14 Dec Conference “Education for journalists and media literacy”
Belgrade, 8-9th November 2016. – Foundation Media Center, in cooperation with the Media and Reform Center Niš, organized a two-day national conference on “Education for journalists and media literacy”. The conference was organized within the project “Partnership for Media Development in South East Europe”, which aims to support independent, responsible journalism in the Western Balkans, by putting to the forefront of issues related to labor rights of journalists, media freedom, education of journalists and media literacy .
Since the quality of media reporting, both in Serbia and in the region, is declining and trends in society and a way of informing rapidly changing, it is clear that we need education in the field of media literacy. In this way Jelka Jovanović (Editor of Novi magazin) and Kristina Lupu, Project Manager (Center for Independent Journalism, Bucharest) opened training devoted to media literacy, pointing out that “the public is the one dictating trends in journalism, and that is the task of us all is to follow social change and to convey it in a proper way.
“In the segment of the conference dedicated to the role of the media in the “media literacy” spoke Dragoljub Petrović, Editor in Chief (Daily Newspaper Danas), pointing out that “the media in Serbia do not contribute to the development of media literacy.” On the burning issue when it comes to this theme – the problem of complete turn in the sphere of visual and neglecting written and linguistic aspect of any information, spoke Zvezdan Mančić (Centre for Development of Photography). 
On the theme of civil society and civic education, observed through the prism of media literacy, spoke Bojana Selaković (a.d. Executive Director of Civic Initiatives), pointing out that “media literacy in the framework of the system of education must be conducted in a manner tailored to children.”
Given that research data on media literacy, which for the purpose of this project was carried out Dejan Kožul, indicates a decline in the quality of media research, there is a great need for education in the field of media literacy and great need to raise general awareness of the importance of this issue for the citizens – the general conclusion of the debate.
The main event of the second day of the conference was the presentation of Manual for the media, “The fight for equality”, the authors of which are Brankica Janković, Commissioner for Protection of Equality, prof. dr. Ivana Krstić, Antigona Andonov and Tatjana Jakobi. The ai
m of this publication, established with the support of the OSCE Mission in Serbia, is that the media make affordable domestic and international anti-discrimination framework. The manual is designed as a guide to all journalists dealing with issues of equality and non-discrimination, with additional information on how treatment and practices of the CPE or the European Court of Human Rights. The publication also contains a “Glossary of tolerance”, that is to say, the list of anti-discrimination, gender-sensitive and less famous terms with explanations.
Good opportunity to change bad trend of media reporting is the current process of creating a new media strategy, which gives an opportunity to all relevant subjects to engage themselves and provide an adequate contribution to the development of media literacy in Serbia.