How to Bridge Divides in Small Local Communities? Some Lessons We Learned at Átlátszó Erdély

Why should we care about who is responsible for a back country road built on a huge landslip? Is it newsworthy that the mayor of a village of 1,000 inhabitants “forgot” to mention in his wealth declaration that he had hundreds of thousands of euros in revenue from EU-subsidized land, cheaply rented from the local council? Who is interested in the two women from a 500-people village who aspired to become local councilors, but couldn’t because the male majority rigged the pre-election to make their running impossible?

"Investigating hyperlocal topics that affect everyone in a community is a good way to overcome biases and leave deep divisions behind" writes journalist Zoltán Sipos, from Átlatsó Erdély, for the CMDS Blog.