Option A – EAST (Eastern Europeans, including exile media)
A typical Brussels “maison de maître” (townhouse), close to the EU area, is becoming available. It already hosted two Ukrainian refugees, and previously several young English-French Europeans. After some renovation it could be transformed into a residence hosting in co-living/co-working style:
- Up to six young media professionals, ‘résident fellows’, selected to stay 6 months and develop a media-related project (editorial or research or entrepreneurial)
- and workshops / evenings / garden parties
Open Question: should this residence be used to:
- Help, on top of existing programmes, media from Eastern Europe, e.g. Ukrainian, Belarus (exile), Russian (exile)? Eg boosting the number of Brussels correspondents at low cost.
Or:
Host beneficiaries of Stars4media-CHANNEL? (France & UK)
Or:
First East (until after the war) and then FR/UK?
Enquiries welcome: fondateur@europemedialab.eu
Option B – CHANNEL (FR & UK)
What role for the media in light of the Brexit experience? How can cross – Channel relations be improved? Europe’s MediaLab believes that France could play an essential role, given the special history of that bilateral relationship. Can France learn from British experiences with Disinformation?
The recent Macron-Sunak Summit confirms that there is interest in mending relations between London and Paris, in terms of diplomacy, security, economy, energy, etc. But what about the media landscapes?
Hence, Europe’s MediaLab is now considering Stars4media-CHANNEL, to help young media professionals carry out projects about Franco-British relations, or contributing to their respective fights against disinformation.
This would be centred on neutral ground, a “Résidence des médias” in Brussels:
- Resident fellows would live there for 6 months and have editorial and creative freedom to explore and deepen their work.
- Non-resident fellows, also travelling “in the other country” would frequently come to Brussels, to exchange and network with other fellows.
- Close cooperation with the Franco-British Council esp. with the Franco-British young Leaders programme in the sector of journalists.
Enquiries welcome: fondateur@europemedialab.eu
And to the co-initiator Sharon Leclercq-Spooner (Sharon@Leclercq.eu ), a British Public Affairs expert and NGO leader.