The second online seminar: Belarus, Georgia, Germany and North Macedonia

By Max Kravchuk

Last but not least, the second online seminar of Media Dialogue 2020 for Pluralism and Understanding is over. The participants have had the opportunity to find out how countries with different political systems such as Germany, North Macedonia and Georgia struggle difficulties during Covid-19 crisis.

 The meeting started with Andrei Bastunets’ presentation. He is the chairman of the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ). The journalist gave a presentation about current situation of media which is complex because of the pandemic and mass protests against Lukashenko’s rule. In particular, the speaker focussed on numerous cases of human rights violations before and after the presidential elections – there were many cases of restriction on access to information and censorship.

The second speaker of seminar was Mamuka Andguladze. He as a program manager of Transparency International Georgia has assessed the consequences of the сoronavirus crisis for the Georgian media system. Mr. Andguladze highlighted the Russian propaganda and disinformation which have been trying to share fake news about Covid-19 and deflect attention from facts.

The necessity to strengthen democracy between the participating countries of Media Dialogue 2020 for Pluralism and Understanding was presented by the journalist, editor and co-founder of civil.org.mk from North Macedonia Xhabir Deralla.

In conclusion, the online seminar encouraged participants from different countries to find out more about the problems of media connected to the difficult situation with Covid-19. The independence of media and the relation of media and governments will be topics in upcoming presentations and events of the project.

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