Media event on the EU's Eastern Partnership in Helsinki

As part of the programme of Finland's Presidency of the Council of the EU, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the European Commission will co-organise a media event Stronger Together – Eastern Partnership Media Conference in Helsinki on 11–12 December. The aim of the event is to support the EU's Eastern Partnership (EaP) policy and to promote reforms, civil society activities and resilience of societies in the partner countries.

The event will be attended by journalists, bloggers and young opinion leaders from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine, Belarus and Finland. During the event, the participants will learn about each other's media landscapes and share best practices. One of the key themes is challenges that the independent media encounter in today’s communications environment. The Foreign Ministry prepared the event in collaboration with students of a Degree Programme in Journalism at Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences. Other partners at the event include Finland’s main newspaper Helsinki Sanomat and Yle, a major Finnish public service media company.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto  will speak at the event. Other speakers will include Kaius Niemi, Editor-in-Chief of Helsinki Sanomat, Yevhen Fedchenko, a well-known fact-checking expert, Anne Moilanen, Editor-in-Chief of MustRead, a digital publication, and Freja Wedenborg, an expert in digital security from Denmark. The event will be presented by Yle reporters Helmina Suhonen and Robert Sundman.