The British Council project Politics & Media has been designed to stimulate debates about the role that media and politicians can play in strengthening democratic dialogue.

The projects aim is to address growing mistrust between politicians, media and citizens and to examine the influence of political spin vs political reporting on citizens’ perceptions of politics in six participating countries (UK, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Greece, Montenegro, Croatia, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan).

Project activities will include debates and events in participating countries as well as online Politics & Media blog.

The Belgrade debate Communication Breakdown: Politicians, political reporting and public trust will open a series of debates on Tuesday 20 February, 0930-16.00. It will gather together representatives from all six countries, a group of some forty people who will focus on the following topics:

• Who’s responsible for the breakdown of trust?
• Identifying the sources of distrust: what is the proper role of politicians and journalists in ensuring quality of  political reporting?
• Free speech versus hate speech : responsibility in politics and political reporting – Opening speech by Rt Hon Charles Clarke and a respondent from Belgrade

If you want to find out more about discussion topics and conclusion on the debate, please visit the special tailored page about Belgrade debate.

Wednesday 21 February is booked for a discussion with students at the Faculty of Political Sciences.

The full list of participants from all six countries will be confirmed soon but we can now confirm three participants from the UK:

• Rt Hon Charles Clarke MP
• John Lloyd
• Polly Billington

The third in the series of debates will take place in Sarajevo, 18-20 June and the last one in London in September/October this year.

Finally, the participants’ contributions (analysis, essays) will be compiled and published in the form of a reader which will be distributed to the academic and professional community in participating countries.

Politics & Media Blog
www.politics-media.blogspot.com

The blog will cover the project activities that include debates and events in participating countries as well as the additional articles and views. Visitors can add their comments and share their views with the rest of the Politics & Media online community.

We are keen to encourage lively and informed discussion on the blog but at the same time think that some comments may require a closer level of editorial oversight. Every submitted comment will be checked by a moderator before it is published on the blog.