(from right) Peter Lindvald-Nielsen, Head of Communications, European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), Christian Spahr, Head of KAS Media Program South East Europe and Camelia Paraschiv, expert at the EC Directorate-General for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations (DG NEAR)

KAS MP SOE

The round table in Chișinău also gave an opportunity to discuss the media situation in Moldova with local journalists and NGO representatives.

SEECOM Steering Committee members met in the Moldovan capital Chișinău. They reviewed further projects of the SEECOM association for public sector communicators, inter alia the SEECOM conference next year. Possible implementations of the "Transparency, Accountability and Public Participation Programme" (TAPP) for South East Europe were discussed. The TAPP programme aims for improvement of the communication of governmental bodies and an efficient dialogue with citizens.

SEECOM’s objectives were pointed out at the meeting. Government strategies and measures should be communicated in an easy and understandable manner. The association should bring together communications experts in the public sector in order to enable a transfer of best practices. Christian Spahr, SEECOM co-founder and Head of the KAS Media Program South East Europe, suggested to invite high-ranking experts not only as speakers but also to engage them in cooperation with SEECOM. This idea was welcomed by the participants.

SEECOM increasingly works together with partners on the European level. The following external experts participated at the meeting in Chișinău: Peter Lindvald-Nielsen, Head of Communications, European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), Camelia Paraschiv, expert at the EC Directorate-General for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations (DG NEAR) and Anthony Zacharzewski, Director of the think tank "The Democratic Society" (Demsoc). Cooperation proposals for 2017 were formulated with the intention to strengthen the role of SEECOM beyond South East Europe. Common events with the European Commission are planned amongst other projects.

The round table in Chișinău also gave an opportunity to discuss the media situation in Moldova with local journalists and NGO representatives. SEECOM members had an exchange with Nadine Gogu, Executive Director of the Independent Journalism Center (IJC), Alina Radu, Director of "Ziarul de Gardă" daily, and Dumitru Lazur, reporter for the investigative project "RISE". Participants spoke about the media landscape and the political situation after the Moldovan presidential elections. Local experts reviewed the citizens’ activities in social media positively, whereas trust in traditional media was considered to decline. Numerous media are influenced by propaganda, and independent media outlets have difficulties in developing sustainable business models.

All participants discussed the current political developments and the media situation intensively. The meeting led to practical decisions for further collaboration in the upcoming year. The next SEECOM conference is planned for October 2017. The report about this year’s conference of the association is available here.