May 21 the AEJ Executive Committee gathered in Bratislava. It became a very fruitful meeting, thanks to the preparations by AEJ Slovakia, and esp. its secretary-general Tibor Macak and thanks to the sponsor, the Slovak energy company ENEL.
After a convincing presentation by Koos van Houdt (AEJ Netherlands), the members of the ExCom choose a new topic for the association: ‘Euregio-journalism’. The conclusions of the presentation were based on experiences in Maastricht (AEJ Congress 2009) and recently in a two-day seminar in Brussels and Lille (organised by the French and Belgian AEJ sections). During the meeting comparable experiences came at the table, in Extremadura (Spain) with Portuguese neighbour region, and also crossborder regional cooperations between Hungary and Slovakia. More info to follow.
Another topic was ‘Media Freedom’. William Horsley, AEJ MF Representative, presented recent activities (AEJ and World Press Freedom Day; the important MF meeting in Istanbul May 3) and intentions for a further cooperation with the Council of Europe. The ExCom decided to pay extra and special attention to the MF situation in Turkey and in Bellerusse. Our Belarusian colleague, Andrei Aliaksandrau, had the chance to travel from Minsk to be present in the Bratislava meeting.