PRESS RELEASES, DECLARATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Vienna, 17 October 2001

At the conference on “Borders and Minorities in Balkans”, held on 6 October 2001 in Thessaloniki, under the auspices of the Greek newspaper “Makedonia”, several important recommendations have been adopted, which were presented to the governments of the Balkan region and supported by SEEMO.

Participants attending the conference agreed to appeal to the governments in the region to take the necessary measures to facilitate the free flow of information, ideas and people across national borders within the Balkan region.

Specifically, it was requested:

– to make borders as much as possible open for free exchange of ideas and information;

– to allow the circulation of all regional printed media within the Balkan region;

– to allow journalists and scholars to exercise their profession without hindrance by ensuring that if there is a need to obtain visas, these are provided rapidly and without bureaucratic interference.

Furthermore, participants in the conference recommended that the governments and the local NGOs promote a regular and organized exchange of young people, especially students, thus offering the possibility to learn from and about each other.

Finally, professional journalist organizations were requested to foster discussions among journalists from the Balkan region about issues of interest for the region.

Leading journalists and editors from Albania, Bosnia, Bulgaria, FR Yugoslavia (including Kosovo), Greece, Macedonia and Turkey participated in Thessaloniki conference.

The SEEMO Print Media Commmittee supports the above mentioned recommendations and will use all necessary instruments to facilitate the free flow of information, ideas and people across national borders within South East Europe.

Radomir Licina

SEEMO Coordinator for Print Media

Vienna, 25 September 2001

The South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO) is pleased to announce the SEEMO Award for Better Understanding.

Sponsored by Dr. Erhard Busek, former Austrian vice chancellor, the 2.000- EUR award will be given to a journalist, editor or media executive in South East Europe, who, through the media, has promoted a climate of better understanding among peoples and worked toward ending minority problems, ethnic divisions, racism, xenophobia, etc.

If you know of any person who would be a worthy recipient of the SEEMO Award for Better Understanding, please contact SEEMO at:

South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO)
SEEMO-IPI, Spiegelgasse 2/29
A-1010 Vienna
Austria
Tel: + 43 1 513 39 40, Fax: + 43 1 512 90 15
E-mail: seemo@freemedia.at
http://www.freemedia.at/seemo

The deadline for applications for the SEEMO Award for Better Understanding is: 1 February 2002.