Please join the Center for International Media Assistance and IREX to discuss the lessons to be learned from deteriorating environment for media in Central and Southeast Europe. IREX’s Media Sustainability Index looks at indicators such as freedom of speech, plurality of news, and business management to measure the health of countries’ media environments. In recent years, donor support for media institutions in countries that once had great promise has declined. In these same years, the MSI scores have shown decline, reflecting the deterioration of the overall media environment in the region.
How can the media development and donor communities respond to this backsliding? What areas of the media system proved to be weak points in countries like Serbia, Bosnia, or Bulgaria, which seemed to be on a good path and are now detouring? What approaches now seem appropriate for countries such as Ukraine and Moldova, which are seeing renewed interest by donors to support independent media? Further, what are the consequences of this backsliding for other areas of democratic and economic reforms? Join a panel of experts including Leon Morse from IREX; Shannon Maguire from USAID; and Vjollca Shtylla from ICFJ. The discussion will be moderated by Susan King, Dean of School of Media and Journalism at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill.