By The Croatian Journalists’ Union (SNH) presented its project “Zagorka Connects”, a mentoring support network for young women journalists, aimed at creating a lasting community of trust and knowledge exchange.
The conference was attended by Irena Burzan Pejanović, a representative of the Trade Union of Media of Montenegro (TUMM).
According to SNH, the goal is to inspire, empower, and sometimes simply listen to their colleagues, whether they are facing the challenges of their first newsroom job or seeking freelance support after losing their jobs.
All mentors in the program will be recipients of Croatia’s highest journalism award, named after Marija Jurić Zagorka, while participants will have the opportunity to learn in cooperation with one of the UK’s largest organizations, Women in Journalism UK, through whose mentoring program 100 women journalists at different stages of their careers pass each year.
President of the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), Maja Sever, said at the conference that there is no real interest in newsrooms for systemic mentoring in journalism, “nor awareness of how fortunate we are that such smart, brave, and dedicated young women even want to do this job.”
“I think that we mentors learned and gained much more from our young colleagues at this gathering than we expected. They reminded us why we entered this profession in the first place, what it means, and how important it is not to give up on its fundamental values,” Sever said.
Special emphasis was placed on the importance of systemic mentoring, trust, and support for young women journalists, in order to enable their professional development and equal standing in newsrooms.
