|
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 66, Vol I Sarajevo, August
31, 2000.
* DossierWithin the following two weeks at the earliest, John Shearer, a Transfer Agent for the reconstruction of radio-diffusion system in Bosnia and Herzegovina, appointed by the High Representative of international community, will announce his final decision in this respect . According to his decision, expected to be met with unanonimous support of international organisations, RTV BiH will be transformed into a number of independent public organizations. Those would include the following: a public broadcasting service covering the whole of Bosnia and Herzegovina; RTV of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and a company managing technical capacities for programming production in Sarajevo. In addition, the transmitter network presently run by RTV BiH and RT of the Republic of Srpska should be integrated into one single organization that would provide services to producers of public radio and TV programming all over BiH. According to this idea, the existing company building of RTVBiH in Sarajevo will be transformed into a separate organisation, called Media Centre. Even at the very first sight, it is clear that such solution is radical as it radically modifies previous, above all political, perceptions of transformation of broadcasters, absolutely abandoning a traditionalist conception of organization and business management of this gigantic system. In the future, Public Broadcasting Service of BiH, RTVFBiH and most probably RTRS as well will primarily act as programming producers, focused on their own production of news and other forms of programming. Independent technical capacities for programming production and transmission, as well as the building of RTV BiH, will enter a sort of business partnership with producers of public programming. Technical and other capacities, including premises, will be available for rental or sale to other organisations on a strictly commercial basis. A radical intervention into broadcasting system raises the issue of TVOBN and Radio FERN status. A long-term development strategy of these media - that are officially considered commercial although they by and large operate as a public service with support of international community – remains blured. As interest in sponsoring these broadcasters diminishes, donation of their programming and technical capacities to the newly emerging service is lately under consideration as a form of contribution by international community to the development of public broadcasting service in BiH. According to the officials of international community in charge of this process, the latest news coming out of RTVBiH and RTRS raise hopes in relation to intensification of efforts invested in the public broadcasting service in BiH. However, experts familiar with programming production warn that immense time and efforts are required to set up a system and ensure both a reasonable quantity and a reasonable standard of programming normally expected of a public service. New teams of editors would fistly have to contemplate how they would ensure the production of at least 40 % of programming as directed by IMC regulations. In comparison, an analysis done in May suggests that TV BiH produced only 32.25 % of the overall programming broadcast by this service over a week whereas TVRS did only some 29.93 %. (Media Plan Institute Research Centre). The Webster's Encyclopaedic Dictionary defines editorial as 'an article in a newspaper or other periodical presenting the opinion of the publisher, editor, or editors'. This definition appears rather general and not too rigid. However, although it leaves considerable 'breathing space' to authors of editorials, it should not be taken for absolute licentia poetica since editorial is after all a text and, as such, it must observe at least those elementary and general principles of good writing and argumentation: clear subject and thesis, logical flow of argument, tightly argued thesis, relevant evidence. However, this analysis reveals that authors often disregard these principles and believe their freedom of creation to be absolute. What suffers the consequences is the text itself and its contents because absolute freedom of creation amplifies the potential of entropy and undermines the communication dimension of journalism. Samples:
(Sarajevo) Ljubisa Lazic, a journalist of Oslobođenje, a daily from Republic of Srpska, was physically assaulted by Marko Asanin, Head of the Regional Board of SNSD (Party of Independent Social Democrats) and ex-Minister in the Council of Ministers of BiH, and his two escorts in the offices of Radio Srpsko Sarajevo on Saturday 12 August. Lazic was injured on this occasion and obliged to seek medical help in a nearby hospital. (Sarajevo) Internews Research Team did a poll of 116 broadcasters, all members of BiH Association of Broadcasters, in order to establish what forms of pressurisation were most frequently encountered by the media in BiH. According to this research, the most frequent form of pressurisation is a phone threat mainly by anonymous persons who threaten journalists for their reporting or overall programming policy of their media. Another form of indirect pressurisation upon the media is financial control by state authorities. As to so-called physical violation of the rights of journalists, 20 broadcasters reported instances of physical attacks on their employees whereas 16 broadcasters experienced demolition of their equipment. (Paris/Podgorica) Beta reports that ‘Reporters without Borders’, a non-governmental organisation for protection of journalists from Paris, wrote a letter to Milo Djukanovic, President of Montenegro, protesting the decision of Montenegrin authorities to ban any coverage of preelections campaign by the national media. (Sarajevo) Independent Media Commission (IMC) rejected the application of Bosniak RTV International (BRT) for long-term broadcasting licence and directed BRT to cease broadcasting. This decision is founded on the claim that BRT was deliberately misrepresenting certain facts, aspiring to present itself as a private broadcaster although the breakdown of its income suggests that BRT is effectively a public broadcaster. IMC points out that status of certain media is far from irrelevant in the present circumstances in BiH. BRT management denounced the decision on the ban as political, describing IMC’s explanation as ‘ridiculous’. Namely, BRT has for a while been under impression that international community, a founder of IMC, has been troubled by a Bosniak broadcaster that cherishes Islamic tradition and that this is what actually motivated the ban. (Banjaluka/Sarajevo) A SW transmitter of Radio Yugoslavia, a national station of former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, that is situated in the vicinity of Bijeljina terminated transmission on 19 August. According to the operators of the transmitter, they were directed by SFOR to leave the transmitter and terminate the transmission within 48 hours. However, SFOR denied any connection with this case only a day later. According to the information originating from Independent Media Commission (IMC), that is in charge of frequency spectrum in BiH, this case been unnecessarily dramatised. IMC confirms that SFOR did not urge the operators to leave the transmitter but IMC wrote a letter requiring ‘a reply that would either confirm or deny IMC’s findings that broadcasting from this transmitter is illegal’ in 48 hours at the latest. ‘Therefore we simply endeavoured to clarify the situation since we have not issued any licence to any BiH broadcaster to broadcast from this location – but we have not urged them to terminate broadcasting instantly.’, explains Zinaida Babovic, the IMC spokesman.
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). |