|
Media News Media News is a fifteen-day service which speaks about the media situation in Bosnia-Herzegovina, the most important media events, media legislation, relations between the media and the state and international community… D I G E S T No 59, Vol I Sarajevo, May 29,
2000.
* Monitoring The monitoring included only the so-called classical commentaries which were most frequently published in the regular Commentaries. Any other newspaper articles carrying partly the features of analysis, comments and feuilletons were not monitored. During the monitoring period the total of 45 commentaries were published in the five daily newspapers. “Oslobodjenje” newspaper leads with the total of 20 commentaries, which makes an average of 2 per issue. A commentary, as a journalistic genre, at least during the reviewing period, was least fostered by “Vecernje Novine” (3 commentaries) and “Dnevne Nezavisne Novine” (only 2). A number of conclusions may be drawn. Firstly, the overriding interest of all monitored newspapers is politics. Of 45 commentaries, 31 dealt with politics. Economy, as an important segment of the public interest, was covered by only one commentary. The social welfare policy issues in which we included the returns, without any noticeable political connotations, did not attract a significant attention – only five texts treated this area. This is a proof that newspaper commentaries continue to bear evidence to the fact that any political event is the be-all and end-all of the overall social life and of the media as well. The orientation of the contents shows that the newspapers are nearly identically orientated towards their own entity (12), and towards the other entity (16). In the end, when we come to the characteristics of the contents of the commentaries, the conclusion is that the commentaries have above all a negative tendency on the part of the journalists (33). A positive trend on the part of the journalists was noticed on nine occasions only, while a synergy attitude – positive and negative – was maintained on three occasions only. In these cases, the tendency means the substance of the commentary. * Ombudspersons Unequal Treatment of the Obligations on the Part of the Media and State The Ombudspersons of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Vera
Jovanovic, Esad Muhibic and Branka Raguz, published a report on 16 May
2000, on the freedom of the media provided for in the legislation applicable
in the BiH Federation Cantons. The Dayton Constitution of BiH and even
earlier, the Washington Agreement on the establishment of the BiH Federation,
devolved the issue of the media to the canton level within the Federation.
The Report draws the reader’s attention primarily to the laws which set
an obligation for the media to be licensed by the Cantonal Ministries of
Education, which, under the opinion of the ombudspersons, creates the room
for political pressures on the media.
* Repression against the Media Are the Serbian Media Threatened by a Classical Censorship?
The media darkness in Serbia is becoming ever darker, there is no longer
Studio B, Radio B92 stopped broadcasting its programme from its studio,
the Students’ Radio Index may air the news only every hour, while independent
papers “Blic” and “Glas Javnosti” hardly manage to come out with what is
now only one half of their previous circulation, since the ruling authority
forbade the major printing houses to collaborate with the “anti-patriotic
NATO servants and terrorists”.
* News - OSCE and Radio FERN Support Serbian Independent Media
Council:Media Plan Institute Prof. Dr. Muhamed Nuhic, Hamza Baksic (Sarajevo); Perica Vucinis (Banja Luka); M.S. Lenart Setinc (Ljubljana); Prof. Dr. Mario Plenkovic (Zagreb); M.S. Loius de la Ronciere (Paris); M.S. Aleksandar Todorovic (Montreaux); Prof. Dr. Slavo Kukic (Mostar), Prof.Dr. Miroljub Radojkovic (Beograd). |