Activity Details (ID# 3203)

Activity Synopsis

The objectives of the meeting were to:
• contribute to a sustainable regional understanding and co-operation between public opinion leaders;
• give Albanian participants an inside view of how Bulgarian media work;
• contribute to a closer co-operation between media in the two countries;
• explore possibilities for sharing news sources and reporters.
 

The meeting took place only two days after the visit of the Albanian Prime Minister and a group of Albanian businessmen to Sofia. This provided a good opportunity to examine how the media in Sofia covered this event, as well as developments in Albania, in general. The coverage turned out to be very comprehensive.
Part of the meeting was devoted to a discussion on how the media in each of the two countries cover their neighbouring countries. This was very important in order to understand which stereotypes were used in the mutual coverage.
The meeting turned out to be very fruitful, since in addition it helped to establish contacts between media companies in the two countries. More specifically, co-operation between journalists from Monitor and the representatives of AII Data Processing was initiated. Many other bilateral contacts were also established.
The Albanian visitors also held a meeting with the Prime Minister of Bulgaria. Among the issues discussed, were Bulgaria’s future accession to the European Union and the experience that Albania could use, the Bulgarian point of view on Kosovo and its status, as well as the relations with the Albanian government.
Also of interest were the meetings with members of Parliament and the Minister of Foreign Affairs. During the visit to the Parliament, the participants attended the discussions on the approval of the State budget; they were then able to compare this event with the subsequent media coverage.
 

Two days after the Albanian group returned to Tirana, the daily DITA, whose editor-in-chief was part of the group, devoted a full page to the visit. The weekly economic magazine Monitor also covered the meeting.

 

Bulgarian and Albanian editors-in-chief and opinion makers