Dear PBI Colleagues, This year we will meet in Sinaia, the historic town near Bucharest, at the kind invitation of Radio Romania. In our 26-year history, this is the first time we are holding our conference in Southeast Europe. The media landscape changes rapidly. At the two-day meeting, we will cover topics that may be essential to your survival as a broadcaster, while reaffirming the values that should be embraced as public service media. PBI offers you a rare opportunity to meet someone who is struggling to overcome problems similar to those you have encountered. This is an important reason for continuing our annual gathering. It is like passing the torch of public service spirit from one member to another, from the present to the future of our industry. Let us not miss the chance to see friends old and new.

Global public broadcasting community feels it has a great responsibility in eradicating the fake news phenomenon with which we are confronting nowadays. From the breaking news era, launched nearly two decades ago, we can state that mass-media has recently entered the era of fake news. The newspapers, the magazines, radio and television and more recently the Internet -through social networks like Facebook and search engines like Google - have become tools used for influencing, directing and controlling the public opinion, also playing a significant role in promoting populism. Let’s take advantage of this opportunity of this year’s PBI conference to share experience and ideas about how best deal with this challenge by having fruitful debates.
Welcome to Romania, welcome to Sinaia!