The event was attended by some 30 journalists from Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Romania, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Germany, Denmark, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland and Croatia.
The print media contribute to the preservation of language, successfully transferring it to newer generations, Slezakova said opening the event. MIDAS has an important role in that process and Croatia is an important agent, she added.
Italian Consul General in Rijeka Renato Cianfarani said the pillars for preserving a minority community in a society were schools and the print media in its language. He said Croatia and Slovenia had good laws on the protection of national minority rights.
Croatian member of the European Parliament Ivan Jakovcic said the Croatian northern Adriatic peninsula of Istria could serve as an example to all of Europe of how to exercise minority rights.
He mentioned constitutional provisions enabling the equal use of a minority language, along Croatian, in areas where there were many members of a minority. He said the incumbent Croatian government did not discriminate against any national minority.
Primorje-Gorski Kotar County official Erik Fabijanic said it was important to recognise minorities as values which brought wealth. He said more funds should be earmarked for a greater exercise of minority rights but that this was difficult in the highly centralised Croatia.
Tonight, Inoslav Besker will receive the Otto Von Habsburg Award for outstanding commitment to reporting on minority rights and cultural diversity in the context of European integration.