Karen Donders Wins The Media and Democracy Karol Jakubowicz Award

“Public Service Media and the Law: Theory and Practice in Europe” – a recent book by Karen Donders has been granted The Media and Democracy Karol Jakubowicz Award!

^{Photo 1. Donders K. (2021). Public Service Media and the Law: Theory and Practice in Europe. London and New York: Routledge.}

The Award Committee notes that a book by Karen Donders raises the importance of a healthy public service media (PSM) in the times of illiberal turns, fake news and government propaganda. Karen Donders has gone a long way in investigating a mismatch between normative media theories with the practice in Western and Eastern Europe, also looking at media policy behaviours and related PSM culture. An in-depth examination of case studies from Flanders, Ireland, the Netherlands, Poland and the United Kingdom produces a set of recommendations for human rights-based media policies – something of potential value to scholars, policy-makers and public service media.

Zrzut

_{Photo 2. Professor Karen Donders. S}_{ource: vrt.be}

Professor Karen Donders is Director of Public Engagement at Vlaamse Radio- en Televisieomroeporganisatie (VRT) – public service media in Flanders. Prior to joining VRT she worked as a full professor at Vrije University Brussel, Belgium. Her previous publications include monographs, edited collections and scholarly papers on the European media policy and innovation in public service media.

The Media and Democracy Karol Jakubowicz Award recognises novel methodologies and societal impact of scholarly publications in media systems, media policies, media ethics, and public service media; Central and Eastern Europe, and beyond. A full list of this year’s nominees can be found here https://cejc.ptks.pl/Blog/The-Media-and-Democracy-Karol-Jakubowicz-Award-2021-Nominees

^{Michał Glowacki and Dagmara Sidyk}