February 27, 2019 | Wednesday
The EU Information and Cultural Centre in North Mitrovica organised the ‘EU Inspirational Talks’ with Tatjana Lazarević and Idro Seferi.
The focus of the discussion was the role of journalists in the challenges of contemporary society. This lively and interesting discussion touched on several topics: the everyday challenges for journalists, the power of the media, the role of and responsibility of the media, controlling the media and how that can thwart the prosperity and peace in the region. These issues sparked a lively debate on the aspects of journalism, freedom of speech, education and the search for truth, among other topics.
Lazarevic pointed out that “the two words that I do not like in my work are CHALLENGE and CONTEMPORARY. CHALLENGE is something I perceive as an imposed corporate euphemistic term borrowed from business English to denote the term PROBLEM. And our planet, our world, as well as our small community here and the society in general is in great trouble, serious and growing trouble which no embellishment can make better. This euphemism is part of the pseudo-positivistic orientation of the modern era (e.g. ‘Be positive’), and it has become such a mainstream that it is now reached a new phase – the post-truth.”
She also added how the image of the contemporary world is fake, embellished like an Instagram photo that has gone through filters and is therefore instantaneous.
“The essence of journalistic work is to report truthfully, in the moment, covering current topics. You have done your job when your report becomes a mirror” Lazarevic told the audience.
Idro Seferi stated that if you are doing the work of the journalist, you have to be persistent and determined to see results, because there are many barriers that need to be overcome.
“I think that the biggest challenge or problem, is the fact that journalists still do not have continuous communication, because access to information coming from the other side is not always available. It is important not to translate news, but to create them at the site”, Seferi said.
“EU Inspirational Talks” will happen in both EUICC Centres, in Pristina and North Mitrovica, with the idea of bringing up people who have inspiring stories and learning from their experiences in different aspects of life.