In light of the Omicron COVID-19 variant outbreak in Lithuania and in the region, the Mediathon, an international training for the journalists, is postponed to the end of March. The organizers’ main concern is to guarantee the health of all participants and ensure a high level of attendance of journalists from Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Lithuania, and Latvia.
The Mediathon which was planned to take place in Lithuania from 2nd to 6th February now is scheduled for March 30th – April 3rd.
The decision to postpone the training has been taken to minimize costs and risks for all involved, in the wake of the surging COVID-19 cases due to the Omicron variant.
“Mediathon is an opportunity to celebrate investigative journalism, improve data analysis skills, and expand the professional network, thus it is important to have a safe environment where journalists can communicate and share their knowledge. We are eager to bring back the pre-pandemic training experience, and it is safer to do after the COVID-19 situation stabilizes,” said Neringa Jurciukonyte, the CEO of Media4Change.
The training organizers invite all selected participants to continue their engagement with this event and will work towards ensuring the same program with an even greater level of participation in spring.
Mediathon is also a chance to learn from the outstanding investigative journalism examples: all participants will attend the Future Stories Award ceremony on March 31st. The investigative journalism awards will recognize, in several categories, the best investigations from Lithuania and Slovakia.
Before the awards, Media4Change and Europsky Dialog are inviting the audience to select the “Audience Award Winner”. All investigations are presented online and waiting can vote here.
Background: The training is one of the activities of the Media4Change – Future Investigative Story Lab project, which aims to support cooperation, innovation, and professional standards in the field of investigative journalism in Lithuania and Slovakia. It’s run by the National Institute for Social Integration (Media4Change programme) from Lithuania and European Dialogue from Slovakia.
The project has been co-financed by the European Commission – DG CONNECT under the 2019 call for proposals “Media freedom and investigative journalism” (Pilot Project: Supporting investigative journalism and media freedom in the EU).
Disclaimer: The European Commission’s support for the production of this Call for entries does not constitute an endorsement of the contents, which reflect the views of the authors only and are their sole responsibility. The Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
