What's On

Editor-in-charge/ Agata Jaskot / redakcja@cafebabel.com

10 cities, 10 special city editions of feature reports, 10 local debates: We're continuing our series of monthly reporting missions to a different city in our Europe-wide network, this year with a special focus on multiculturalism in Europe.

Step 1: what’s it about

WHAT IS IT: In 2011 we launch our monthly editorial series - ‘MULTIKULTI on the ground’ - which aims to raise consciousness on the issue of multiculturalism and variety of cultures in Europe.

TO DO WHAT: Valorising local, young projects, ideas, stories, initiatives and angles that have emerged from multicultural preoccupations. Be ‘on the ground’ and make us feel you’ve been hanging out and working in Seville. Be rather “gonzo” than “institutional”. Spend time with locals, describe what you saw/ felt/ learned from them. Be critical, ‘MULTIKULTI’ isn’t an ideology for cafebabel.com!

Step 2: recruiting you

WANTED: We need three journalists (written or video) and one photographer to join this mission - writing on aforesaid offbeat, MULTIKULTI-related topics with the support of our local host team. You'll also attend a local debate held by the cafebabel.com local team in Seville so we can make some noise whilst we are in town.

Step 3: you on MULTIKULTI on the ground

LOGISTICS: Book your own flights/ trains to Seville: up to 250 Eurosis reimbursed by cafebabel.com upon return from the trip. Other travel and food expenses are reimbursed for up to 25 Euros every day. The team is hosted by the warm locals in Seville or a hostel.

EDITORIAL: The editors and the team in Seville (read the http://sevilla.cafebabel.com/en/) will help and assist you define your angle/ article before the trip. BUT: it’s up to you to do research before leaving for the project, to find interesting interviewees and ideas “on the ground”. The written piece is due in strictly one week later, when the relevant linguistic editor from the central Paris office will edit your piece, which will be translated by our volunteer networks, and then published in six languages within the following month.

Step 4: Apply !

- with your CV, three-line MULTIKULTI article proposals, link with the news and crisis of multiculturalism in Europe, ideas of interviewees... We look forward to eating them up!

Contact: Agata Jaskot/ redakcja@cafebabel.com

After a successful Orient Express Reporter (OER) pilot project in 2010 - 2011, cafebabel.com is proud to kick off spring 2012 with part II of one of our flagship projects of the year. We are sending five journalist-photographer teams ‘on the ground’ across eight of the EU countries, the Balkans and Turkey.

The team includes one of the Paris-based magazine's six linguistic editors and a photojournalist from the cafebabel.com citizen media network. Talking about what everyone talks about – and more. It’s Turkey’s accession to the EU, or visa-free travel for Bosnia. Yet it is also football fans in Istanbul, or local street heroes in Skopje. 2010 - 2011’s OER launched from the compromise that there was too much high-level jabber of 'prospects', 'politics' and 'EU membership’. We explored what the Balkan and Turkey region actually meant for young Europeans.

© Ezequiel Scagnetti for Orient Express Reporter, Pristina, February 2011

The 2012 edition of the project goes one step further: what does it mean for our Balkan colleagues to explore the issues in the EU member states? We want to continue breaking through stereotypes in our stories...

WITH YOU

Demystify south-eastern Europe via a series of written or photographed features from a young, pan-European-Balkan, citizen journalist perspective. Talk to the people; uncover the issues which might just show us that maybe EU citizens should be trying to join the Balkans, not vice versa. Let us see what young Balkan citizens actually make of EU life and policies by experiencing it first-hand. The mission runs with a monthly online publication of special editions of your investigations and photo reports.

© Simon Chang for Orient Express Reporter, Podgorica, December 2010

The programme ends with a bang with a ‘Journalist Award’ ceremony in Strasbourg, eastern France, in September 2012, featuring participants as guests, as well as a presentation of the best of the year's reports.

WHERE

From February, we're swinging the pendulum between eight capitals:

Belgrade, Serbia (mid-May 2012)

Zagreb, Croatia

Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina (July 2012)

Istanbul, Turkey

© Boris Svartzman for Orient Express Reporter, Sarajevo, November 2010

Rome, Italy

Berlin, Germany (October 2012)

Brussels, Belgium

Budapest, Hungary (April 2012)

WHEN

Monthly from February to October 2012

© Damien Rayuela for Orient Express Reporter, Belgrade, January 2011

WHO

Each group will be composed of five journalists resident in the European Union, the Balkans and Turkey

HOW

cafebabel.com editors recruit four other journalists/ photographers before assisting each individual on defining the angles of their articles. Applications are only accepted on your initiative to do the necessary research before leaving for the project – this includes latest statistics, interviewees and material for atmosphere of the article. You need to already present the editor with a brief for each country you will visit. The written pieces are due in strictly one week after the mission ends, when the relevant linguistic editor from Paris HQ will edit your article and send it off for translation.

Bosnian and Spanish journalists for Orient Express Reporter, Tirana, May 2011 © Sladjana Perkovic

For each report, your travel and per diem expenses will be reimbursed up to 250 euros for local expenses and 350 euros for the travel to the report destination and back home.

It’s your proposals that will get you noticed for this mission: so be creative, do some research before applying, flog your idea donkeys to us at editors@cafebabel.com. Do not waste time emailing cafebabel.com without these elements: your email will not be considered.

Look forward to hearing from you!

This project is co-funded by the European Union

Dear cafebabel.com collaborators,

Congratulations to you all!!

On 12 December we won third prize for the Intercultural Innovation Awards in Doha, Qatar on the occasion of the fourth United Nations Alliance of Civilizations Forum.

This prize was given by Princess Rym Ali of Jordan to cafebabel.com for our outstanding contribution to Intercultural journalism with our annual series of Europe on the ground projects, which some of you have participated in as writers, translators and local team members.

The award-winners with Ban Ki-moon, Secretary General of the United Nations in Doha, Qatar

A 5000$ grant will be rewarded by the BMW group and the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations along with a one-year follow up in for our project.

This is worldwide recognition for cafebabel.com and the outstanding work we are all doing - whether it is thanks to you as volunteers across Europe or the team of professionals in Paris.

The award-winners with Jorge Sampaio, former president of Portugal and High Representative for the Alliance of Civilization and Konstanze Carreras, Head of Corporate Social Responsibility of BMW Group

Congratulations again to all of you! We are doing a great job and this kind of award proves that we deserve it.

From Doha with love,

Alexandre Heully Délégué général - Executive director

by panel speaker Sebastien Vannier

To coincide with its third birthday, the Macedonia/ FYROM* based platform Mladiinfo organised a conference about online copyright laws between 4-5 November. Representatives from the organisation first met cafebabel.com when five journalists from Germany, Poland, Montenegro, Albania and France were in Skopje this summer for the final instalment of the European magazine’s Orient Express Reporter project. (Read the special edition).

Pictured, Sebastien Vannier is a French journalist who is based in Berlin and is a part of the official cafebabel.com Berlin ‘babelblog’, which is run by the team of volunteers in the German capital

Mladiinfo invited a member from the cafebabel.com network to speak on a panel concerning European medias during the ‘Young Journalists and Protection of Authors’ Rights Online’ conference. As the country but also the subject interested me, I was the candidate representing cafebabel.com.

The conference was a follow-up to a seminar for young journalists from the Balkans. The first day - when I was still flying from Berlin to Skopje via Budapest – was consecrated to the legislative aspect of the rights of the authors. The second day was about showing examples and sharing the opinions of young bloggers and internet users. On the first panel, Amsterdam-based Marc Fonseca Rendeiro of citizenreporter.org and Jakub Gornicki from the international community platform Global Voices discussed very interesting themes such as the conflicting (or not) relationships between new and traditional medias, the importance of a blogger’s reputation and remunerating online journalists.

Pictured, Senka Korac of cafebabel.com Belgrade with contributor Milena Stosic (R)

cafebabel.com and Bulgaria’s europa.dvenvnik.bg were the two ‘example’ sites presented on the second panel. How to motivate young journalists to work online? What are a writer’s advantages – let’s say visibility, and being part of a network? What rules have to be followed? What’s hard about working and writing in an eternal ‘pan-European’ context? All in all, Mladiinfo did a great job at organising a good event. There was time to see the capital, run through the grand bazaar and learn about the pitfalls in the history of a country which seems passionate.

*or FYROM, Former Yugoslav Republic Of Macedonia

(Images courtesy of © Phil Lampron for Mladiinfo)

MULTIKULTI on the ground - write for us from Vilnius – 8th December-11th December 2011

Editor-in-charge/ Cristina Cartes / redaccion@cafebabel.com

10 cities, 10 special city editions of feature reports, 10 local debates: We're continuing our series of monthly reporting missions to a different city in our Europe-wide network, this year with a special focus on multiculturalism in Europe. 8th December-11th December 2011: VILNIUS, LITHUANIA

Step 1: what’s it about

WHAT IS IT: In 2011 we launch our monthly editorial series - ‘MULTIKULTI on the ground’ - which aims to raise consciousness on the issue of multiculturalism and variety of cultures in Europe.

TO DO WHAT: Valorising local, young projects, ideas, stories, initiatives and angles that have emerged from multicultural preoccupations. Be ‘on the ground’ and make us feel you’ve been hanging out and working in Vilnius. Spend time with locals, describe what you saw/ felt/ learned from them. Be critical, ‘MULTIKULTI’ isn’t an ideology for cafebabel.com!

Step 2: recruiting you

WANTED: We need three journalists (written or video) and one photographer to join this mission - writing on aforesaid offbeat, MULTIKULTI-related topics with the support of our local host team. You'll also attend a local debate held by them in Vilnius (´Leisure culture in Vilnius: friendly or adverse to multiculturalism?`) so we can make some noise whilst we are in town.

It’s your proposals that will get you noticed for this mission: so be creative, do some research before applying, flog your idea donkeys to me.

__Step 3: you on MULTIKULTI on the ground __ LOGISTICS: Book your own flights/ trains to Vilnius: up to 250 Euros is reimbursed by cafebabel.com upon return from the trip. Other travel and food expenses are reimbursed for up to 25 Euros every day. The team is hosted by the warm locals in Vilnius or a hostel. Important: Look for flights to Kaunas in addition to Vilnius. Ryanair flies there and the shuttle to Vilnius costs 10 euros.

EDITORIAL: The editors and the team in Vilnius (read the cityblog http://vilnius.cafebabel.com/en/) will help and assist you define your angle/ article before the trip. BUT: it’s up to you to do research before leaving for the project, to find interesting interviewees and ideas “on the ground”. The written piece is due in strictly one week later, when the relevant linguistic editor from the central Paris office will edit your piece, which will be translated by our volunteer networks, and then published in six languages within the following month.

Step 4: Apply !

- with your CV, three-line MULTIKULTI article proposals, link with the news and crisis of multiculturalism in Europe, ideas of interviewees... We look forward to eating them up!

Contact: Cristina Cartes/ redaccion...