Slovenian President hosts leading Euro-Mediterranean journalists and media experts

Ljubljana, 11.3.2008  |  press release

The President of the Republic of Slovenia, Dr Danilo Türk, today met participants at the international meeting ‘Euromed and the Media: Task Force’ convened under the auspices of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership. The meeting is being attended by leading journalists and media experts from 39 Member States of the Partnership. At the meeting, they have discussed issues of the freedom of the media, European relations with neighbouring countries and intercultural dialogue; participants were also informed about the initiative to establish a Euro-Mediterranean University with a seat in Slovenia.

The President of the Republic of Slovenia, Dr Danilo Türk, spoke about the importance of freedom of speech, which he said was fundamental to democracy and underpinned all other freedoms. He went on to say that freedom of speech also conferred a certain level of responsibility. He emphasised that, alongside freedom of speech, we also had to think about intercultural relations and intercultural dialogue where a rather innovative approach was needed. The President explained that innovation was important because nowadays prejudice spreads quickly and so combating prejudice had to be just as swift. The President wished the participants every success in their work, producing good results which would lead to further reflection.