Preliminary Agenda

DAY 1

8:00AM Registration & Coffee 

9:00AM Defining Objectives of Aegean Summit 2016

  • Spyros Ladeas, Director, Aegean Summit

 What is the role of independent media?

9:20AM Moderator: Ayman Mhanna (GFMD Brussels)

  • Access to information and fundamental freedoms and involvement of media organizations in this process

9:30AM Yavuz Baydar (Platform24 Istanbul)

  • Independent media: pluralism, ownership, freedom of expression

9:40AM Thodoris Georgakopoulos (Dianeosis Athens)

  • Philanthropy as a business model and media as a public good

9:50AM Ibrahim Nehme (Outpost Magazine Beirut)

  • Indie media as laboratories of social activism

10:00AM-10:45AM Panel discussion and Q&A from participants

10:45AM Networking Coffee Break

Examples of progressive media narratives & audience development strategies

11:15AM Moderator Lina Attalah(Mada Masr Cairo)

  • Editorial production as a site for progressive discourse between afflicting narratives and mediation for wider outreach
  • Audience building for sustainability and to engage other communities outside of our conventional readership

11:25AM Doa Ali (7iber Amman)

  • Audience building through editorial choices: Bringing the focus back to the story.

11:35AM Nick Malkoutzis (Macropolis Athens)

  • Confronting the editorial narratives of speculation and inaccuracy
  • How media narratives develop and evolve

11:45AM-12:45PM Panel Discussion, Examples and Q&A from participants

12:45PM LUNCH BREAK

What are new sustainable business models, funding models and how do we monetize?

2:00PM Teun Gautier (The Cooperation Amsterdam)

2:35PM Maha ElNabawi (Mada Masr Cairo)

  • Revenue generation within knowledge based media economy of journalism

3:05-3:50PM Moderator: Michael Irving Jensen (International Media Support Copenhagen)

  • Panel Discussion and Q&A from participants
  • Sustainability and surviving in a fragmented and challenging financial & political media landscape

3:50PM Networking Coffee Break

The evolution of the career of the freelance journalist

4:20PM Marta Ottaviani (La Stampa Milan)

  • Challenges and bureaucracy as a freelancer: in home country and experiences as Greece & Turkey correspondent

4:30PM Laura Silvia Battaglia (Frontline Freelancer Register Milan)

  • Establishing independent freelancer network in MENA region and improving production standards
  • Local knowledge vs parachute journalists; addressing safety, training; instability not being a full-time team

4:40PM Iason Athanasiadis (freelancer Istanbul)

  • Career evolution of the freelancer: traditional & new media and experiences in MENA region

4:50PM-5:30PM Panel Discussion Q&A from participants

5:30PM Conclusions and Summaries from Day 1 from Moderators & Crowd-Sourcing Reports

 

DAY 2

8:15AM Morning Coffee 

8:50AM Intro to Day 2

How do we create cross-border & cross-platform collaborations?

9:00AM Moderator: Enrico De Angelis (Syria Untold Cairo)

  • Different approaches to collaboration: content, guest contributors, link-sharing, translations to native-language; overcoming the isolation of indie media in local markets

9:10AM Hamoud Almahmoud(Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism Amman)

  • Having the right partners that can decipher local context of local data

9:20AM Alireza Jozi (TechRasa Tehran)

  • Media as a platform to connect and facilitate cross-border entrepreneurship and innovation

9:30AM Sotiris Sideris (Athens Live Greece)

  • Video and social media and building a community

9:40AM-10:45PM Panel Discussion and Q&A from participants

10:45AM Networking Coffee Break

 Migration is Europe’s moment of truth & the challenge for journalism

11:15AM Preethi Nallu (www.refugeesdeeply.org Beirut)

  • Collaborative vs. Competitive – New Approaches to Journalism
  • Nurturing long term partnerships with journalists and media outlets
  • Crowd-sourcing expertise from the pool of academics, humanitarian agencies and policy makers working on migration.
  • Finding new ways of telling the story, while creating “relatability” and forming links between migration trends.

11:35AM Moderator – Discussion: Chris Elliott (Ethical Journalism Network & The Guardian London)

  •  Migration is Europe’s moment of truth & the challenge for journalism
  • Politically driven-agendas, media literacy, sensationalism, missed opportunities, falling standards, hate speech, self-regulation of indie media

11:45AM-12:45PM Panel Discussion and Q&A from participants

12:45PM LUNCH BREAK

 Diverse editorial narratives through filmmaking & video

2:00PM Gelareh Kiazand (filmmaker Tehran)

  • How to address the careful balance of story-telling through fiction and documentaries without influencing the authenticity of story and characters

2:15PM Valantis Stamelos (filmmaker Izmir)

  • Sharing stories in English to international audiences as a cultural bridge to those exploring the depth of perspectives in the region

2:30-3:00PM Discussion and Q&A

3:00PM Networking Coffee Break

 3:30-4:30PM Summaries & Conclusions from Moderators & Crowd-Sourcing Reports:

  • What are the main takeaways and outputs from each conference session
  • Next steps for creating an annual meeting point between Europe & MENA for independent media & journalists
  • How will we enact and create on-going new synergies, processes and collaborations between journalists and indie media from Europe & MENA?