Strengthening EU Delegations’ Protection of Journalists in Latin America – M4D Launches Technical Assistance with Meetings in Brussels

Brussels, 5 – 7 February 2020 – Media4Democracy has launched a package of technical assistance for EU Delegations to strengthen the safety and security of journalists in Latin America, a region where journalists and other media actors are under extreme threat in many countries.

To prepare for a sequence of assistance to be delivered during 2020 to the EU Delegations to Brazil, Colombia and Mexico, the Media4Democracy core team and two Latin American experts (Paula Martins and Jose Luis Benitez) met for three days in Brussels in early February to review process, develop tools and plan activities. Technical assistance will be customised to the unique context of each country and tailored to meet the priorities and objectives of individual EU Delegations. It will include country-specific assessments and field work to generate targeted recommendations for action; activities to engage media and civil society; EU Delegation capacity building and support to strategic action planning. All relevant activities will be open to EU Member States.

While in Brussels, the Media4Democray team met with representatives of EEAS and UNESCO to discuss the priority issues in these countries and the areas where enhanced EU Delegation efforts can have significant impact and to review the situation in Brazil, where the experts will undertake the first round of work. The team also met with DEVCO B1 to discuss the significance of this work in line with the mandate of the EU Human Rights Guidelines on Freedom of Expression Online and Offline (the Guidelines), among other things.