Members of the research team of the SEE Media Observatory presented the findings of the media integrity research in the European Parliament at the conference organised and host by the Member of the European Parliament from Slovenia Tanja Fajon.

The conference was held on 18 November 2014, with MEP Tanja Fajon highlighting in the introduction the importance of the media for democracy and supporting the positive role the European Union in promoting these values within the EU and in the EU-enlargement countries. The presentation of the media integrity research then started with regional overview by Brankica Petković, lead researcher and project coordinator of the SEE Media Observatory who also briefly elaborated key media integrity issues in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia. It was followed by two more detailed country presentations: on media integrity situation in Macedonia by Snežana Trpevska, Assistant Professor at the School of Journalism and Public Relations in Skopje, and on media integrity situation in Serbia by  Jovanka Matić, researcher at the Institute for Social Sciences in Belgrade, both being part of the SEE Media Observatory research team, engaged by the partners of the SEE Media Observatory – Macedonian Institute for Media and Novi Sad School of Journalism. The presentation was concluded with the contribution of Sandra Bašić Hrvatin, Professor at the University of Primorska in Slovenia, member of the Advisory Board of the SEE Media Observatory and co-author of the regional overview for the research report “Media Integrity Matters”, on the European perspective of the media integrity problems.

The discussion part of the conference included interventions by number of participants appreciating the media integrity research report, raising concerns about the situation in the countries covered b y the research, and elaborating own views about the role the EU institituons can play to improve it. Among the contributors in the discussion were Erwan Fouéré, Associate Senior Research Fellow at the Center for European Policy Studies, former Head of the European Commission Delegation in Slovenia and Macedonia; Andris Kesteris, Principal Advisor DG Enlargement, European Commission; Renate Schroeder, Director of the European Federation of Journalists; Dušan Reljić, SWP Brussels Head of Office; Zoran Medved, Circom Regional and others.