People
Human Sources
Development Commissioner Andris Piebalgs spokesperson Catherine Ray.
~Thomas Pickelner.
Amadeu Altafaj,spkesman for Olli Rehn
Jaume Duch, spokesman in the EP
Jesus Carmona,spokesman for Van Rompuy.
~Carlos Encinas
Organizations and Locations
Council: Press room for proposals.
Commission: Press releases.
FT
Eurobserver
Agence Europe
NGO’s reports
Human Right Watch
Greenpeace
International Crisis Group
~Carlos Encinas
The Commission, press officers, embassies.
• Member states have different policies considering who you should and can call first. If you want to get in contact with the Finnish ambassador you can call directly to him. But if you would like to get a comment from the French ambassador you have to call the press officer first and they will decided who you are going to talk to.
Associations, lobbyists, and companies
• There is a lobbyist or a consultant for everything! Usually you do not have to get in contact with them, they will call you. ”Try to remember that no mater what anyone tells you in Brussels, they have their own interests.”
Your colleagues
• By talking to the people you work with you might get ideas. Many things are linked together and different journalist have different sources.
~Annica Lindstrom
Useful links
Parliament: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/es/pressroom/
~Carlos Encinas
Source One – http://europa.eu/press_room/index_en.htm – Has a daily press conference for Journalists where you can have face to face conversations with commission spokespeople. Mainly things in the press conferences dictate the news of the day. Very important.
New Direction – The foundation for European Reform
Source Two – http://www.eubusiness.com/ – Simply an automatic wire that collects EU stories that are released by the wires etc. Easy to use/convenient as it sieves out all the European stories from other news agencies such as Reuters and AP.
Source Three – www.ft.com – A British newspaper, The Financial Times. Highly recommend to subscribe to this, small fee but it tends to dominate the economic stories of the day.
~Liam Gascoigne
This is a free-market, euro-realist think-tank established in 2010 in Brussels and the UK affiliated to the Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists (AECR). If you subscribe to their daily newsletter, you get summaries of today’s headlines along with the agenda of and news from the European Parliament, Council and Commission.
CEPS – Centre for European Policy Studies
Think-tank which covers a wide range of policy fields. Founded in Brussels in 1983.
Independent and non-doctrinal Brussels-based think-tank working in the field of international economics.
~Richard Byfält, analyst in Brussels, erosceptic think-tank Open Europe
~Axel Kronholm
Advice from Working Journalists:
Jens Möller gives his advice on covering Brussels. By Evelina Berstrom
Margot Perrier summarizes useful sources in Brussels. By Enora Regnier
Herman Stam gives practical tips for finding sources. By Tim Hersevoort
Outi Alapekkala, journalist at Euractiv knows the importance of networking:
“It is important that you introduce yourself and chat with people after press conferences for example. Then the person can see your face in front of him/her when you call them and ask them about more information. You really need to be proactive.”
~Annica Lindstrom
Emily von Sydow (freelance journalist from Sweden, obtained by Thomas Pickelner)
“I have a lot anonymous sources such as diplomats and civil servants. Other sources are specialised think tanks. My main theme is to look after sources in the opposite camp. Bryssels is made out of conflicts, use them.”
Andreas Liljeheden (freelance from Sweden, obtained by Thomas Pickelner)
“I use different sources all the time but I have few that I use more often.
I am writing about development for the Swedish magazine “The outside world”. And then I am often in contact with Development Commissioner Andris Piebalgs spokesperson Catherine Ray.
“Since I am freelance I have to sell all my articles and in Sweden it is easier to sell if there is an EU-critical angle, then Open Europe, a British and fairly eurosceptic think-tank is useful.
“Another source that is intresting is Corporate Europe Observatory. They are identifying lobbyists operating in Brussels. I mostly contact them because it is an interesting topic, but I’ve used them for a few jobs too.”
Johan Corthouts (EU correspondent, Belgium. Obtained by Anneke Hermans)
“You can’t be everywhere as a journalist, so sometimes you just have to trust your colleagues from foreign newspapers or other foreign media.”
“An own network is sometimes the most important thing. You have to build that carefully. A European Network can consist of parliamentarians, politicians, professors, specialists,… One of the most import network members according to me are trade unions/ labor unions such as the European Trade Union Confederation (http://www.etuc.org/).”
Former Brussels correspondent Charlotte Harder gives three steps for obtaining sources, gathered by Jesper Lassen:
- The use of agencies homepages, press officers and combining this with the working calendar with meetings ect.
- Keeping informed thru news agencies and newspapers
- All of the above together with personal sources
*Apart from this she also finds Commissions press briefing and hearing in the parliament use full for idea development.
- Pastor Elvis Iruh is the Editor-in-Chief of The Voice magazine in the Netherlands.( www.thevoicenewsmagazine.com) The first Africa magazine in the Netherlands. And also a correspondent in Brussels. He gets his source from press briefing in Brussels. And press relaxes.
- As a registered Brussels correspondent he get press relax everyday. And use the ones he feels is important to the Africa community in Europe. And if it’s an important issues he contacts protocol to book for interview and get more information.
- Welcome to The Voice News Magazine
www.thevoicenewsmagazine.com
~Agatha Akhabue