Meetings for Europe

25 April 2016, Tirana – IDMC organized a meeting today with journalism students, entitled "Meetings for Europe". As part of the series of meetings for the "Dialogue of the Generations" project, it aimed to enhance the culture of reflecting about the past and finding ways how to raise awareness for its acknowledgment in young people through an interdisciplinary approach. The guest, Dr. Lindita Arapi, a reporter for Deutsche Welle, shared her experience with the students.

Executive director of IDMC, Dr. Jonila Godole, opened the meeting and highlighted the role of the foreign correspondents in "translating" international crises. Dr. Arapi gave concrete examples of reporting crises at Deutsche Welle. Firstly, she focused on the emigrant crisis and the role of Germany in the issue, as one of the main players in the European Union. Despite the Albanian case, the interest of the students went further to the role of the German-Turkish relations in handling the issue.

The students showed particular interest for a reportage about the German experience of dealing with the past. They learned how dictatorships are born and survive, as well as Germany's experience on opening secret police files, which reminded them that Albania is many years behind in this regard. The students had the chance to watch two other short news stories from DW, where the differences in the ways the Albanian media reported were noticed. According to the students, DW's stories were informative, briefer and articulated in a clearer language. These helped them understand the message in a shorter time.

At the end of the discussion, the students expressed a wish for Albania to go on the right path with regard to creating an authority for opening the communist era files and taking the German experience as a point of reference. Overall, the meeting was seen by students as a lesson on reflection.

About the Guest

• Lindita Arapi, born 30 June 1972, is an Albanian writer and journalist. She is cited as a great example of a generation of female Albanian writers. She has been living in Germany since the late '90s, and has published several poetry books. Her first book, "Am Meer, nachts" ("By the sea, at night", 2007) was the first book of poetry written by a female Albanian poet in German. Her first novel, "Vajzat me çelës në qafë" ("Girls with Keys Around Their Necks", 2010), translated into German in 2012, was awarded the Book of the Year prize in Albania.