WCSJ2019, Lausanne (Switzerland) – Science journalists and all those who care for the quality and independence of the media coverage of topics related to science, health, environment and innovation have now a new “one-stop shop”, thanks to the launch of the new European Federation for Science Journalism, EFSJ (www.efsj.eu).
The new Federation held its first official meeting in Lausanne, during the very successful 11th World Conference of Science Journalists, WCSJ2019, which was jointly organized by three of the seven EFSJ founding members: SASJ (from Switzerland), AJSPI (France) and SWIM (Italy).
WCSJ2019 (www.wscj2019.eu) attracted more than 1250 registered delegates from 83 countries.
The presidents of all the seven founding associations – from France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Russian Federation, Switzerland and the UK – met during a lively general assembly open to all conference delegates, to elect the first governing board and to agree on the first steps for the new federation.
Arian Bastani (SASJ, Switzerland), Anita Makri (ABSW, UK), Yves Sciama (AJSPI, France), Senne Starckx (VWN, The Netherlands), Mićo Tatalović (ABSW, UK), and Fabio Turone (SWIM, Italy), were elected onto the board; Olga Dobrovidova (AKSON, Russian Federation) was elected vice-president, and Krijn Soeteman (VWN, The Netherlands) was elected president.
The board will be meeting in the next few weeks to start working on championing quality and independent science journalism throughout Europe.
About the European Federation for Science Journalism
EFSJ is a non-profit organisation that aims to promote independent, high-quality science journalism across Europe.
More specifically, it aims to support and stimulate journalists to critically examine, challenge and assess scientific information in a social, cultural, political, ethical and economic context; to develop and support new business models for independent science journalism; and to stimulate debate about the role of science journalism and science communication.
It will do this through a variety of activities, such as organising meetings and conferences, setting-up cross-border investigative reporting grants, and running awards.
Anyone willing to know more, or interested in contributing, is invited to have a look at the website www.efsj.eu, FB page (https://www.facebook.com/groups/eurosciencejournalism/) and Twitter account (https://twitter.com/eurofsj).
