EVENTS: Belgrade hosting 6th International Youth Media Summit

From August 1 to 12, Belgrade is hosting the Sixth International Youth Media Summit. 83 delegates from 20 countries have arrived to present their activities in the field of media communication and to exchange mutual experience. More from Olivera Milovanovic.

The International Youth Media Summit was founded in Los Angeles in 2006, as a reaction to the attack on World Trade Center in New York on 11 September 2001, the director of the Media Education Centre, Miomir Rajčević, told a press conference. Summit participants decided to commence joint work on an optimal exploration of media with a view to popularizing the opinion of young people on world major problems. 86 delegates from 26 countries took part in the summit in LA. On that occasion, they concluded there were seven major issues present in almost all the countries worldwide.

Those are: Discrimination/Racism, Poverty, Violence, Health, Environment, Women’s Rights and Youth Empowerment. All these issues will be discussed in Belgrade as well, with special emphasis on strengthening the role of delegates from Western Balkan countries. The summit also aims to attain a sufficient level of media literacy among the young in order that they become interactive partners and not only passive consumers of media products. Rajčević says that the Media Education Centre is the main office of the summit and its task is not only to coordinate all the activities of the summit, but also to use experience acquired from previous gatherings for the reconciliation process in former Yugoslav states.

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