26/10/2020 Parliamentary Support
An “online video toolkit” and training resource on the current challenges and ways forward for public service media – based on a recent webinar for parliamentary staff from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia and Serbia – is to be made available to parliamentary staff across Europe.
The kit, which has been put together by PACE’s Parliamentary Projects Support Division as part of the joint European Union/Council of Europe programme “Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Turkey 2019-2022”, covers European media freedom standards and ways that the staff of parliamentary committees can use them to support sustainable and independent public service media.
The toolkit grew out of the recording of a September 2020 webinar involving staff from the Parliaments of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia and Serbia, and is now being made available to a wider audience in English, Albanian and Serbian.
A series of expert speakers cover the standards and structures for regulating public service media, ensuring pluralism in the audio-visual landscape, and overseeing and funding public service broadcasters while protecting their editorial independence. The impact of EU accession in the region is also dealt with.
Staff from the parliaments of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina and North Macedonia were able to share their practical experience of the media situation and hold exchanges of views with the expert participants.