Awarded journalists: It’s not easy to report on European issues

On Friday, the European Parliament awarded for the first time the European Parliament Prize for Journalism. 70 journalist, the winners on the national level, were invited to join the ceremony. With their articles, radio and TV reports, they all achieved outstanding contributions for a better understanding of the European Union, Hans-Gert Pöttering, President of the European Parliament, stated. According to him “the European Union needs a critical look from outside, therefore it is important that how the EU acts is beeing acompanied in a critical, but fair and objective way.”

According to the prize winning journalists, it is not the easy to excercise an objective journalism on European issues. Listen to the interviews below to get to know more. Read the rest of this entry »

What is Europe for you?

People at the EYMD describing Europe in one word

Learning French

OK, I’m learning this lesson again and again, and again. Being in Belgium without speaking French isn’t the best option. So before coming to EYMD this year I tried to learn some basic phrases. Even that for me was a big challenge.

Thanks god, my collegue sleeping next to my bed, showed me a video. Learn French in 2:30 minutes.

Chicken at the check-in,

Mantas

Europe Arrives in Brussels

200 young journalists from all the 27 EU member states take part in the European Youth Media Days 2008. At the check-in, we had a chance to talk to some of them and wanted to know why they came to participate in the event.

eymd/seb [a:voxpop1]

Open (Air) Wifi

If you want to enter the internet in the European Parliament, at first sight you feel lucky: There is a strong wireless signal in nearly the entire building. But then you want to send the e-mail you’ve written, you want to be up-to-date by surfing the news sites on the web – and you suddenly realize that the wifi is protected by a pasword (that can be used only once). To get this unique password is not that easy. You don’t know who to ask, where to go, what to do. Is there no alternative to staying offline? Luckily, there is a solution. Read the rest of this entry »

Belgian fries are nice

Hungry in Brussels? If you like to have a snack in the EU capital you can order everything – but dont’t try to order “French fries”. As the Belgians claim to have invented the fried potato sticks, they do not like you using the wrong name. Just call them “frites”. The Belgians also believe that their fries are the best in the world. Of course, it is not easy to prove that, but it is likely to be true.
Read the rest of this entry »