The flagship activity of Arena for Journalism in Europe is arranging Dataharvest – the European Investigative Journalism Conference.
Today, it is two months and two days until the conference is set to open. Right now, more and more countries in Europe are introducing measures to limit the spread of the coronavirus. We are following the situation closely, we have a particular focus on the recent decisions by the Belgian health authorities, but we also follow travel advice and other measures by health authorities in other parts of Europe. We are in close contact with our venue, the Thomas More School in Mechelen, and their corona team.
Postponing or cancelling a conference like the Dataharvest with hundreds of guests is a big decision. We know that many journalists are looking forward to catching up with colleagues and to the training and presentations provided. But we do not under any circumstance want to endanger our participants or the communities, that our participants are part of. Fighting a pandemic entails that each of us shows uttermost care.
During a board meeting yesterday, we decided to wait a few weeks and watch the developments very closely. We have also decided that we will make our final decision before Easter on whether we’ll carry out Dataharvest – the European Investigative Journalism Conference in May 2020 or not.
We will keep you posted as soon as we know more.
Stay safe and healthy!
Warm regards
Brigitte Alfter, Nils Hanson and the Arena board and team.
