CONFERENCE IN WIEN FOCUSED ON THE TOPIC OF DEVELOPMENT OF MEDIA SCENE IN CENTRAL EUROPE

The conference dedicated to the development of media scene in the Central Europe took place at the chateau of Neuwaldegg in Vienna from12 ¬¬¬to14 October. The speakers were the Senator MUDr Alena Venhodová, Dr Gerhard H. Bauer Director of the Austrian Society for European Politics, Piotr Kaznowski from the Polish magazine Christianitas, Sabine Radl from the Austrian economic chamber, director of the Conservative Institute of M.R. Štefánik Peter Zajac, Jiří Řehák from the College of Finance and Administration and Matyáš Zrno from Civic Institute. Professor Bauer represented significantly pro European position - he referred to the populism of journalists who do not understand European Union and tend to blame the Union for all problems. Matyáš Zrno argued that rather the institutional and decision making structure of EU not being very transparent is to blame for the shortcomings in communicating the information about EU. He also criticized the quality of journalism since the journalists are not always as professional as they should be. In addition, they are often forced by the management to work under time pressure with very limited sources and few employees, which reflects in the quality of dealing with the cases. Peter Zajac talked about the fight for independent media in the era of Vladimír Mečiar and pointed out that media in Slovakia had been acting in the role of opposition due to the latter’s complete breakdown. Piotr Kaznowski pointed out the situation in Poland, where the powerful daily Gazeta Wyborcza forms kind of a liberal “political party” with great influence. He gave a sober commentary on the activities of Radio Maryja whose work has been frequently in the center of media’s attention. The conference was attended by about forty participants from the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Austria. Recognition should be given to the Austrian Society for European Politics for the sponsorship and to Neuwaldegg Institute for providing its premises for the conference as well as to Europa Club Brno for helping with the organization.