PRIME – Anti-Discrimination Training for Media and Equality

Background: Discrimination is not a rare phenomenon either in Europe or in Slovenia: its existence is confirmed by numerous reports and research outcome. Awareness of the European Commission on the danger that that fundamental principles of the European Union (free movement of capital, goods, services and labor) will not be implemented if equal treatment is not ensured, brought to the adoption of two directives (2000/43/EC and 2000/78/EC). The directives prohibit discrimination on the grounds of race and ethnicity, religion and belief, age, disability and sexual orientation. The adoption of the directives 76/207/EGS, 79/7/EGS in 86/613/EGS ensuring equal treatment of men and women took place even earlier in the European integration process. The directives were transposed in the Slovenian domestic legislation with the Act on Equal Opportunities of Women and Men and the Act Implementing the Principle of Equal Treatment, and partly with the Employment Relations Act. The new legislation amended that existing legislation in the field of anti-discrimination and created a new area of law, which, however, cannot develop if the society has no knowledge of it.

Project Goals: The goals of the PRIME project are to offer anti-discrimination training to journalists and editors, raise awareness of the journalists and the media on anti-discrimination, to enhance the inclusion of the topic of anti-discrimination as well as to encourage public debate on equality and equal rights for all, regardless of their personal characteristics.

Target group: While training in this field has already been offered to other groups (judges, prosecutors, lawyers, NGOs etc.) they have not been offered to the media; that is why the media have been selected as the target group of this project. Besides, journalists as individuals and as members of their professional group are not the people with whom the acquired information and knowledge would reach their final goal and would not be used in practice. Namely, the journalists function as multipliers since they are persons who due to the nature of their work can have an immense impact on public opinion and the knowledge of the public on specific issues.

Project leader: Neža Kogovšek Šalamon
Project coworkers: Brankica Petković, Mojca Frelih, Lana Zdravković, Saša Panić, Živa Humer and Roman Kuhar