAS MP SOE

The initial press conference at the outset of the spring session of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly ...

KAS MP SOE

... was attended by the participants in the workshop joined by a number of journalistic colleagues who had come all the way for it.

KAS MP SOE

Valery Marinov, Head of the International News Department at the Bulgarian National Television, participated in the workshop

KAS MP SOE

Avgustina Tsvetkova, Deputy Minister of Defence of Bulgaria (middle) and Matthias Barner, Director of the Media Program South East Europe of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (front right)

KAS MP SOE

The journalists followed with interest the presentation of Kenneth Geers, an American cyber expert, from the Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Exellence in Tallinn (Estonia)

KAS MP SOE

Dr. Karl Lamers MP, President of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, talks to the participants of the KAS-Workshop

KAS MP SOE

Special case Serbia? The Serbian MP Nikola Lazic was member of the Serbian delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly and had a dsicussion with the journalists at the KAS-workshop

In this way, the journalists, who came from seven Balkan countries altogether, gained not only an insight into recent trends in the debates on security policy. Being media representatives, they had also the chance to report live on site about the high-level NATO conference and to carry out interviews. Politicians and well-known experts faced discussion rounds with them, like Dr. Karl Lamers, CDU Bundestag member and president of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. The significance of cyber defence and the internet as the battlefield of the 21st century attracted particular interest. What’s more, there were intense debates on China’s rise, the relationship between NATO and Serbia as well as the stability in the Balkan area.

The pictures above provide a good insight into the three-day workshop. Nevertheless, it aimed not only at improving the quality of media coverage of NATO and security related topics in the region. The major goal was to encourage the regional exchange of experience and the estabishment of regional networks among journalists from South East Europe, a region still marked by conflicts and instabilities.