BARBARA KUŽNIK
Media & Communications
Born in the mid-seventies in Trbovlje, in that time very industrial town in Slovenia. Studied at the University of Ljubljana (Sociology and Journalism).
The first international experience came after high school at LORA, local radio in Zurich, a training course of alternative radio journalism. Later on, I worked as a moderator, journalist and an editor for the National Radio Slovenia – Val 202.
In 2005 moved to Berlin, spent a year as a fellow at the Freie Universität (EJF - Europäische Journalisten Fellowships at the Institut für Publizistik und Kommunikationswissenschaft) and...fall in love with the city. I tested my communications skills as a journalist, reporter, guide, translator and as a project manager and editor at
In the past years I have worked as a freelance media consultant, press trips coordinator, and project manager in Brussels, mostly with the European Journalism Centre (EJC).
From 2017 to 2019 part of the REMINDER project, EU research around migration across the EU, led by the University of Oxford. In the role of EJC's project manager in research on media practices. (See published papers here).
In cooperation with the EJC and the Google News Initiative, I was also working on 2018 series of the News Impact Summits and Academies, international media innovation events and workshops.
In 2019 collaboration with OECD in their project
Communicating on Migrant Integration.
'The close-up, a human element of migration reporting'.
I support DG NEAR's (European Commission) communication activities to raise awareness about EU enlargement and neighbourhood policies as the key media expert for the communication agency Ecorys.
In my current role at the Council of European Municipalities and Regions CEMR, I work as a Communication Officer for IncluCities, a 3-year EU funded project for better integration of third-country nationals through city-to-city cooperation in small and middle-sized cities.
I am interested in issues concerning sustainable development, migrations, equal opportunities and human rights. But most of all, I closely follow all challenges around the future of independent, innovative and ethical journalism. Also, always keeping an eye on media freedom and democracy issues, with particular focus on Central Eastern Europe and the Balkans.
I love my mother language - Slovenian, I am however also fluent in English, German, Serbo - Croat and have an advanced level of French.
