medienhilfe: Serbia

For Serbia, 2007 was yet another year left in a void, rich with non-developments. Residues of Milosevic regime seemed to piece back together in a puzzle. Although Serbia has effortlessly survived Montenegro secession, no lesson was learned. Rallying cries related to Kosovo (actually, against its' foreseeable independence) have operationally united hard-boiled extreme right Radicals who are now regularly wining cca one third of the electorate, and Kostunica's Government which never before 'enjoyed' such declining support.

Another point of strong internal frictions has shown in SouthWest province of Sandzak, inhabited dominantly by Bosniak/Moslem populaton, and bordering Kosovo, Montenegro and BiH. Sparks (and more) have flown between 2 opposed political campuses, even between fractions inside Moslem religious institutions, and it all algned most of media outlets this or that way.

Media-related Laws and Acts have year after year been less regularly implemented. Broadcast Council/RBA kept stalling with local licences, but instead interfered in editorial policy of RTS, he state broadcaster – ordering the Parliament sessions to be live on-air in real time! Privatization of remaining bulk of municipal outlets was braked, allegedly for the sake of preserving however tiny broadcasts in minority languages. Tabloidization (as cheap, low-brow sensationalism) still rages on in both print and broadcast media, frequently as witch hunt on confronting politicians and public figures. The undoubtful murders of a few journalists from previous years remained unsolved, while the immediate attacks on journalists became more frequent and perfid. Handgrenades exploded around midnight, at the windowsill of the bedroom where Mr. Dejan Anastasijevic – leading investigative reporter for independent weekly 'Vreme' – and his family were asleep; a neo-Nazi website carried an open death threat for Mr. Dinko Gruhonjic, noted journalist and professional association President. Luckilly, none was hurt; police investigation led nowhere, for months.

PM Kostunica developed a manner of communicating by send-out statements, occasionally interviewed exclusively by state news agency Tanjug, thus giving an example to local officials across the land. Those who can afford it, extensively use services of PR agencies so real, fair reporting gets diminished in both quantity and quality, especially during election campaigns when media outlets don't have enough resources to cover main candidates and related events – PR pros then feed the media with ready-made stories, footage etc. dangerously 'substituting' for actual journalism. Political content has increasingly been disguised as entertainment, too: politicians, even high state officials appearing as guests in popular talk and game/prize shows and in tabloids, not just promoting themselves but peddling extreme views and statements, sometimes interwoven with hate speech.

Whole new areas of specialized reporting were introduced without due development of human resources or legal structures being in step with it. Mainstream media are scarred with xenophobia, while minority language outlets are under pressure from their own/minority political leaders. Among leading NGOs some do not understand the role and conduct of professional media and criticize media outlets for not covering their issues, or being too critical towards them.

Total advertising expenditure in Serbia has grown more than 40% during 2007, estimated to be up to €175 mil. but still many of the players in this oversaturated media market can't keep the pace with operating costs, taxes and benefits, non-liquidity, inflation, donors' exit strategies etc. At profitable outlets, the downside showed thru increasing influence of big business (followed by pressure of owners on the editorial staff), seriously endangering media ability to provide free and accurate news. Media industry in Serbia is not growing much stronger, media ownership being non-transparent, so mergers are not necessarily the sign of developing businesses.

Achievements:

B92 documentaries:

Totally three documentaries were produced in 2005: “Bitiqi Brothers”, “Vukovar – Final Cut” and “Zvornik” (the last being still in the final post-production – subtitling and graphics)
All documentaries are done with approach of the BBC school of journalism, the world’s leader in setting standards for documentary production;
The documentaries supported with the funds provided by PA IV – in this case “Bitiqi Brothers”and “Vukovar – Final Cut” – are done with multi-ethnic and cross-country teams: the former involved two Albanian journalists from KTV in Pristina, while for the latter 3 Croatian journalists, headed by Drago Hedl who was the author and script-writer, were part of the team;
Consultations for the two movies were done with the Humanitarian Law Fund, Croatian Helsinki Committee;
380’000 viewers watched the movie on the TV B92 alone, which is 50% higher than foreseen in the LOG-Frame (0.5 Mio in the whole region, B92 half of that). Proportion in regard to gender, age and rural/urban corresponded to population figures, while the education made a big difference (number of average and higher educated was double compared to those without education or only completed elementary school;
Both documentaries will be distributed to the following stations: Mreza Plus in BiH (5); RTL and HTV in Croatia; KTV in Kodov@; TV networking stations and TV Menada in Macedonia (8) – totally 14 stations (indicator: minimum 5);
Publicscreening of “Bitiqi Brothers” has yet to take place. “Vukovar – Final Cut” had so far 3 public screenings in Zagreb (around 1’200 viewers totally), 5 screenings in Belgrade (around 2’000 viewers) and 1 in Sarajevo (around 100 viewers). Cinema Rex plans to organize public screenings in cities throughout Serbia, in cooperation with the local NGOs and cultural centres;
“Vukovar– Final Cut” has been broadly covered by the press even before its first screening at the Zagreb Documentary Film Festival. Totally 29 articles were published in 8 dailies (Kurir, Vecernje Novosti, Blic, Politika and Glas Javnosti in Serbia; Novi List, Jutarnji List and Slobodna Dalmacija in Croatia) and 4 weeklies (Feral Tribune, Globus and Nacional in Croatia and Dani in BiH). Total estimated readership is 1.5 Mio. Such a huge coverage is indeed an extraordinary achievement.

BETA News Agency:

Minority related news items increased more than planned - from 1’624 in 2004 to 2’500 already achieved in 2005, compared to the planned 2’000 in 2006;
Features have been introduced into all three services, but not once per week as planned. The service in Romanes had one feature per month, while the Albanian- and Hungarian-language services offered them on a bi-weekly basis. Planned frequency is expected to be achieved till end of 2006;
The main service for the mainstream media was significantly enriched with the minority-related news – in average 9 items of a kind per day (5 items were foreseen in the LOG-Frame);
Number of the clients among minority media has increased from 38 in 2004 to 43 in 2005. The newcomers are mostly Roma media and NGOs, especially interested in news related to their community;
Literally all mainstream media in Serbia are BETA’s clients, except purely entertainment outlets and pirate broadcasters airing only music and commercials;
The Agency covers its total annual costs 90% by its own revenue and is among the media houses with the highest level of self-sustainability in the region;

Multiradio:

Both programs supported - Tarka Farka and Multi-Kulti – were successfully adapted to the re-defined target audience and have been regularly aired on a weekly basis (duration of 1 hour each);
Several cultural and education broadcasts targeting audience between 18 and 25 were introduced in 2005. The most important among them are “Student Magazine”(1 hour weekly program), Beat Box (program on European developments in education and culture – 1 hour per week), School Check (two 1-hour broadcasts per week on problems of the secondary school students) – totally 4 hour weekly program (indicator for success measurement: 2hours);
Program inter-action with Radio 021 has been improved and in average 2 reports per day are exchanged (indicator: 1 report);
The station improved its rating and is currently at the 19th rank (indicator: rank 20);
Own revenue has not developed as expected; own revenue has reached 25% (indicator 30%);

Radio Sto Plus:

Program performance realized as planned: daily news bulletins have a total duration of 30 minutes (2 time 15 minutes) and two minority program are produced and broadcast on the weekly basis;
Within the Info Plus, one investigative story per week has been done (indicator: 1 story per month);
The station is the 2nd rated news radio in Novi Pazar, while its program Info Top enjoys the highest audience rating of all programs and stations (entertainment ones included);
StoPlus has rather under-developed marketing and manages to cover its costs from the advertising revenue only up to 20% (indicator: 30%)

medienhilfe
Quellenstr. 25
P.O.Box
CH-8005 Zürich
Tel: +41 44 272 46 37
Fax: +41 44 272 46 82
E-Mail: info@medienhilfe.ch

	medienhilfe Friedensförderung durch Brücken der Verständigung
Übersicht Die medienhilfe Information & Analysen News & Updates Programme West Balkan Media Radio sustainability Rroma Media Map: Partners and Projects Partners Dossiers & Debatten Archive (>2004) Mitgliedschaft und Spende	Bosnia-Herzegovina Kosov@ Macedonia Serbia Programme objectives and supported partners: Quality Programming on the Key Public and Social Issues - Programming Related to Dealing with the Past B92 documentaries “Bitiqi Brothers” and “Vukovar – the final cut” Quality Programming on the Key Public and Social Issues – Programming on Reconciliation and Conflict-Related Issues Radio 021 / TV Production (Novi Sad) Minority Media (other than Roma) and Minority Programming/News Services Multiradio (Novi Sad) BETA News Agency (Belgrade) – Minority-language news services Radio Sto Plus (Novi Pazar) – Radio Shows for Minorities For Serbia, 2007 was yet another year left in a void, rich with non-developments. Residues of Milosevic regime seemed to piece back together in a puzzle. Although Serbia has effortlessly survived Montenegro secession, no lesson was learned. Rallying cries related to Kosovo (actually, against its' foreseeable independence) have operationally united hard-boiled extreme right Radicals who are now regularly wining cca one third of the electorate, and Kostunica's Government which never before 'enjoyed' such declining support. Another point of strong internal frictions has shown in SouthWest province of Sandzak, inhabited dominantly by Bosniak/Moslem populaton, and bordering Kosovo, Montenegro and BiH. Sparks (and more) have flown between 2 opposed political campuses, even between fractions inside Moslem religious institutions, and it all algned most of media outlets this or that way. Media-related Laws and Acts have year after year been less regularly implemented. Broadcast Council/RBA kept stalling with local licences, but instead interfered in editorial policy of RTS, he state broadcaster – ordering the Parliament sessions to be live on-air in real time! Privatization of remaining bulk of municipal outlets was braked, allegedly for the sake of preserving however tiny broadcasts in minority languages. Tabloidization (as cheap, low-brow sensationalism) still rages on in both print and broadcast media, frequently as witch hunt on confronting politicians and public figures. The undoubtful murders of a few journalists from previous years remained unsolved, while the immediate attacks on journalists became more frequent and perfid. Handgrenades exploded around midnight, at the windowsill of the bedroom where Mr. Dejan Anastasijevic – leading investigative reporter for independent weekly 'Vreme' – and his family were asleep; a neo-Nazi website carried an open death threat for Mr. Dinko Gruhonjic, noted journalist and professional association President. Luckilly, none was hurt; police investigation led nowhere, for months. PM Kostunica developed a manner of communicating by send-out statements, occasionally interviewed exclusively by state news agency Tanjug, thus giving an example to local officials across the land. Those who can afford it, extensively use services of PR agencies so real, fair reporting gets diminished in both quantity and quality, especially during election campaigns when media outlets don't have enough resources to cover main candidates and related events – PR pros then feed the media with ready-made stories, footage etc. dangerously 'substituting' for actual journalism. Political content has increasingly been disguised as entertainment, too: politicians, even high state officials appearing as guests in popular talk and game/prize shows and in tabloids, not just promoting themselves but peddling extreme views and statements, sometimes interwoven with hate speech. Whole new areas of specialized reporting were introduced without due development of human resources or legal structures being in step with it. Mainstream media are scarred with xenophobia, while minority language outlets are under pressure from their own/minority political leaders. Among leading NGOs some do not understand the role and conduct of professional media and criticize media outlets for not covering their issues, or being too critical towards them. Total advertising expenditure in Serbia has grown more than 40% during 2007, estimated to be up to €175 mil. but still many of the players in this oversaturated media market can't keep the pace with operating costs, taxes and benefits, non-liquidity, inflation, donors' exit strategies etc. At profitable outlets, the downside showed thru increasing influence of big business (followed by pressure of owners on the editorial staff), seriously endangering media ability to provide free and accurate news. Media industry in Serbia is not growing much stronger, media ownership being non-transparent, so mergers are not necessarily the sign of developing businesses. Achievements: B92 documentaries: Totally three documentaries were produced in 2005: “Bitiqi Brothers”, “Vukovar – Final Cut” and “Zvornik” (the last being still in the final post-production – subtitling and graphics) All documentaries are done with approach of the BBC school of journalism, the world’s leader in setting standards for documentary production; The documentaries supported with the funds provided by PA IV – in this case “Bitiqi Brothers”and “Vukovar – Final Cut” – are done with multi-ethnic and cross-country teams: the former involved two Albanian journalists from KTV in Pristina, while for the latter 3 Croatian journalists, headed by Drago Hedl who was the author and script-writer, were part of the team; Consultations for the two movies were done with the Humanitarian Law Fund, Croatian Helsinki Committee; 380’000 viewers watched the movie on the TV B92 alone, which is 50% higher than foreseen in the LOG-Frame (0.5 Mio in the whole region, B92 half of that). Proportion in regard to gender, age and rural/urban corresponded to population figures, while the education made a big difference (number of average and higher educated was double compared to those without education or only completed elementary school; Both documentaries will be distributed to the following stations: Mreza Plus in BiH (5); RTL and HTV in Croatia; KTV in Kodov@; TV networking stations and TV Menada in Macedonia (8) – totally 14 stations (indicator: minimum 5); Publicscreening of “Bitiqi Brothers” has yet to take place. “Vukovar – Final Cut” had so far 3 public screenings in Zagreb (around 1’200 viewers totally), 5 screenings in Belgrade (around 2’000 viewers) and 1 in Sarajevo (around 100 viewers). Cinema Rex plans to organize public screenings in cities throughout Serbia, in cooperation with the local NGOs and cultural centres; “Vukovar– Final Cut” has been broadly covered by the press even before its first screening at the Zagreb Documentary Film Festival. Totally 29 articles were published in 8 dailies (Kurir, Vecernje Novosti, Blic, Politika and Glas Javnosti in Serbia; Novi List, Jutarnji List and Slobodna Dalmacija in Croatia) and 4 weeklies (Feral Tribune, Globus and Nacional in Croatia and Dani in BiH). Total estimated readership is 1.5 Mio. Such a huge coverage is indeed an extraordinary achievement. BETA News Agency: Minority related news items increased more than planned - from 1’624 in 2004 to 2’500 already achieved in 2005, compared to the planned 2’000 in 2006; Features have been introduced into all three services, but not once per week as planned. The service in Romanes had one feature per month, while the Albanian- and Hungarian-language services offered them on a bi-weekly basis. Planned frequency is expected to be achieved till end of 2006; The main service for the mainstream media was significantly enriched with the minority-related news – in average 9 items of a kind per day (5 items were foreseen in the LOG-Frame); Number of the clients among minority media has increased from 38 in 2004 to 43 in 2005. The newcomers are mostly Roma media and NGOs, especially interested in news related to their community; Literally all mainstream media in Serbia are BETA’s clients, except purely entertainment outlets and pirate broadcasters airing only music and commercials; The Agency covers its total annual costs 90% by its own revenue and is among the media houses with the highest level of self-sustainability in the region; Multiradio: Both programs supported - Tarka Farka and Multi-Kulti – were successfully adapted to the re-defined target audience and have been regularly aired on a weekly basis (duration of 1 hour each); Several cultural and education broadcasts targeting audience between 18 and 25 were introduced in 2005. The most important among them are “Student Magazine”(1 hour weekly program), Beat Box (program on European developments in education and culture – 1 hour per week), School Check (two 1-hour broadcasts per week on problems of the secondary school students) – totally 4 hour weekly program (indicator for success measurement: 2hours); Program inter-action with Radio 021 has been improved and in average 2 reports per day are exchanged (indicator: 1 report); The station improved its rating and is currently at the 19th rank (indicator: rank 20); Own revenue has not developed as expected; own revenue has reached 25% (indicator 30%); Radio Sto Plus: Program performance realized as planned: daily news bulletins have a total duration of 30 minutes (2 time 15 minutes) and two minority program are produced and broadcast on the weekly basis; Within the Info Plus, one investigative story per week has been done (indicator: 1 story per month); The station is the 2nd rated news radio in Novi Pazar, while its program Info Top enjoys the highest audience rating of all programs and stations (entertainment ones included); StoPlus has rather under-developed marketing and manages to cover its costs from the advertising revenue only up to 20% (indicator: 30%)
medienhilfe Quellenstr. 25 P.O.Box CH-8005 Zürich Tel: +41 44 272 46 37 Fax: +41 44 272 46 82 E-Mail: info@medienhilfe.ch

Serbia

Programme objectives and supported partners:

Quality Programming on the Key Public and Social Issues - Programming Related to Dealing with the Past

Quality Programming on the Key Public and Social Issues – Programming on Reconciliation and Conflict-Related Issues

Minority Media (other than Roma) and Minority Programming/News Services

Achievements:

B92 documentaries:

BETA News Agency:

Multiradio:

Radio Sto Plus: