A join project to promote an European Society

The European Youth Media Days (EYMD) 2013 started today in Brussels with the support of the European Parliament (EP) . These three workshop´s days gather 120 professional and student journalists from all Europe with the purpose of "reflecting questions that something we [EP] forget", said Ioannis Darmis, Head of media services and monitoring unit of the EP.

The first day impressions, as they explained in the introduction speech, are that there are not national problems that countries can solve on their own. Europe needs to work at a higher level of integration. Othamar Karas, Vice President of the European Parliament in charge of communication expressed this way, "We need to act together" and in this democratic process journalists are needed to influence the decisions to be taken.

The most important thing is to create a fair, independent and responsible media where journalists should represent a true reality because Europe is not only black and white, but very diverse. As Karas highligtthed, "We are all Europe" and it is all at the interest of the community.

The problem of coverage
Breaking stereotyes -The role of media in promoting an inclusive European society- was the title of the last panel discussion of the day. Here, the crucial point is to know when coverage goes right and when goes wrong. What is the main responsibility? has it anything to be with ethics? influencing society? to what extend do we have resposibility as a journalists?

Journalists should not talk only about one side of the discussion, they need to have the complete picture of the situation, show the diversity and create a honest relation with readers. Tell the story as it is and do not reinforce steroetypes.

Journalists are the only ones who can research for the truth, show it their audience and create a more integrated Europe.