TOOL BOX – Spreading information about the FROM A TO B contest

Dear Friends, the new “From A to B” Award started and we are looking forward to your submissions. But even more we are curious, which country will send in the most and best media. If you want to help making your country one of the best, please help us to spread the word about the contest.

In the lines below you will find material to help with this task. If you need further material or you have questions do not hesitate to contact Meike from the Youthmedia-Team.

Please always use the following links:
http://www.youthmedia.eu/groups/112-from-a-to-b or in short http://bit.ly/fromatob.

The press release: Please send the press release to all relevant media outlets (such as newspaper and online media) in your country.
–> Download the Press Realease

The photo and the logos: Please send the photo and the logos of the organisers along with the press release and/or the concept paper to relevant media and organisations. Please also ask if they might publish the information on their website. To advertise the contest they should use the photo and the logos.
–> Download the Photo
–> See the photo on Youthmedia.eu
–> Download the Partner Logos

The text box: Please use the text from the text box to spread information about the contest on social media such as facebook or twitter. Use either the text that addresses young media enthusiasts directly or the text that addresses them indirectly (theses texts might help if you use official channels).
–> Download the Text Box

How to promote the contest on Facebook: Search for relevant groups, groups that are created to bring young media makers from either your country or Europe together.

The concept draft: Please send the concept draft along with the press release to all organisations (such as national youth forums, youth press organisation in your country, journalism schools etc.) you think might be able to help us spread the word about the contest,
–> Download the Concept Draft

Thank you very much for your efforts! Let’s make it a great contest.

The Youthmedia-Team

Winner article: “Those who will forget their past are condemned to live it again”

Winner article: 18 Billion Dollars against a fake-pandemic?

In his 13 years working in the audio-visual department of the Council of Europe, Alun Drake said there have only been two really exciting cases. One was back in 2006 when it became known that the CIA were operating more than 1, 000 secret flights within the EU and the other was yesterday (27 January) when almost 1000 medias world wide reported on the Council of Europes hearing on the H1N1 flu. Read the rest of this entry »

Europe is MORE than you think - 2nd Winner interview

The winner of the text category:
Alessandro di Maio of Olivarella, Italy, for his reportage “Integration and radical Islam in the Netherlands”

Video by Meabh Mc Mahon

Europe is MORE than you think - Winner interview

Meabh Mc Mahon produced this lovely video with the winner for the best Audio contribution - Daria Orlova of Izhevsk, Russian Federation, for her radio report “The man with the world map on his forehead”

A week in the Council of Europe

Sticking out amidst the dark cloud of Strasbourgian rain and fog is a huge building. Decorated with a handful of European flags, it is clear to a passer-by that it is an official European institution. Known as the ‘Palais de l’Europe’, it is indeed a huge European intergovermental organisation and in fact is the seat of the Council of Europe. Although on a daily basis, it is full of civil servants, school tours and sporadic diplomatic visitors, this week it is filled to the brim with delegations from all over Europe as it kick’s off it’s first of four annual parliamentary assembly meetings.

What exactly is the Council of Europe?

Often confused with the European Council of the European Union, the Council of Europe is in fact the oldest international organisation that works above all towards promoting European integration. Based in Strasbourg, it was founded back in 1949 and now represents 47 members with roughly 800 citizens. It consists of a Committee of Ministers that comprises of foreign ministers from each member state, a Parliamentary Assembly that makes up of MPs from each member states’ Parliament, the European Court of Human Rights and a Secretary General. According to current Secretary General, the Norwegian Thorbjorn Jagland, if it didnt exist, “there would be a ‘huge divide in Europe today”.

PACE

One of the Council’s main activities is that of its Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe or PACE for short. The first Parliamentary Assembly of 2010 commenced yesterday (25 January) here in Strasbourg. The meeting will go on until Friday and put a number of issues on the table. Although topics like swine flu, discrimination, the Middle East and human trafficking will be brought up during the week, the first topic on the table yesterday morning was the election of a brand new President.

“I want to bring political understanding to a new level, to act as a bridge for the peoples of Europe, whether they are in the frozen Arctic or on the temperate beaches of Antalya”, were the words of of incoming President Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu. Bidding adios to the outgoing Catalan, Lluís Maria de Puig, the Turk stressed his enthusiasm towards the new challenge of facing increasing intolerance and discrimination in society. “We must break down the walls in our minds. Unless we do that, there is no real freedom”.

The politician and economist, who has been a Member of Parliament for Antalya since 2002 got a warm reception from the audience. The latter made up of MPs from the 47 seven member states. But there were a few perplexed faces in the audiences. They belonged to a few young journalists from Italy, Ireland, Russia and Bulgaria, the winners of the Council of Europe journalism award.

Europe is more than you think Award

Last year, a pan-European media organisation known as the European Youth Press got together with the the Council of Europe to create a youth journalism prize. According to Sebastian Olényi, the organiser of the prize and representative of the Online platform youthmedia.eu of the European Youth Press where the event was published and the entries were collected, “the idea was to reach out to journalists beyond the borders of the European Union and to give them the tools to showcase their hard work”. “Its very exciting now to have our four winners here in Strasbourg for the real parliamentary assembly”. His comments were echoed by Francisco Empis, who organised the competition on behalf of the Council of Europe’s Communication Directerate. “It’s very interesting for us to see the impact we have on young journalists, and how aware they are of the work we do. Their experience here will hopefully inspire them to carry on their work as journalists and cover some of the issues they will be exposed during their visit”.

The thing is, the overall prize of the youth media competition was a trip to Strasbourg to cover this first parliamentary assembly of 2010. This explains the confused faces in the audience yesterday morning. However, today is day two at the Council of Europe and those faces have adapted over night to this ginormous intergovernmental organisation and have become much more aware of what is going on. Ready to report, the group have already started to work and will be updating you on the ins and outs of this weeks Assembly right here on this blog.

Méabh Mc Mahon

Europe is MORE winners start meeting in Strasbourg

4 winners, 2 EYP representatives and 318 parliamentarians:

Today, the first part of the prize for the winners of the Europe is MORE than you think-award has started. All winners are attaining the parliamentary session and will report about some of the most important issues on orangelog.eu, partly on cafebabel and on this blog. The Award ceremony will be held on Wednesday - until then, interviews, a Strasbourg-tour and the Council of Europe-tour are just some of the points on the schedule.

Model European Union 2010

Model European Union a simulation of the European Institutions which takes place in the building of the European Parliament in Strasbourg. This year’s event will take place from the 10th until the 17th of April and will include workshops, the simulation of the European Parliament and the Council, as well as the Press and influence groups, as well as a varied and interesting social program.

MEU2010 has opened 4 places for cameramen/photographers in the simulation: advanced students of media will have the opportunity to apply to act as real cameramen for the European Parliament. The cameramen and fillmakers will be in charge of filming the event and to produce a high quality piece of work which will ensure a terrific media coverage to the event and which will be sent to Europarl.tv,present at the event.

The application for Journalists (positions for Cameramen/Filmmakers/Photographers) will include :

• Journalist (photographer) - experience and portfolio sample (About how to upload)
• Journalist (cameraman) - experience and short-film sample (About how to upload)

Besides, applicants will be required to write an essay. All the informations regarding the application procedures can be found on our website.

The application process for Model European Union 2010 opened on Wednesday 16th December 2009 and will last until Sunday 24th January 2010. For the rules of application and more information about the event we advise you to check our official website.

For further informations, you can visit our website or our Facebook group.We are also on Twitter.

The Winners are here: Europe is MORE than you think

We, the European youth press and the youthmedia.eu team together with the Council of Europe are proud to announce the results of the Europe is MORE than you think Award. At the closing date in December 2009, the competition had received over 200 entries in 4 categories:
Photography, video journalism, print and radio journalism.

The competition, organised jointly by the Council of Europe and the European Youth Press, invited young journalists from all over the continent to look beyond the headlines and capture the Europe which, all too often, goes unnoticed.

The winners of the Europe is MORE than you think Award are:

• Emilian Dechev of Sofia, Bulgaria, for his photograph “Reality vs. Dreams”
• Méabh Mc Mahon of Brussels, Belgium, for the video report “The Poles in Ireland”
• Alessandro di Maio of Olivarella, Italy, for his reportage “Integration and radical Islam in the Netherlands”
• Daria Orlova of Izhevsk, Russian Federation, for her radio report “The man with the world map on his forehead”

The four main winners have been invited to attend the January 2010 session of the Parliamentary Assembly to see the workings of Europe’s oldest intergovernmental organisation and report on the event and receive
They will be presented with their certificates in a ceremony to be held on Wednesday 27th January at 17h30 in room 9 of the Palais de l’Europe in Strasbourg.

Unwanted messages

During the last two days several users recieved some messages from newly registered users. This are unwanted messages and we highly advice to not reply to this contacts. As soon as we get to know about a user-account with unusual behaviour we will react accordently.
If you still have or will get unwanted messages in your inbox, please send us a small notice to info@youthmedia.eu.