Documentary Flowers for Europe on Slovak national TV

The Slovak documentary Kvety pre Európy (Flowers for Europe) co-produced by the Slovak NGDO Platform and the Slovak national TV - RTVS was broadcast by RTVS on the second channel of Slovak national television STV 2 on November 8, 2017 at 9 pm.

The RTVS premiere was announced in a special journalistic magazine On Air

(10:34 - 14:52) that is not only about news in the broadcasting of RTVS on November 4, 2017.

The documentary shows global fair and unfair interconnections and interrelations between North and South by bringing stories from two regions in Kenya. One takes part in Turkana where Slovak organisations implement their development projects aimed at improving the water management and the mitigation of climate change, the second in the lake Naivasha region where the most of roses for Europe market are grown without respects to the environment, decent work nor human rights.

The documentary was directed by Adam Hanuljak from the civic association DocDogs.

Photo: DocDogs

Photo: DocDogs

 

Media outputs from Afghanistan

Tomáš Vasilko, a Slovak journalist and reporter working for one of the largest Slovak dailies Dennik N, Tomáš Vasilko who participated in the joint media trip to Afghanistan in July 2017 organized by the project partner BAAG prepared a long reportage from the trip named Reportáž z najchudobnejšieho kúta Ázie,odkiaľ utekajú ľudia, a čo s tým robí Západ (Reportage from the poorest corner of Asia, a place from where people run away and what the West does about that).

Photo: Joel van Houdt

During the trip, he met Jana Jakubíková from Slovakia, who has been living in Afghanistan for more than six years where she is helping Afghan women, and published an interview Cestu do Afganistanu som rodičom zatajila (I concealed my trip to Afghanistan from my parents) with her.   

Premiere of documentary Flowers for Europe

“Slovakia in the heart of Europe, Kenya in the Eastern corner of Africa - two geographically distant countries. Few decades ago we could say that they have nothing in common. In the meantime, however, the globalisation created denser net of mutual relations and connections all around the world. Slovakia and Kenya are not exceptions. The question is which of these two countries benefits and which one looses from this relationship? The documentary Kvety pre Európu (Flowers for Europe) investigates the influence of rich global North on developing global South by bringing stories from two Kenyan regions.”

This short text is an annotation to the documentary which the Slovak NGDO Platform has co-produced with the Slovak national TV thanks to the project Media4development.

First time it was publicly presented at the international film festival Jeden svet (One World) in one of the most popular culture spaces in Bratislava - KC Dunaj on October 10, 2017. 

After the documentary premiere, a public debate Afrika medzi riadkami (Africa between the Lines) was held, attended by Adam Hanuljak, the documentary director, Peter Ivanič, the project media coordinator, Tomáš Lindner, a journalist specialized on Africa. The discussion on how to display Africa in media without prejudices and stereotypes was facilitated by Lukáš Zorád, an ecologist that spent in Kenya 6 years as a manager of developing projects.

Winners of competition 2017 Decent Life for All

Best photos:

1st place: Maroš Matoušek, Nádej menom Emmaculate (Hope named Emmaculate), Kenya 2017

2nd place: Veronika Rendeková, Kráľ Benguely (King of Benguela), Angola 2017

3rd place: Katarína Líšková, Leo (Leo), Cuba 2017

Best articles/stories:

1st place: Lukáš Onderčanin, Rwandské ženy genocída nezlomila. Spája ich káva (Genocide did not break Rwandan women. They are connected by coffee), Rwanda, 2017

2nd place: Stanislava Harkotová, Mosulský denník (Diary from Mosul), Iraq 2017

3rd place: Matúš Krčmárik, Vychovávali zo mňa stroj na vraždenie a takmer uspeli, spomína dvanásťročný chlapec (They were bringing me up to become a killing machine. They almost managed to), Iraq 2016

The ceremonial announcement of the results and the awarding the prizes took place at the travelling festival Cestou necestou on Friday, November 10, 2017. Visitors of the festival could see the best 11 photos and read all 3 best stories/articles from Friday to Sunday, November 12.

Phillip Jakpor: Journalists bear potential to change the world

At the end of September 2017 we had a chance to host a brilliant guest here in Slovakia, whom we could invite thanks to our Finnish partner organisation VIKES. The Nigerian environmental journalist and activist Phillip Jakpor paid his visit to Central Europe, accompanied by the Media4Development project coordinator from Finland, Riikka Seppala. They attended two events the Slovak NGDO Platform organised for both, pre-service and in-service journalists.

At first, our guests visited Department of journalism at the Comenius University in Bratislava where Phillip presented his story of an investigative environmental journalist in the global South country, the story of environmental challenges being uncovered in spite of the interests of powerful people and groups in his country. Phillip was able, thanks to his rhetoric, to catch attention of at least 50 - 60 future journalists and their teachers. Students used opportunity to ask him questions and were interested in what was his most valuable investigative story or if Nigerian women work as journalists.

The next day we organised event dedicated especially to professional journalists who already work in various newspapers and media outlets here in Slovakia. Phillip met them, not only to present his story again, but also to do some networking and discuss professional issues while having rich Slovak breakfast with fine fair trade coffee.