The Centre for Media Studies provides support to journalists from Belarus
As of September 2020, the Centre for Media Studies at SSE Riga has been providing emergency support for journalists from Belarus who have suffered injury while reporting during the presidential elections and protests.
By mid-November 11 journalists had taken part in an intensive rehabilitation programme, with 7 taking time to recover in a safe location and 64 receiving psychological support.
In November, Sabine Sile-Eglite (the first on the left in the photo above), who is the Director of the Centre for Media Studies at SSE Riga, met with the Belarusian politician, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, at a reception hosted by Zanda Kalnina-Lukasevica, the Parliamentary Secretary of the Latvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who thanked SSE Riga for the support provided to Belarus journalists, the educational programmes delivered to both Bachelor students, media managers and investigative journalists over the years, as well as thanking NGO Martas Center and the Latvian Platform for Development Cooperation for support to other victims of the protests.
Zanda Kalnina-Lukasevica presented the Director of the Centre for Media Studies at SSE Riga with a compilation of essays in the book 'One hundred years of Latvian Diplomacy: the First Century of the Latvian Foreign Service' written by current and former diplomats. The essays explore the work of Latvian diplomacy over the past century including main lines of work, aspects of international relations and interesting moments from diplomats’ lives.