EVERYONE'S GOT TO LEARN A LOT

INTERVIEW WITH THE HEAD OF OSCE MEDIA DEPARTMENT IN FRY

27-SEP-2001, Snezana Stefanovic, FR Yugoslavia (Serbia)

A year has passed since the change of the authoritarian Milosevic's regime in Serbia. On October 5, media were ‘liberated’, and they are now celebrating the first anniversary of democratization by - facing the reality. The past year has been a good reason for us to talk with Giovanni Porta, Head of Media Department of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe – Mission in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. 

MediaOnline: Mr. Porta, the expectations for quick and efficient reforms of the media system have slowly boiled down, and numerous problems have come to the forefront. What is your vision of the Serbian media a year after?

PORTA: The situation is better. The government is not so authoritarian, it does not prevent freedom of thought and press and there is no threatening environment towards journalists. As for the media system, it requires new laws and a new approach aimed at respecting the media on the part of the government at all levels. There is a vast number of economic and other problems to be addressed. For instance, Serbia now has 1,000 electronic media, a large number of them unlicensed, and there are as many as 12 types of licenses. Then, existence of state-controlled media, media controlled by the provinces such as Kosovo and Vojvodina, and media controlled by cities. In addition to this, private stations are either commercial or so-called independent ones, which makes the situation even more complex than the one in West Europe, where there both private and state-owned ones. High unemployment, scarce and outdated equipment, influence of ideology, lack of money… All in all, a very chaotic situation. The biggest problem is of neither material nor technical nature, it lies in the mentality of both journalists and owners of private media, and city mayors and high-ranking politicians. This is where we need to see a quality jump ahead towards professionalism and clarity in who owns media, where the money comes from and the like. This is the general picture of the situation, but my assessment is nevertheless a positive one. 

MediaOnline: Political influence is there after all?

PORTA: There have been several truly concerning episodes, the murder of Milan Pantic, a journalist of the “Vecernje novosti”, and the Gavrilovic case, which have shown the attitude of the Government towards the “Blic” daily. Some politicians in power seem not to be accepting the fact that they can not exert control over the media. 

MediaOnline: As far as political control is concerned, the repressive Act on Public Communications from 1998 has been revoked, but a new one has not been passed yet. The federal ministry of communications has been canceled and has been transformed into a secretariat. How does one help the authorities in Belgrade to understand the need for a developed legal framework for the media system and has the cancellation of the ministry created additional problems?

PORTA: In the period following October 5, the ministry used as a weapon by Milosevic was eliminated. Its competencies were transferred to one federal ministry and a republic-level one, and this is understandable from the political viewpoint, but on the other hand it has further complicated an already complex situation. We believe that this requires formation of a coordination body in order to supervise all the media. 

As for the act, given the vague situation with Montenegro which has its own laws, Serbia needs to have its own ones, so that these two acts could be subsequently harmonized. The issues in general have been classified into three groups – drafting of laws on broadcasting, on telecommunications and on public information. OSCE and Council of Europe experts and lawyers have taken part in drafting of the Law on Broadcasting, particularly on the RTS. There is a lot of work to be done, control should be introduced into the Radio-Television of Serbia, but on the one on the part of the government, we need to do our best to prevent it from ever again being in the service of the state, but we need to make it be a public service the more separated from the authorities the better, we need to legally define the frequency allocation and licensing, the licenses to be issued by a broadcasting board using high criteria, clear in terms of technical, organizational and programmatic requirements, such as used in other countries. 

The Law on Telecommunications has been prepared by the now former minister of telecommunications of FRY Boris Tadic together with foreign experts, particularly English ones, and these two projects have been completed and submitted to the Government of Serbia. The third one related to public information is lagging behind the two former ones. 

MediaOnline: Has this lagging behind been caused by political reasons?

PORTA: No. For the time being, the problems are only technical ones. Political problems are possible in broadcasting, because some politicians believe that this is not exactly the best law and that there is a better one. 

MediaOnline: Let us refer to one of the most complex problems in the media domain, the national television?

PORTA: The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe represents a framework for all projects that could help this television. One of the advisors of the OSCE Media Department as an expert has been assigned for all RTS-related tasks. He has cooperated with the RTS General Manager, Aleksandar Crkvenjakov, and with the RTS Board members, as appointed by the Government according to the old law. 

MediaOnline: There are certainly already some projects addressing the major RTS problems?

PORTA: It is now the TV station with the worst rating of all. Even in the world, everyone remembers the RTS as a weapon of power. The first step is to assess the actual situation in the television. An expert group will be working for six months on examining and analyzing the RTS, from the headquarters down to the smallest correspondent offices. Following this, the experts will submit a report and offer solutions. 

The television itself is outsized and suffers from excess staffing. For instance, the RTS has 700 lawyers. However, we can not wait for six months and some things need to be done right away, but the RTS needs to give a signal that the change has already begun, both in terms of technical quality and in terms of contents. It is very important to offer assistance now so it can be felt that the RTS is changing, because people do not have computers over there, not to mention all the other equipment. We have undertook to assist in relocating the news desk from Kosutnjak to downtown in Aberdar Street, we have purchased HP equipment and we have been contacting with SONY, Microsoft and some other companies, so that they could help out too. We are continuing our negotiations with some European televisions willing to assist the RTS, just as we have assisted the RTS to join the Eurovision (EBU) without immediate payment of the outstanding debt.

MediaOnline: However, equipment itself will not be sufficient to improve the quality of the RTS contents?

PORTA: Several moments, such as the documentary on Srebrenica, the serial on Channel 3 dedicated to 5^th October and the 3 minute silence in sympathy with the America’s tragedy on Radio Belgrade have made the world have a different look on the RTS. On the other hand, the television should produce its own programming in order to become again what it has once been, that is, a source of programs watched throughout Yugoslavia, particularly education programs, sports, culture and science. And, one more thing very important to us and with a universal pertinence, media have to provide space for ethnic minorities, not only in terms of response to current crises or priorities, as it has been done in Bujanovac, but in general and on a long-term basis, in order to prevent conflicts. 

MediaOnline: When we speak about conflict prevention, the issue comes a bit out of the black chronicle, but it is an important one by all means. Murders of many journalists during the war in ex-Yugoslavia, then the murders of Slavko Curuvija and Milan Pantic are not something distinguishing this region from other countries, but it is evident that the state mechanisms are late with response. What can be done in order to prevent occurrence of such tragedies?

PORTA: Above all, shape the public opinion so as to respect the journalist profession. Understand that by the nature of their profession journalists are in a more dangerous position than others and thence allow them the right to an increased level of protection, such as for instance the one enjoyed by judges. Institutions should be quick in response, and journalists should have someone whom they can approach for assistance, particularly in smaller communities, where there is often an interaction between politicians and mafia. Our people from OSCE have been visiting places around Serbia, talking to journalists about this particular topic. 

MediaOnline: You worked as a journalist for 11 years. How much does your profession help you understand the problems of media in this region?

PORTA: I was working in Yugoslavia when the war started back in 1991, and I saw many journalists in their war-mongering roles. Now the war is over, it is important to heal the wounds. Those who have committed the most monstrous acts have to be isolated, and the other journalists must communicate with each other. And one more thing, and this is advice from a colleague in profession – they must set down to books and study about the profession and about journalism. The same goes for media owners. 

Snezana Stefanovic writes for the Belgrade-based paper Blic. 
Translation by: B.R. ©Media Online 2001. All rights reserved.

source: MediaOnline
published by: Roland Brunner rbr@medienhilfe.ch date of release on this site: 

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