Christian Spahr, Head of KAS Media Program South East Europe, spoke about how Serbian and Bulgarian media are dealing with the past. He highlighted that Bulgaria is lacking an assessment of the communist past accepted by a majority of citizens.

"The media aren’t ignoring the crimes during communism, but their dealing with the past is fragmented and random," said Spahr. Regarding Serbia he commented that mass media are making little in-depth analysis of the Yugoslav wars. "Nationalistic perceptions in media are still vivid, every ethnic group in the region has its own truth," said Spahr. His whole presentation is available here in German language.

Prof. Dr. Eva Maria Auch from the Department of History of the Humboldt University spoke about culture of remembrance and perception of history in Azerbaijan. Dominik Sonnleitner from the Institute for East European Studies and Center for Global Politics at the Free University of Berlin talked about national identities in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Afterwards he took part in a moderated discussion with Christian Spahr about coming to terms with the past in the Balkans. The experts answered also numerous questions of the participants.

Around 35 KAS scholars and alumni from different countries as well as employees from the headquarters of the foundation in Berlin participated in the event.