Editors-in-chief from the Barents region will meet for the very first time in Kirkenes, Norway, on October 1–3. The Barents Editors’ Forum is organized by the Barents Mediasphere project and there will be some 15 participants from many major editorial offices from northern Finland, Norway, Russia (Murmansk and Arkhangelsk regions) and Sweden, both from Radio and TV, electronic and print media.
The idea of the meeting is to offer an opportunity for media networking and sharing of best practices.
“We
aim to create a forum and atmosphere that encourages the editors from
regional media to meet and talk with each other. It is then up to them
if they are interested to continue contacts also in the future. There is
an obvious interest to have information and news of what is happening
across the borders in the Barents region but lack of time and resources
is creating problems”, says Markku Heikkilä, Head of Science
Communications at the Arctic Centre, University of Lapland.
”Journalists
in the Barents Region have cooperated for 20 years through Barents
Press International. With this forum, we hope to give this cooperation a
push forwards by also including the media houses”, says Trude Pettersen
at the BarentsObserver.
The
Barents Mediasphere project is led
by the Arctic Centre and the partners are the Internet news site
BarentsObserver, run by the Norwegian Barents Secretariat, and GTRK
Murman, a regional radio and tv company of the Russian state. The
BarentsObserver is responsible for the practical arrangements of the
Editors’ Forum.
The Barents Mediasphere project is helping cross
border journalism by offering training courses for journalists. In
addition, it will conduct a survey of journalists’ interest to follow
what is going on in the Barents cooperation. The survey will map how
journalists connect and co-operate within the region, as well as study
the role of Barents-related themes in the work of journalists from
Finland, Norway, Russia and Sweden.
The Barents Mediasphere
project is funded by the European Union’s Kolarctic ENPI cross border
co-operation programme, by national financers from Finland, Russia and
Norway, and by project partners.
More information:
Markku Heikkilä
Head of Science Communications, Arctic Centre, University of Lapland
markku.heikkila (at) ulapland.fi
Tel. +358 40 4844 300
Trude Pettersen
BarentsObserver
trude (at) barents.no
Tel. +47 408 862 91
ULapland / Arctic Centre / MH & VK