The Media Education Centre (MEC) for children and youth is a nonpolitical, nonprofit, nonsectarian NGO. Youth from different socio cultural backgrounds work together to produce film, animation, television and other media to advance Communication, Intercultural Dialogue, and Voluntarism. Their work promotes the nonformal education of children, youth, disabled people, migrants, refugees and other vulnerable groups. Media education and literacy help to ensure human and children’s rights: to information, democracy, self-expression and preservation of cultural, national and religious diversity.
The Mission of the Media Education Centre is to promote role of the Young People in the transition to sustainable ways of living and a global society founded on a shared ethical framework that includes respect and care for the community of life, ecological integrity, universal human rights, respect for diversity, economic justice, democracy, and a culture of peace.
The Media Education Centre is the headquarters for the International Youth Media Summit, Media Laboratory and Balkan PLUS! We are a member of or partner with the United Nations Alliance for Civilization, CICT/IFTC-UNESCO (Council International for Film, TV and Audio Video Communication of UNESCO), International Clearinghouse on Children, Youth and Media, Media4ME Network, EAVI-European Association for Viewers Interests, ECFA (European Children’s Film Association), United Nations Plural PLUS Film Festival, Platform for Intercultural Europe and other international organizations. Their precious support has enabled us to follow international trends associated with media literacy for children and youth and non formal education through multimedia. By working on projects involving children and youth from all over the world, we have, in turn, contributed towards improving global communication and cooperation.
Main part of the Media Education Centre is Media Laboratory, place and space for children, young people and all other people interested to learn about media, film, animation, TV, radio, ICT and Multimedia. Media Laboratory was oppened on March 2006 with support of the Danish Film Institute, Austrian Federal Ministry of Culture, European Cultural Foundation from The Netherlands and Italian Association Abaton. We are working all over the year six days weekly in six departments: short FILM, ANIMATION, TV, RADIO, ICT and Multimedia. Students of the ML are youngsters 12 to 25 and at the moment we have 13 of our members University students of the Film Academy in Belgrade or other film schools in Europe.
