On 10-11 May 2011, representatives of twenty Supreme Audit Institutions from all around Europe gathered in Warsaw to discuss how communication between the SAIs, the media and the public opinion could be improved. A two-day seminar was meant to present both experience of Public Relations Officers of SAIs and that of representatives of the media.
Jacek Jezierski, President of the NIK, opened the Seminar with emphasising the importance of cooperation between Supreme Audit Institutions and the media. While Piotr Czarnowski, an expert in public relations, discussed relations between PR services and journalists. He stressed that good communication with representatives of the media contributes to the efficiency of PR services, and partnership is the best way to make their collaboration effective.
At the end of the first day of the Seminar, Martin Winter, Press Officer of the SAI of Germany, Barry Lester, Head of Media of the UK NAO and Natalia Axenova, Lead Councillor of the SAI of Russian Federation presented the information policy of their institutions and discussed practical aspects of their cooperation with the media.
On the second day of the Seminar, representatives of the media presented their experience in collaborating with media officers of public institutions. Anna Marszałek, a press journalist, Paweł Płuska, a TV reporter and Krzysztof Zasada, a radio reporter presented their practice in the field, which proved to be very similar and could be concluded with a description of an ideal media officer that journalists would like to cooperate with. Such a media officer should be easily available, well-informed and should understand the nuances of information transmitted via the media.
After the discussion with journalists, the representatives of Supreme Audit Institutions presented their national experience again. Paweł Biedziak, Media Officer of the NIK, Marta Fernández - Pirla Martínez, Director of Institutional Relations of the SAI of Spain and Orijana Jakimauskiene, Director of Communication Department of the SAI of Lithuania discussed the specifics of information policy and collaboration with the media in their countries.
While summarising the Seminar, President of the NIK Jacek Jezierski said that, despite several differences in the ways SAIs communicate with the society, they all have the same goal: to provide the public opinion with reliable information on the results of their audits. They do it in order to serve the democratic system, in which it is one of the society’s basic rights to have free access to information. To conclude, President Jezierski emphasised that SAIs’ freedom to present information on the results of their audits is a sign of their independence. That is why it is essential for each SAI to be free to decide on the timing, way and content of the information they present to the public opinion.
