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Medienhilfe Ex-JugoslawienProfessionelle
Solidarität gegen Nationalismus und Chauvinismus
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After the federal elections in September,
the situation in our country has greatly changed. Slobodan Milosevic is finally
out of political and economical power. Kostunica, the new president is bringing
peaceful solutions. He is willing to give the independence to
Montenegro, if the majority of people in Montenegro declare that they want to
live in separate country. The situation with Federal Army has also improved;
there are no provocation and conflicts. Therefore, the next step should be
referendum, but authorities in Montenegro are still avoiding it. Incertitude is the right word to describe
the present situation. There is not real market in Montenegro, everything is
divided in two parties, two attitudes. The editorial policy is still independent
and Onogost, different from the majority of companies in the country, does not
depend on the Government. Considering the lack of market, it would be impossible
to overcome financial difficulties and cross the long way from monthly and
biweekly to weekly edition without the significant help of Swedish Helsinki
Committee and other donors. In spite of the fact, that more and more people read
it, the future of Onogost still depends on grants.
The main aim for the year 2000, weekly
edition of Onogost, is achieved. Our information is fresher and we have more
time and space to give our readers the accurate description of political,
economical and cultural life in Montenegro and all over the world. Onogost is
going out every Friday and current circulation is 8000 copies. The percentage of
unsold copies is about 8%. In the beginning, Onogost
was strictly local newspaper, but slowly it has become the magazine of a
republic character. It contains political and social texts or comments, but it
is not a classical political magazine. An average reader can find texts from
various spheres of life in it: economies, culture, sports, history, humor... We
are also paying a great attention at the various types of discrimination (ethnic
minorities, refugees...). More space we are giving for the fighters for the
women’s rights and many others whose aim is equality in front of the law. Our main project in 2001
is exposure of corruption in different spheres of life in Montenegro, and its
presentation to the readers of Onogost. Montenegro, as any other country in
transition has many problems, but one of the most serious is corruption. It is
present in almost any sphere of life – in the process of privatization, in
education, police department, health services... The objective of this project
is to make it public and in that way we would like to help the ordinary people
to resolve their individual problems connected with corruption. Our project will
also strengthen the process of democratization and development of Montenegro. The problem of false
privatization influences majority of the nation. Considering that corruption
exists in health services and in police department, almost everyone is
endangered. Corruption is rather visible, but daily papers principally depend
upon Montenegrin and Federal government, and they simply do not want to see
their own demerits. Target group, the readers of Onogost are citizens of
Montenegro which belong to all ethnical groups, they are of different age,
gender and religious believes. The main part of the
project activities will include gathering and processing of all relevant
information. It will require a great effort from the staff, but we will also
need steady finances. Our expenses are sizably enlarged since we started with
weekly editions. We were not fortunate with other donors in the year 2000.
Institute for Open Society gave us a grant of 15.000 DEM and Mont Media has not
still approved us a grant. Press Now approved amount of 15.000 DEM, but we only
received 9.000 DEM. That was far beneath our expectations and we were forced to
take the credit on 30.000 DEM from the Capital Bank – Niksic. Last few editions were entirely sold out
and Onogost had absolute success at the media market (unfortunately, we are
still not completely paid out by distributors). It is one of the most quoted
newspapers from Montenegro. We were quoted even by France Press, Reuters and
BBC. The journalists of Onogost are persistent in trying to improve the quality
of the content and they are doing their best to keep up with the current events.
However, on the technical side of the papers there is a lot to be done. Our equipment is rather
old-fashioned. When we first got it few years ago, that equipment was sufficient,
but as you are probably aware of, the world of computers and technology is
improving in every minute. We are generally in deficit with the equipment, and
the one we have is only impeding us. We should refresh our equipment with new
digital camera, scanner, printer and computer. In that way we will improve
visual presentation of the newspaper, which, as you know is less, but not the
least important. We would also try to improve the software we have and inlay a
part of finances in the education of our computer operators. The opening of
correspondence office in Podgorica was excellent move. Three eminent journalists
work there, and their texts are rather notable. We employed two other
journalists, one in Berane and the other in Herceg Novi. Two new employees are
also a project manager and a person in charge for marketing. We did not manage to
solve the problem of distribution system in this year because of lack of
finances. Our plan was to create our own distributive net (members of Mont Press
Association), since, so far we have had nothing but troubles with the existing
system owned by Stampa, state owned company. They keep 50% of the money they get
from the sold copies and the other part we always get after a long waiting. For
the year 2001, we plan to buy a kiosk at which independent newspapers from ex
Yugoslavia could also be bought, and a van to improve distribution of our own
newspaper. Marketing is also our
weaker side. The number of advertisements in our present edition is rather low,
and it will surely be more than tripled in very short period. Also, the number
of copies will be increased up to 9.000 (or eventually up to 10.000) and with
our own distributive net, we will be able to make profit for the first time. We
will also advertise in some electronical media and try to increase the sale of
the newspaper. Our team will also attend training on
20th of November in Prag (Business plan), and we would be glad to receive more
offers for education of our journalists and project manager. For the next year
we are also planing the final stages in building of our premises. We will also
apply for the support at other donors. As for the environmental issues there are
many texts considering pollution problems (pollution of the rivers and the lakes
by the factories of the hard industry and alike) and the texts about protection
of the animals, especially endangered animal species. The realization of the project could
start immediately when we get finances and it will last for the time we find it
is necessary. It would not be very pleasant to meet the people who are involved
in corruption and the pressure will be high. It certainly means that there are
going to be risks related to the realization of the project, but we would try to
keep it under the control. Our goals for the future
will remain basically the same – strengthening of democratic processes in
Montenegro, education of our citizens (history, democracy...), promotion of
multicultural and multiethnic society, religious tolerance... |
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P.O. Box, CH-8031
Zürich, Switzerland