About the network

Reporting Diversity Network 2.0 – RDN 2.0 is established with the objective to effectively influence media representation of ethnicity, religion and gender in the Western Balkans.

The network aims to:

activate the role of civil society in countering the narratives of the divide and replacing them with much needed positive discourse contributing to the value of good neighbouring relations and respect for social diversity;

empower a regional network of CSOs to work together with the aim to influence the quality of media messages affecting perceptions of ethnicity, religion and gender (and other diversity categories) as pressing thematic areas relevant for overall levels of understanding and tolerance in the Western Balkans;

provide tools, resources and much needed evidence for the civil society and citizens to work towards increasing their influence in building a more inclusive media, and effective policy making in areas promoting tolerance both nationally and regionally;

promote more responsible public speech by debunking stereotypical, discriminatory and hateful discourses;

increase resilience within each WB country to prevalent historical divides; diminishing ethnic distances; reducing discrimination and thus improving neighbourly relations.

Key activities:

Media Monitoring:  Monitoring of traditional and new media to uncover hate speech and divisive discourses folowing media monitoring methodology;

Publicise Complaints: When monitoring efforts detect hate speech and discriminatory discourses in the media, the partners expose and counter them using the most appropriate mechanisms, such as articles and blog posts, letters and meetings with editors, reports to social media platforms;

Social Media Campaign: A project-dedicated website and social media platforms will be developed to promote project outputs and initiate debate over hateful narratives in the media. We will use diverse formats, from memes, cartoons to educative videos. See more at Get involved;

Reporting Diversity Training of Trainers: A group of Network representatives as well as additional number of CSO and media representatives interested and/or experienced in the topic, will be selected in order to attend a training workshop aimed at equipping them for individual provision of training and mentoring in the field of representation of diversity;

Sub-granting: Supporting overall 30 projects across the region by providing programme and financial support;

National and regional conferences aiming at advocacy and initiating discussion over this topic with key stakeholders.