Κατηγορία: Forum

On the 24th and 25th of November I was invited to cover and attend the 4th European Youth Forum for Road Safety in Brussels under the auspices of the European Union in the building Charlemagne, Room Jean Durieux. In the center of the discussion were the political guidelines and actions for road safety during the decade 2011 – 2020. The new EU policy orientations on road safety aimed at reducing road deaths on Europe’s roads by 50% by 2020. In 2009 only on European roads, 35.000 people were killed and 1.700.000 was injured. The numbers are shocking. The forum began with the Director of the European Program for the Youth Forum, Mr. Axel Druart (of the Organization Responsible Young Drivers) who outlined the contents of the procedures. The head of the European Commission of Road Safety DG Move, Mrs. Isabelle Kardacz, talked about what happened and what should be adopted for the next decade, referring to the 7 strategic objectives set out by the EU for the Road Safety, which are:

– Improve education and training of road users
– Increase enforcement of road rules
– Safer road infrastructure
– Safer vehicles
– Promote the use of modern technology to increase road safety
– Improve emergency services and post-injuries services
– Protect vulnerable road users

The statistics presented by Mrs. Maria Teresa Sanz Villegas, referred to the large decrease of 40% over the last decade, an impressive reduction of traffic in Latvia and also to the increase in victims who are under 15 years old. Still, Romania and Greece are on first places on the sad statistics with more deaths. (περισσότερα…)

Talking to journalists

Goodmorning

Thank you for the invitation

First I would like to show you a 3 minute video of a documentary i made three years ago.

I was invited to this forum in order to talk to you about the way someone should approach a journalist and explain a problem to him. That is, how to approach me!

In general, it’s not difficult at all to approach a journalist. Journalists are very approachable. The problem is that they have loads of things in their minds, and also the fact that they have editors and chiefs, who filter continuously, for many reasons, the information coming to them.

So, although it is very easy to talk to journalists, at the same time it is very difficult το grab their attention.

I remember, some months ago, in Washington, at the NGO’s Conference for The Decade of Action, press coverage was practically absent. The only journalist there was… me and my camera. A CNN’ journalist had promised that she would be there but she wasn’t because of the earthquake in Japan.

So, I will begin by telling you a story. (περισσότερα…)