REPORTING DIVERSITY Advanced Training: Call for Participants

WHEN: 13-16 February 2024

WHERE: Podgorica, Montenegro

Reporting Diversity Network – The New Agenda is inviting CSOs, grassroots activists, human rights defenders to attend the Reporting Diversity training of trainers. The training will take place in Podgorica, between 13-16 February 2024 and will gather 30 participants from across the Western Balkans.

The participants will gain skills that will help them be more sensitive to minorities’ points of view, recognise hate speech and divisive narratives and their manifestations and be able to counter them. The three-day workshop will focus on three sets of skills: recognising hate speech, responding to hateful narratives and advocating for respecting diversity in reporting.

The Reporting Diversity Network aims to introduce and establish new practices of counteracting divisive media messages by providing alternative responses, demanding reactions (by the media, civil society, and/or authorities), and publicly exposing perpetrators.

This workshop is designed to equip participants with capacities, channels, resources, and methods to engage more effectively and actively and make countering irresponsible and often illegal behaviour of actors in the media sphere part of their regular practice in upholding human rights, the rule of law and democracy standards in the region. This entails better-informed and substantiated CSO advocacy actions aimed at achieving policy influence but also at alternating public perceptions of irresponsible media behaviour through effective campaigns. For these reasons, the Reporting Diversity Training will focus on increasing participants’ traditional and social media campaigning skills as well as advocacy skills.

All travel and accommodation costs will be covered by the organisers. If you have specific travel and/or accommodation requests, please let us know in advance in the comments section.

As a part of the Reporting Diversity Advanced Training, participants will also attend the Reporting Diversity Network Conference, which will be held on February 15 and 16, 2024. To apply, please fill in this form before January 22. Selected participants will be notified by January 25.

The working language will be English.

Reporting Diversity Network (RDN) – The New Agenda aims to activate the role of civil society in countering narratives of the divide and replacing them with positive discourse contributing to the values of respect for human rights, respect for diversity and good neighbouring relations. Reporting Diversity Network gathers organisations from the Western Balkan region: Albanian Woman in Audiovisual (AWA), Association for the Advancement of Journalistic Practices INNOVATIVE MEDIA, Center for Investigative Journalism Montenegro, Fondacija za razvoj Medija i civilnog drustva – MediaCentar, Kosovo 2.0, Media Diversity Institute Global (MDI Global) and Media Diversity Institute – Western Balkans.

Reporting Diversity Network – The New Agenda project is co-funded by the European Union and the “SMART Balkans – Civil Society for Shared Society in the Western Balkans” regional project implemented by the Centar za promociju civilnog društva (CPCD), Center for Research and Policy Making (CRPM) and Institute for Democracy and Mediation (IDM) and financially supported by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (NMFA).