2025 was a remarkable and at times challenging year for our project work. We celebrated many major milestones, with the launch of several new projects, a focus on youth, innovation, and helping strengthen local media, among many other achievements. Here are some of our project highlights:
As part of the YOU(th) CARE or Change project, MDIG organised a panel discussion, “Beyond the Framing: Deconstructing Gender Stereotypes in Media”, in November with Sabine Panet, editor-in-chief of Axelle Magazine, and writer and editor Shahed Ezaydi. The speakers explored the importance of intersectionality in storytelling, the power of media narratives in shaping social norms and the responsibility of journalists to challenge rather than reinforce stereotypes.
In Serbia and Belgium, 5 projects were sub-granted, running for a maximum of 12 months. They include providing safe LGBTQI+ spaces, strengthening the diversity of student representation, and running workshops to create safe spaces that empower students and teachers to co-create inclusive school environments through youth-led, participatory education in empathy.
MDI WB organised a No Pride in Genocide film screening in Belgrade in August, bringing together queer artists from Palestine, the diaspora, and around the world, emphasising the interconnectedness of struggles for justice, linking the fight against occupation with the fight against homophobia, transphobia, racism, misogyny, and exploitation, and creating a space for solidarity.
In September, MDI WB organised, together with the Independent Journalists’ Association of Serbia and the Journalists’ Association of Serbia, a solidarity action outside the Government of the Republic of Serbia, reading aloud the names of journalists killed in Gaza to highlight support for Gazan colleagues and call for international media to be granted access to Gaza.
As student-led protests developed into a year-long nationwide movement for justice and accountability in Serbia, MDI WB held a panel discussion “On the Frontlines of the Movement: Student Organising and the Deconstruction of Misogyny in the Media”. The event brought together students and professors to share experiences from student-led movements and participatory civic engagement, with the panel also addressing media misogyny and specific forms of (media) violence targeting young women.
The final conference for the Youth in Western Balkans – A Virtual Postcard project titled “Youth building bridges: Media literacy, solidarity and intercultural dialogue in the Western Balkans” was held in October in Belgrade in cooperation with YOU(th) CARE, featuring panel discussions on MIL as a tool of intercultural dialogue in a time of protests and navigating intersectional identities.
