Just got this:

“Cafebabel.com, first european media in seven languages [300 000 visitors unical and one million of pages viewed each months] is changing. We are about to launch a new project, called ‘Babel Reporters’, which consists in ‘generational’ features focused mainly on Eastern Europe.

The concept is to increase the quality of our editorial offer, while sustaining the economic viability of cafebabel.com. Once realised, the reportages should be sold to a wide range of national media. Of course, cafebabel.com supports the travel costs and participants will be retributed for their coverage.

Since we want to create a team of professionals ‘euro-reporters’, we are looking for young but experienced journalists and photographers. The applicants should have a first significative experience in journalism (ideally having previously worked as free lance), have good contacts in local medias, speak english or french fluently and being curious and autonomous.

Please send asap your CV and application letter at Prune Antoine via redaction@cafebabel.com.”

Just received the information that young journalists from all over Europe have the possibility to take part in the “European Young Journalist Award on EU Enlargement issues“, which has been officially launched in Brussels on november 15th. The title is: “Enlarge your visionâ€?.

The organiser is the European Commission, Directorate-General for Enlargement, in cooperation with the European Youth Press association. The objective of the competition is to encourage young journalists to reflect on and express their views on the European Union’s enlargement policy.

During its 50 year history, the European Union has grown from originally 6 member states to 27. With a population of close to 500 million inhabitants, today’s Union is much stronger and more influential than with its 6 member states and a population of less than 200 million. Enlargement is one of the EU’s most powerful policy tools. The pull of the EU has helped to transform Central and Eastern Europe into modern, well-functioning democracies. More recently it has inspired farreaching reforms in the candidate and potential candidate countries (Croatia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Turkey, as well as Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia and Kosovo under UN Security Council Resolution 1244). All European citizens benefit from having neighbours that are stable democracies and prosperous market economies. Enlargement is a carefully managed process which helps the transformation of the countries involved, extending peace, stability, prosperity, democracy, human rights and the rule of law across Europe.

Young European citizens in particular are taking advantage of this community of diverse values and cultures, as it is getting easier for them to travel and learn other languages through EU exchange programs. In the long run, they are the ones who will benefit most from EU enlargement. By formulating their ideas of the future Europe, young journalists are important opinion-leaders for their generation. In the framework of the competition, participants are asked to submit a recently published article (publication date between January 2007 and March 15, 2008). On the special competition website (www.EUjournalist-award.eu ) they can find articles on the EU enlargement, written by their colleagues, as inspiration for their journalistic work. Entries for the competition can be written in one of the official EU languages or one of the languages of the candidate and potential candidate countries.

At the end of the competition each participating country will select a national winner and all 35 winners will undertake a 3 day trip through Western Balkan countries together. In addressing the young competitors, EU Commissioner for Enlargement Olli Rehn said: “I welcome the launch of this competition and look forward to learning more about the views of young journalists on the enlargement policy. They are important opinion-leaders for their generation. I would like to invite them to share their experiences and visions of our common European future. Their ideas will further nourish the debates that will determine the shape of our continent.�

National juries made up of media representatives will select the winning article from each country in April 2008 and the articles will be published on the competition website. All the 35 winners will be invited on a trip through Western Balkan countries and will have the opportunity to participate in a conference with media representatives from various countries in June 2008. “Winners will not only be awarded but also get the chance of exchanging with experienced colleagues and media professionals. With this award we foster a network of young journalists between EU countries, candidate and potential candidate countries�, underlined Anna Siitam, spokes-woman for European Youth Press as the umbrella organisation of 48.000 young journalists in Europe.

For information on how to enter the competition, please visit www.EUjournalist-award.eu

“Reports that say that something hasn’t happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns – the ones we don’t know we don’t know.”

Donald Rumsfeld

I have to say, that even though I might possess the ability to get easily fascinated by nice and creative things, I was nearly left without words by Rumsfeld’s upper quote which somebody has choosen to present on his Facebook profil. And I was absolutely astonished when I just discovered an article in the Slate Magazine from the year 2003, named “The Poetry of D.H. Rumsfeld – Recent Works by the Secretary of Defense“, where several quotes have been uncovered as what they are: Serious pieces of art.

In America as well as in England recently two new ideas have been developed to organize the work in pr even more efficient.

The British are testing a system which allows important representatives from politics and economics to be on a group photo without any need to get physicial contact or even be at the same place at the same time like the group. A first test of this system acomplished by the english secretary of culture James Purnell wasn`t very much successful though.

Screen Shot from the article in the Telegraph, which is linked above.

The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA, thought that press conferences would be so much more harmoncial and as well faster when they would be done without any single journalist. Having workers to ask the questions also gives the possibility to prepair much nicer answers. You don`t think so? Well:

I just have found this excellent clip on YouTube. May seem to be a little kitschy or overdone to some people, but in fact it contains quite a lot of wisdom.