Join the 31st European Meeting of Cultural Journals, an online conference organized by Eurozine and co-hosted by CMDS and the Department of Media and Communications at Eötvös Loránd University.
The past decade has brought tectonic shifts in media fields. When advertising revenue and investments evaporated after the 2008 collapse, social media giants were quick to prey on a vulnerable market already struggling to accommodate digital publishing. The revenue sources native to electronic media are now dominated by a few companies, an imbalance that has opened the door to anti-democratic interventions.
Eastern Europe now serves as a laboratory for techniques combatting media freedom, which are then exported at speed throughout the region and well beyond. The pandemic seems to have given this process extra momentum. Hungary’s biggest independent news site has just been slain – not the first such instance – while the Slovenian government is rapidly Orbanizing the country’s public sphere. Bulgarian journalists are facing more direct threats than most of their European colleagues, while Poland pushes on with ‘turning Warsaw into Budapest’.
These attempts at silencing independent media and culture do not happen in a vacuum and are no Eastern speciality. Neither are they accepted without a struggle. New initiatives, innovative working methods, and reinvented regimes are mushrooming throughout the region to rebuild ecosystems of democratic journalism on more sustainable and resilient foundations.
The 31st European Meeting of Cultural Journals will address the challenges facing independent publishing and the responses on offer. Due to the pandemic, it will be a two-tier online event, live streamed from Budapest on 14 November 2020 and 26-28 February 2021. Find the program for the event in November below.
Registration to the online event is now open.
The conference is co-hosted by the Center for Media, Data and Society at the Democracy Institute at CEU, and the Department of Media and Communications at Eötvös Loránd University.
PROGRAM
Panel I
17:00–18:30
Where do you see yourself in ten years?
Journalism students discuss their professional future in a country where independent media have been smashed to pieces and where the vast majority of journalism has been done away with.
Speakers:
Flóra Dóra Csatári, Telex, formerly Index, ELTE Dept. of Media and Communications
Dávid Malatinszky, Magyar Hang, ELTE Dept. of Media and Communications
Kamilla Strausz, #kommlab, Corvinus University
Anna Szilágyi, ELTE Dept. of Media and Communications
Moderator:
Dóra Laborczi, Nök Lapja
Panel II
19:00–21:00
How to deal with political pressure
Against the backdrop of the recent attacks on Index.hu, journalists, academics and artists discuss their experience of dealing with political pressure. Speakers present varying models of individual and institutional response to political interference in their work as journalists, academics and artists. A debate about tactics and professional standards.
Speakers:
Lukáš Fila, CEO, Denník N, Slovakia
András Földes, journalist, Telex, formerly Index
Anna Lengyel, dramatist and literary translator, doctoral student and guest lecturer, Budapest University of Theatre and Film (SZFE); organizer of the 2019 December demonstration of theatres
Boris Vezjak, philosopher, Slovenia
Moderator:
Réka Kinga Papp, Eurozine
For more details about how to access the live stream, please join the Facebook-event.