A common platform to tell the
story of the Europe of the future - that is the mission of the
European Newsroom (ENR), which was inaugurated in Brussels on
Tuesday evening at the offices of the Belga News Agency.
The project, financed by the European Commission, features the
involvement of 18 news agencies, including ANSA, AFP and
Germany's dpa, which coordinates the initiative.
"The war launched by Russia on Ukraine, the increase in energy
prices and climate change know no borders," said European
Commission Vice President Vera Jourova at the opening of the
event.
"In order to better grasp the overall picture, readers need a
cross-border dimension and constant reference to the fact that
European countries are not isolated, they depend on each other".
Citing various forms of pressure on the media, which go from
physical threats to economic pressure, Jourova stressed the need
for instruments to ensure that no media outlet "turns into a
means of propaganda".
She announced that next week the European Commission will
present the Media Freedom Act, a package of regulations to
protect the freedom of the media in the EU.
Among others present at the inauguration was European Vice
President Margaritis Schinas, the Commissioner for Promoting our
European Way of Life; Ambassador Francesco Maria Talò, Italy's
permanent representative to NATO; ANSA CEO Stefano De Alessandri
and dpa CEO Peter Kropsh.
"A collaboration among European news agencies to share best
practices, improve the quality of the news and fight
disinformation: this is what the European Newsroom is," De
Alessandri said at the event.
European Economy Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni was on the same
wavelength and stressed the crucial role news agencies have in
"providing objective, accurate information.
"They are key to building a shared understanding of facts and to
countering the growing problem of disinformation and outright
propaganda," Gentiloni said.
"As the saying goes, everyone is entitled to their own opinions,
but not to their own facts
"Within this context, I am confident that the European Newsroom
will bring the EU's activities closer to home, improve the
quality of public debate and strengthen our democracies".
The project aims to promote a spirit of cooperation among
journalists from EU countries and countries that are bidding to
join the union, strengthening the European information network
and citizens' access to quality information in order to hold
back the tide of disinformation.
In addition to reporting, journalists from the agencies involved
will also take part in training courses on issues such as fake
news and fact checking, for example.
The agencies involved in the initiative are: dpa (Germany), AFP
(France), AGERPRES (Romania), ANSA (Italy), APA (Austria), ATA
(Albania), Belga (Belgium), BTA (Bulgaria), EFE (Spain), Europa
Press (Spain), FENA (Bosnia and Herzegovina), HINA (Croatia),
MIA (North Macedonia), STA (Slovenia), Tanjug (Serbia) and TASR
(Slovacchia).
In addition Pap (Poland) and Ukrinform (Ukraine) have partner
news agency status.
The ENR's multilingual site can be viewed at
https://europeannewsroom.com.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA
