CNE.news aims to connect Christians across EuropeThe new web portal CNE.news (Christian Network Europe) offers English news for and about Christians on the European continent, from this week on. The independent channel is based in the newsroom of Erdee Media Groep, the Dutch Protestant daily newspaper.
CNE.news aims to connect Christians across the European continent. “They share the same values but do not know each other’s stories very well,” says chief editor Evert van Vlastuin. “Reliable information helps people to get a fuller view of each other.” At the same time, CNE.news will sometimes reveal where European Christians differ.
In addition, CNE.news will try to help non-believers in understanding what Christians motivates. In this regard, Evert van Vlastuin cites the friction between eastern and western member states of the European Union. “In Western Europe, there is a tendency towards further secularisation. In the east of the EU, there sometimes seems to be a movement in the opposite direction. This is partly due to the role of Christianity in society. Reliable information can help us understand each other better and thus prevent East and West from growing apart. We’d like to contribute to that cohesion.”
For CNE.news, good journalism is the most important tool to provide that contribution. The wide range of topics chosen by CNE.news reflects that conviction; from the LGBT debate in Hungary to the pastoral care in flooded parts of Germany, and from the right to circumcision in Denmark to the role of ethics in the ongoing coalition talks in the Netherlands.
The content on CNE.news includes:
Christian news portal for European continent
News and background information from all regions of Europe
Personal columns from Christians in various countries
In-depth videos in English or with English subtitles
CNE hopes that the content will support a better understanding of Christian values in European society.
Continent
The new portal deliberately will not be focusing on the English-speaking countries, but on continental Europe. “There’s an information gap that we are keen to fill,” says Van Vlastuin. “If something is going on in an English-speaking country that is important to Christians, news of that usually travels quickly around the world. Comparable news from other language areas takes much longer to spread. Our task is to bring these developments to the concerned reader as timely as possible. Besides, there are already good comparable news sites for English-speaking countries.”
CNE.news welcomes cooperation with other Christian media in Europe. “Again, we know of each other’s existence, but we do little together. It would be excellent if CNE.news could help reinforce contact between us all.”
CNE currently has a core editorial team of three. All of them are employed by Erdee Media Groep, the publisher of the Protestant daily Reformatorisch Dagblad (RD). However, CNE.news is editorially independent. “RD is written for the Dutch market,” says Van Vlastuin. “For an international audience, the emphasis is different. Of course, we will also be using RD articles and giving them a broader platform in English. But we also have our own newsgathering. So, we are building a network of columnists from various countries who will be writing original material for us in English.”
Rare privilege
CNE.news is a joint initiative of Erdee Media Groep and the international software company Talenting Group. “Through their international contacts, people at Talenting saw that Christian journalism in Europe is a rare privilege,” says Van Vlastuin. “The new technologies that are available afford opportunities to spread such reporting more widely.”
Web: CNE.news
