SUBSCRIPTION

No 55, Vol I 

Inertia or Neglect of Pact Spirit?!

There has been a lot of controversial assessment of whether the Stability Pact will be a serious step towards real stabilization of southeast Europe or yet another big parade held in the middle of last year in Sarajevo. A donor conference held in Brussels on March 28-29 brought a little more optimism. Donor countries pledged 2.4 billion EURO for projects carrying the flashy name – quick start! The next conference is due in late May in Florence in an attempt to provide funds for medium- and long-term projects.

Media attracted quite a lot of donor interest. The participants of the Donors conference particularly encouraged the adoption of the Media Charter by the countries of South East Europe. Media are expected to be a generator of democratic changes, building of civil society, tolerance and spreading of trust. Dozens of different media projects arrived in the Pact’s administration in Brussels. With regards to Bosnia-Herzegovina, neither the Bosnian state, nor any international organization representing the Stability Pact’s interests, ensured transparency of criteria and procedures for nominating projects. That is why some initiatives did not even reach Brussels, while some were lost on their way or in its administration. It seems that best informed were some large western organizations, which through their powerful lobbies have traditionally been receiving large donor funds for their engagement in crisis areas and underdeveloped parts of the world.

There is no doubt that our colleagues from highly developed western countries with their production experience and know-how transfer have made a big contribution to media professionalism in Bosnia-Herzegovina and other countries in transition. Still, experience shows that this know-how transfer has not always been fruitful or equal to the money invested. Many education projects were implemented hastily, a lot of money was invested in a lot of media without previously researching their quality and who views, listens or reads them. Along with prominent world experts, under the cover of know-how, very average, and even incompetent teachers have marched, from whom local people here could learn nothing. Trust in local experts and newly-formed local organizations dealing with media has been little. Local journalists believe that some of these carriers of media professionalism spend half of a received donation before even arriving in the country that the donation is intended for. When we add to all this the speculative behavior of some local donation beneficiaries, there is enough reason at the end of a big donor round for media in this part of Europe, which has lasted, depending on the country, for a full ten years, to ask the question – what next?

The Stability Pact had a chance to establish a new strategy. Certain preliminary guidelines in this strategy indicated changes. First, the very spirit of the Pact – cooperation and communication on a regional level – pointed to a more functional and economical approach to the development of the media environment. Instead of procurement of expensive equipment, which accumulated over the past years, more emphasis will be put on existing resources and rent. Doubling of campaigns will be avoided. A dynamic method of achieving quick results in a short time was chosen – quick start! As much as this method may seem efficient from a tactical point of view, one must take into account some negative experiences resulting from a similar method applied in the Bosnian case. Hasty, insufficiently prepared and sometimes improvised media campaigns on the eve of the first, and even the second Bosnian elections, did not yield the desired effects.

Media transition is a long-term process, which is why the Stability Pact must answer the key question: how to provide long-term stable transfer of know-how and support to the development of free and professional media in southeast Europe.

Although we still do not have complete information on how media fared at the Brussels donor conference (especially because the conference was closed to journalists), what catches the eye are the criteria used by the Stability Pact’s media coordinator in proposing quick start priorities. Four lines of quick engagement were correctly noted: production, training, monitoring, and cooperation. Unfortunately, those who made the proposals did not consult enough (or at all) with local media professionals, institutes and experts. Perhaps governments were consulted in some countries, but without the non-governmental sector, which is now carrying the democratic and professional development of media, this task cannot be done well. Another criterion, which in our opinion is not in the spirit of the Pact, is preference to projects proposed by large western organizations from London, Brussels, Paris, Strasbourg, Cologne, Duesseldorf, etc., which usually appear as implementers in all companies from highly developed countries in the underdeveloped world. Most of these projects do not contain a sufficiently developed dimension of cooperation with local partners.

According to information available on the Internet site: http://www.stabilitypact.org/, 13 urgent projects worth 12,404,000 EURO were proposed to donors. The BBC is offering to open a European Center for Broadcast Journalism in Podgorica and Albanian Language Schools. European Center for Common Ground has applied with a project of media cooperation among Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Montenegro, Kosovo and Serbia. The Council of Europe will implement a project on media regulation, and the OSCE will organize a conference on the contribution of media in conflict prevention. London-based IWPR requested financial support for a media development and strategy program in southeast Europe. World Association of Newspapers wants to form a network of management training and support to professional organizations. OBN Sarajevo is planning to establish a regional TV network, and the OSCE will coordinate development of Radio Kosovo. AMARC – European Organization of Local Radio Stations wants to establish cooperation among local stations in the region. Among existing news networks, urgent financial support has been requested for the SENSE and AIM agencies. CIRCOM has asked for support for a project to develop the television public sector.

With all due respect for the capabilities of these organizations, it is unclear how the Pact’s administration failed to recognize the values and advantages of a number of projects nominated for the Pact by local associated media organizations from the region, which have deeply entered the quick start stage! It seems to us that those who made the proposals followed inertia or a logic that existed five or ten years ago – that in countries in transition or war-torn countries, everything should start from scratch. No matter how critically we view what has been achieved in the media environment in the past years, our western friends must be aware that now in the region they have a lot of good media and capable institutions which, with quality know-how from abroad, have themselves been carrying out capital projects. The meaning of the Stability Pact, after all, is to encourage local initiative and local responsibility. (Z. Udovicic)

¨Media Cooperation in Southeast Europe

Media Pool – Communication for Professional Journalism Established

Eleven representatives of media institutes and news agencies from southeast Europe signed in Sarajevo on March 23 an agreement to create a Media Pool for Free and Independent Journalism in Southeast Europe. The goal of the pool is to stimulate free circulation of information, exchange of initiatives, ideas and experiences, and to enable mutual familiarization and understanding among media organizations in the region.

The cooperation agreement was signed by representatives of Sarajevo-based Media Plan, Institute for Media Law from Ljubljana, Institute for Sociological, Political and Legal Research from Skopje, International Center for Education of Journalists from Opatija, Center for Development of Media from Podgorica, Media Center from Belgrade, and Albanian Media Institute from Tirana, as well as the news agencies BETA (Belgrade), SAFAX (Sarajevo), MONTENA FAX (Podgorica), and STINA (Split). The pool is open to other media organizations which have the same goals

¨Serbia

The Media – Upleasant Witnesses

(Written for Media News by Vladan Radosavljevic, Editor-in-Chief of

Media Center Belgrade)

Despite an almost 10-year-old agonizing experience that free media in Serbia have acquired with different forms of oppression applied by the regime in an attempt to suffocate them, ban them, close and silence them, there is no doubt that the current anti-media campaign, by its dynamics and intensity, by far surpasses all other periods. In only several days, the Serbian authorities seized the transmitters of two local TV stations – Pirot and Kraljevo televisions, banned the work of a number of small TV stations, collected huge amounts of money as frequency usage compensation, and prevented an increase in the prices of highest-circulation independent papers along with increasing the prices of newsprint and printing services. Intensive interference with Belgrade Studio B TV signal has continued, and only a few days ago, in a high-handed night attack, five people in police uniform, which the Ministry of the Interior later claimed were not its men, entered by a trick the premises holding this TV station’s transmitter, beat up two watchmen and made huge damage to emission equipment. During all this time the infamous Serbian Law on Information, conceived in such a way that a huge amount of money can be taken from any media organization at any moment, is hanging over the fate of independent journalism. Meanwhile, almost everyday threats made by the most important people of the state, primarily the ministers of information and telecommunications, herald even fiercer showdowns yet to come, whose outcome may easily be a Serbia without independent press, radio and television, occupied in terms of media by political party newsletters such as the paper Politika or RTS.

What are the reasons for such a heavy showdown with free and professional press?

¨Law on Freedom of Information

Opening the Windows of Government Bodies

In Bosnia-Herzegovina there is a declarative right contained in the entity constitutions that media shall be free, and that access to information shall be free. However, these general provisions are far from being able to improve the situation in practice. Journalists in Bosnia-Herzegovina know best how difficult it is, without personal acquaintances among people in power, to get relevant information.

¨News

Free Media Essential

A roundtable on the topic “Media and Democracy and Media Abuse of Democracy,” organized by the Youth Communication Center in cooperation with Berlin’s Aspen Institute, was held in Banja Luka on March 20.

Participants, most of them from various media organizations, particularly emphasized the negative role of media in the former Yugoslavia. The majority maintained that media are still dependent on political parties in power and the international community. An OSCE representative, Pierce McCorly, said it is very important for the two entities of Bosnia-Herzegovina to pass a law on freedom of information in order to establish bigger government responsibility towards those who elect it. Alun Roberts, a UN representative, described the situation in media in Bosnia-Herzegovina as “sad,” and added that the international community has made a mistake by investing in media without coordination.

Competition for Enrolment in Journalism School Third Generation of Students

A competition has been announced for enrolment of the third generation of Media Plan’s School of Journalism. A total of 22 students – young journalists from Bosnia-Herzegovina and other countries of southeast Europe – will be admitted. Classes start on September 18, 2000 and end on May 31, 2001. To get more information and to apply, go to Internet site: http://www.mediaplan.ba