Media News
¨
Journalism and Democracy¨
Media in Transition
DIGEST
No 68, Vol I Sarajevo, September
28, 2000.
If
you subscribe to Media News,
Issue 68 - You can read about:
¨Media Initiatives
Media on line
Media Plan launched the first media on line project in Bosnia-Herzegovina – “Media News” – on March 9, 1998. A total of 68 issues were published which were available via e-mail on more than 300 addresses of Bosnian-Herzegovinian media, journalist associations, media analysts and international institutions. A digest was available on an Internet site. We published news, analytical reviews, monitoring and different research projects in the field of media. We believe that this project contributed to providing general information on the state of media in Bosnia-Herzegovina and that it was motivating for everyone working on media transition.
Since the first day of its public appearance, “Media News” has cooperated with numerous associates from the region of southeast Europe and independent media organizations in Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia, Macedonia and Albania. This cooperation resulted in the idea of starting a regional Internet magazine – M E D I A O N L I N E, which would write about the media situation in the region, thereby stimulating media communication and exchange of experience among journalists, media and media researchers in countries of southeast Europe. The idea of launching a regional on line magazine on media gained significance with the establishment of a communication network for assistance to professional journalism called MEDIA INITIATIVES, and it has received support from other media groups and networks.
It gives us great pleasure to be able to announce that preparations for the start of the project are almost completed. A trial issue of Media on line will appear on the Internet on October 26, 2000. As of that date “Media News” will cease to come out, but our present readers will be able to find analytical and research articles produced by Media Plan and SAFAX News Agency on our regular Internet site and, of course, in the new magazine.
Media on line will be published in the Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian language, as well as in English and French. The project has received financial support from the Government of France and Media Plan Institute. We expect other donors to join in.
¨Media, Judiciary and Police
Court Confidentiality vs. Journalistic Public Openness
Since the beginning of contemporary states, debates have been held on the role of media in the sensitive field of criminal procedure. The French Revolution launched the idea of the principle of transparency of court proceedings, based primarily on the need to ensure fair trial. Since the 19th century public galleries have been introduced in European courtrooms, and print reporters have been covering court cases. Cases are also followed by professional illustrators whose drawings complement written court chronicles.
Parallel development of society and media, which we have followed throughout the entire 20th century, opens the dilemma of the limits of overlapping, on one hand of the principle of innocence, which is the basis postulate of modern criminal procedure, and on the other of the principle of public openness which may jeopardize the presumption of innocence or the rights of the individual or wider interests of society. These principles are also listed in the catalog of protected human rights. The European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms in Article 6 specifies the right to a fair trial which includes the assumption of innocence (anyone accused of committing a criminal act shall be presumed innocent until proven guilty under the law). On the other hand, Article 10 of the European Convention guarantees freedom of information. In practice there is often dilemma on whether freedom of information may jeopardize, for example, the presumption of innocence of an accused person. On one hand we have protected freedoms, and on the other the need of media not only to be the eyes and years of the public, but also to use big trials and social scandals for commercial purposes. The European Convention and national legislature regulate restrictions of public openness. In countries in transition such as Bosnia-Herzegovina, which is also a society without a democratic tradition and with an undeveloped tradition of free and responsible media, these dilemmas appear every day. In a roundtable entitled “Media, Judiciary and Police” (Sarajevo, September 14), foreign and local experts and media representatives presented European and domestic experiences and tried to offer some practical answers to the above questions.
¨Media and Elections
Election Lies, Photographs and Video Tapes
Two days before the start of federal elections in FR Yugoslavia, the pro-regime “Vecernje novine”, with a photograph showing an election rally in Berani (formerly called Ivangrad), entered the history of unprecedented shamelessness of state media in FR Yugoslavia with perhaps the biggest “prize entry” in Slobodan Milosevic’s ten years of rule. The front page of this newspaper, whose untouchable boss is SPS Main Board member Dusan Cukic, who was also a candidate in the Novi Belgrade elections, featured a large photograph of Milosevic’s promotional rally in Berane, Montenegro, which shows endless popular masses ecstatically hailing and listening to their leader. However, even ordinary readers spotted that something was not right with the photograph because it showed a noticeable number of identical faces on the left and right sides of the photograph. “Novosti”, which was easy to determine even without any special analysis, had made two photographs out of one and thus “proved” to their readers that “around 100,000 people were present” at Milosevic’s support rally in Montenegro, instead of 15,000, as independent media reported.
The pro-regime “Politika” during the entire election campaign, and after the elections as well, published so many shameful and sleazy articles on the opposition and its leaders that it will one day probably be advisable to catalog this “contribution” to Milosevic’s campaign as an example of how to serve a dictatorship regime, in which its more prominent subjects are falling over themselves in throwing the most monstrous filth on the opponents and thus winning the Leader’s favors. This orgasmic flow of the dirtiest words is probably topped by an article on the character and work of Dr. Vojislav Kostunica, published on September 3 and 4 (in two parts), in which an unknown author, signed as UR, standing for U (Unutrasnja – Domestic) R (Redakcija – Section), entered the private parts of the presidential candidate, proclaimed his father a “communist murderer who killed a priest after the war”, ridiculed his views and, of course, proclaimed him a “servant of America and NATO”. However, one “small” detail was omitted: this pamphlet only three says before appearing in “Politika” was put by SPS supporters into mailboxes of residents in downtown Belgrade and given to people who share their views, saying that their political party “has finally found serious evidence on Kostunica’s service to foreign powers and highly immoral life that he has been leading for years”. “Politika” was obviously one of the important mailboxes, from which it was copied in several thousand copies with the signature UR.
¨Attitude of BiH Television Stations Towards Programming Schedule
Unused Programming Function
One of the most important so-called “confor” functions of the video recorder is the possibility to record TV program at a desired time.
However, this very practical potential of the VCR, and lately also of the increasingly popular DVD recorder, in the Bosnian-Herzegovinian television environment remains relatively unused. The reason is not technical ignorance on how to use these machines, but negligence in planning and announcing programming schedules and the actual times when they are broadcast.
When there was only one, state-run television, during the time when Bosnia-Herzegovina was part of the former Yugoslavia, deviations from program schedule were not too great, and one could even set one’s watch by the programming timetable. In the meantime, TV discipline has become lax. During the media boom on the eve of the war, dozens of private and public TV stations were established, which often created their programming schedule hastily, often during broadcasting itself, while schedules announced in newspapers served for them only as some kind of formal obligation which was supposed to confirm their existence on TV air.
¨N E W S
Single TV Pool in Sydney
(Sarajevo/Safax) Journalists from TV Republika Srpska and TV BiH are for the first time working together in a joint TV pool covering the Sydney Olympic Games. Sports competitions are broadcast on the two television stations under the name of BiH Public Broadcasting Service with single commentary for the whole country. With regard to programming, production and marketing, the Olympics are the biggest cooperation achievement in the public broadcasting system in Bosnia-Herzegovina and a foundation for the future Public Broadcasting System of BiH, which is still not operative in the real sense of the word, nor does it have its own frequencies.
Foreigner Presiding Over BiH Press Council
(Sarajevo/Safax) Lord John Walkeham was appointed first chairman of the BiH Press Council. His appointment was made by the Independent Media Commission (IMC) and confirmed by all journalist associations in Bosnia-Herzegovina, which had earlier, together with the international community, founded this institution.
One of the Council’s important functions will be to deal with public complaints sent to magazine and journalists. It will be a free, quick and simple service tasked with resolving disputes in a peaceful manner. However, the Press Council will not be able to pronounce fines, suspensions or to ban the work of newspapers or magazines. On the Council’s instructions, print media will be obliged to publish a correction, denial or apology in a visible place if it is found that the paper made a mistake or damaged someone.
The Press Council will start to operate at the beginning of 2001.
Request to Allow Political Advertisements on Private Radio Stations
(Sarajevo/Safax) The Association of Private Local Radio Stations of Bosnia-Herzegovina requested the Independent Media Commission (IMC) to review its decision to ban paid political advertisements during the election campaign. The Association said in a press release that if the decision remains in effect, it will be a serious blow to self-sustainability of private radio stations in the country, which is something that representatives of the international community, who stand behind this ban, strongly advocate for.
Marija Topic-Crnoja Appointed Editor of TV BiH News Program
Former Erotel editor Marija Topic-Crnoja was appointed on September 7 editor of TV BiH news program, and Mirjana Micevska and Rasim Borcak were appointed her deputies. The former Erotel editor was appointed to this position by the international community due to her journalist qualities, but also due to cooperation shown when the work of Erotel was banned. The appointment gains in significance by the fact that Topic-Crnoja is of Croat ethnic origin and that she comes from Croat majority populated territory. It is believed that her arrival at TVBiH will open the door to more massive arrival of Croat journalists to work for the future Federation Television, as well as Public Broadcasting Service of Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Ban on Work of Bosniak Television Confirmed
(Sarajevo/Safax) – The Independent Media Commission Council held its regular quarterly session on 25 and 26 September. Acting in its appellate capacity, the Council reviewed four appeals submitted by broadcasters. As far as Bosniak Radio and Television (BRT) is concerned, the Council upheld the Decision of the IMC General Director from 18 August 2000, which denied their application for a long-term license. BRT is now to cease its broadcasting activities.
Pressure of Journalists in Slovenia
(Ljubljana/Safax) Political and economic pressure on media and journalists is seriously threatening the journalist profession at local level, according to a roundtable held in Ljubljana, organized by the Slovenian Journalist Syndicate as part of the Phare Project on September 19.
Discussion involving journalists from local media and a number of local media owners focused on the status, role and position of local journalists and stringers from the provinces. Participants’ attention was caught by an announcement that a local stringer is afraid of local strongmen, which had not been considered to be happening in Slovenia.