Crisis
Assistance for Local Independent Broadcasters in Macedonia
I. SUMMARY
The current
political and economic crisis that has reached a climax with the armed clashes
in the northwestern part of Macedonia in March 2001 has had a dramatic
deteriorating impact on the media. The most obvious victims among the media were
those radio and TV stations in the Tetovo area whose transmitters had been
deliberately shelled in mid-March 2001, causing a total news blackout for days.
In addition to the physical harm inflicted on the stations, the rebel and
military actions in North-Western Macedonia resulted in great economic
insecurity and thus in a rapid breakdown of the advertising market. It is no
surprise that the sudden lack of advertising income again hit the smaller,
independent, legal stations first, endangering their very existence within weeks.
The overarching result of our
fact-finding mission in the end of March 2001 was that, owing to the current
situation in the Republic of Macedonia, three different levels of support have
to be envisaged for the media. In a first step, the emergency relief that has
been given as an immediate response to the news blackout in the Tetovo area has
to be fully financed as soon as possible. In a second step, internationally
coordinated crisis assistance has to be implemented to secure the very survival
of various radio and TV broadcasting stations that have been physically and
economically hit by armed clashes. This phase is estimated to last six months.
However, it would be prolonged if the crisis in the country would last longer.
In a third step, a support to the broadcasters will be provided as to enable
them to switch from operation in crisis situation towards a normal operation and
to financially stabilize them so that they can start with their long-term
development projects and plans.
II. BACKGROUND
Until early
2001 the Republic of Macedonia had been praised for being the only former
Yugoslav republic that had gained its independence without getting enmeshed into
war as a consequence. Still, even if Macedonia hardly ever seemed worth a
headline, the political and social tensions have dangerously risen throughout
the 2000. Especially the gap between the Slav-Macedonian majority population and
the strong Albanian minority has become so wide that hardly any communication is
taking place between the two ethnic groups. The past few months have
demonstrated, however, that a peaceful future including interethnic cooperation
is by no means guaranteed, as the political and social tensions have taken on
alarming proportions. They have revealed a growing split between the various
ethnic groups, especially between the Slav-Macedonian majority and the ethnic
Albanian minority, which has resulted in a further breakdown of interethnic
communication. This is also obvious among the media, where few stations or press
offices employ people of different ethnic background. Not surprisingly, the
audience is little informed about the problems of other ethnic groups.
Macedonia’s media situation
has been characterized by a legalistic vacuum for years, which has been a hotbed
for pirate radio and TV stations. Even though some laws have been introduced,
they are either contradictory or not being enforced. Illegal stations destroy
the advertising market by offering their commercials for dumping prices, which
they can only afford by not paying their concession fees. As a consequence,
proper broadcasting stations need to adapt their prices in order to remain in
the advertising competition, thus receiving less money than the high costs of
the concession fees allow. The Macedonian Radio and TV (MRTV) is still
functioning as a politically controlled state enterprise instead of a public
broadcast service. The general director as well as the whole leadership of MRTV
are being elected in parliament. It is they who decide on the employment of
editors. The political manipulation of the state-run media is also resulting in
various government measures against those media that dare to criticize MRTV’s
policy or reporting. The combined problems of unfair economic competition and
MRTV’s monopoly on certain information channels have lead to a sharp decline
in broadcasting quality, especially of TV stations. Intelligent and informative
news programs and documentaries have been replaced by cheap soap operas, quiz
shows and music programs. Frustrated professional journalists often quit their
jobs to work elsewhere, thus further contributing to a deterioration of the
program quality.
The current
political and economic crisis that has reached a climax with the armed clashes
in the northwestern part of Macedonia since March 2001 has had a dramatic
deteriorating impact on the media. The most obvious victims among the media were
those radio and TV stations in the Tetovo area whose transmitters had been
deliberately shelled in mid-March. In addition, the distribution system for the
print press had broken down in the Tetovo area, thus causing a total news
blackout for days. Remaining without relevant, confirmed information for a
longer period of time usually contributes to an escalation of a conflict, as
rumors are being spread, often resulting in panic reactions by the population.
It was therefore imperative that new transmitters be sought that could be
provided to the broadcasting stations within days.
In addition to
the physical harm inflicted on the stations, the rebel and military actions in
north-western Macedonia resulted in great economic insecurity and thus in a
rapid breakdown of the advertising market, as the enterprises prefer saving
money to investing it into advertising, as long as the outcome of the turmoil
remains unpredictable. It is no surprise that the sudden lack of advertising
income again hit the smaller, legal stations first, endangering their very
existence within weeks.
Similar to
other countries and regions of former Yugoslavia and the Balkans in general, the
Republic of Macedonia is situated in a region of highest priority for
international stabilization. This has been demonstrated even more by the
political and economic crisis that has shaken the country during the first
months of 2001. Support to Macedonain independent media has been provided by
various donors in order to ensure they can play their important role in
fostering democracy and dveloping tolerant multi-ethnic society.
Since 1998 the International
Media Fund (IMF) has been supporting, independent, professional media in the
Republic of Macedonia. The IMF’s primary purpose has been to coordinate the
international support for independent, private broadcasting media, whose working
standards are professional, according to strict conditions that are constantly
being assessed. This coordination means on the one hand to avoid double-funding
of specific projects while others are left out, and on the other to draw on each
other’s experience.
Earlier this
year, as we have witnessed a dramatic deterioration of the media situation in
Macedonia, owing to the ongoing political and military crisis, the IMF noticed
that more vigorous support was imperative. Part of the swift action was forced
upon us by the shelling of transmission equipment of various media in the hills
above Tetovo, in mid-March. It was largely thanks to the timely and generous
financial contributions of various governments and organizations to the IMF’s
Tetovo Emergency Assistance that those media were able to go back on the air
within only few days. Moreover, the political crisis has led to a collapse of
the advertising market in various regions and has thus deprived broadcasting
stations of their basic source of income. With a special Crisis Assistance
Program the IMF attempts to provide training and equipment for safety and
security to journalists and to cover the running costs of nine important local
and professionally working Macedonian-, Albanian- and Roma-language radio and TV
stations throughout Macedonia for a period initially set for six months. However,
the seven international organizations involved in this project so far cannot
cope with the enormous costs this involves for the whole period by themselves.
Moreover, we expect to be faced with much longer-term damage to the economy even
after the immediate political and military situation will have improved, which
means that a support for covering the broadcasters’ running costs will remain
a high ranked need even beyond 6-month period.
III. PROJECT OBJECTIVES
IV. PROJECT ACTIVITIES
The project containes of three
main phases:
- Tetovo Emergency Support
- Crisis Assistance Program – Serurity Component
- Crisis Assistance Program – Support for running costs of nine local
independent broadcasters
1. Tetovo Emergency Support
This part of
the project comprises purchasing of new transmission equipment to replace the
one distroyed in the shelling in mid-March. The transmission equipment of the
following radio and TV stations was destroyed: 1) TV A1, 2) TV Sitel, 3) TV Art,
4) TV Kis, 5) TV Koha, 6) Radio PlusForte, 7) Radio Bleta, 8) Radio Kis, and 9)
Radio Visar. The IMF supported purchasing of the equipment for TV Sitel,
nation-wide broadcaster; TV Art, TV Kis, TV Koha and Radio PlusForte, all local
broadcaters from Tetovo area. The Macedonian Government, precisely the
Broadcasting Council, has taken responsibility to provide new transmission
equipment for TV A1, Radio Bleta, Radio Kis, and Radio Visar. The new equipment
was installed in the beginning of April.
2. Crisis Assistance Program –
Serurity Component
This part of the project
consists of two complementary stes of activities. On one hand, 100 kits of
security equipment (flak jackets and helmets) will be provided. The Journalist
Association of Macedonia will be in charge of managing the equipment. Certain
amounts of equipment will be allocated to the local branches in 5-6 major cities
throughout Macedonia and available to all journalists. Journalists will rent the
equipment when they need it, for a period of approximately one week, and
guarantee for delivering it back by depositing some personal document. Funds for
30 pieces are secured so far. The equipment will be available in August. This
rather slow realisation is due to the fact that the authorities implement very
complicated administrative procedure for import goods.
The second set
of activities comprises of organising security trainings. Totally 5 three-day
courses are to be organisaed, each involving around 20 participants. The company
to perform the courses is AKE, which has for years done such job for the
Internationa Journalist Federation throughout the world. Composition of
participants for each course reflects regional and ethnic diversity of
Macedonian society. Translation is provided both in Macedonian and Albanian
language. Till end-July all five courses should be completed.
3.
Crisis Assistance Program – Support for running costs of nine local
independent broadcasters
A grave
economic situation and a collapse of market caused by the current crisis have
serious cxonsequences for operation of all Macedonian media, in particular
private broadcast media. On one side, they were left without almost any
possibility to generate some income from advertisements and by sponsors. On the
othe hand, their costs significantly rose, as good-quality professional coverage
of the crisis requires much higher production costs. In order to provide their
audience accurate information, the stations need more correspondents and other
components within the prosduction costs got also much higher. Many broadcaters,
in particual private independent one who have in-house information production
can not manage to cope with these challenges without substantial support from
donors.
Bearing in mind all this, the
IMF selected nine local broadcasters who have for years been grantees of the
respective IMF members and had proven as professional and responsible media,
independent from any political option. The stations will get support for
covering their operational costs for a period initally set for six months.
There are
totally nine private, independent, local broadcasters included in the Program
– 6 TV and four radio stations; three Albanian-, three Roma- and 3
Macedonian-language. The brief information on the grantees is as follows:
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TV ART – Tetovo (Albanian language)
Date of establishment:
1992
Editors, correspondents: local
TV stations in the Republic of Macedonia
Editorial policy: Independent
Special programs/ current
affairs programs: news, talk shows, political programs, documentaries, women’s
and children’s program
Further
details of the television
Range/geographical area covered:
Tetovo, Gostivar / Polog region
Number of potential viewers
within range: approximately 320,000
Actual number of viewers reached: 280,000 -
300 000 (Polog)
Special programs, documentaries, etc. 1,200,000 viewers (for exchanged program)
Satellite broadcasting (special programs) on TVSH and RTK: 10 - 12 million
viewers
Current immediate problems: TV
ART is one of the several broadcasting stations in the Tetovo region that had
been physically struck by the armed struggle in the area, as its transmitters
had been destroyed on Friday, 16 March 2001. The IMF, by the lead of the Opens
Society Institute made the delivery of new material its highest priority so as
to enable TV Art, together with other stations hit by a similar fate, to be able
to broadcast again as soon as possible. This was particularly urgent, as the
region of Tetovo and Gostivar had been faced by a total news blackout for days,
resulting in the accelerated spreading of rumors and unfounded accusations, and
therefore substantially contributing to further splits between the ethnic
communities and the imminent danger of new armed clashes. Whereas the technical
side of the problem seems to have been fixed, the financial problem of the
emergency relief is still not solved. As TV ART is situated at the heart of the
turmoil, it has also been hit the strongest in economical terms. The advertising
market has come to a complete standstill. In addition, the local stations are
being exploited by many international media representatives who are dependent on
facilities, news and pictures from the locals, but who refuse to pay for them.
On the other hand, the local media are at least partly to blame as they are
being too forthcoming in their cooperation with international media
representatives. Various members of the IMF during a meeting on 26 March issued
a strong appeal to the local media to lay traditional hospitality aside in this
regard and to behave professionally. Cooperation among the local media is
imperative in order not to be exploited. Otherwise the IMF will not agree to
support the stations.
General assessment: TV ART is
among those private stations that cannot get access to the official news
conferences by the government or parliament. This is another reason why TV ART
needs to cooperate with other multi-ethnic and multi-lingual stations, possibly
by forming a city desk, that will have more leverage in receiving more
forthcoming treatment by the officials. The degree of cooperation and
organization is up to the stations themselves. However, international support
will only come forward as a result of evidence in cooperative self-help, TV ART
has been told by the IMF.
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Radio Plus Forte – Tetovo (Macedonian language)
The radio “Plus Forte” from
Tetovo is one of the oldest media in the Republic of Macedonia, founded in 1993.
Its signal covers the whole Polog region, i.e. the municipalities of Tetovo and
Gostivar with nearly 350.000 inhabitants. It broadcasts program in Macedonian
and currently works with eight employees and two associates.
This radio has multinational
editorial board of seven Macedonians, two Serbs and one Albanian. This kind of
editorial board has proved itself as very useful in the realizing of the program.
It has a variety of ideas and thinking related to the way of presenting
different matters to its audience.
Keeping in mind the national
structure of the Polog region (about 78 percents Albanians and 22 percents
Macedonians and others) and other factors (the target age group, the current
music trends for that group…) the program contents are adapted to as widely as
possible meet the needs of all national communities.
By using the newest
technological achievements in processing of the audio signal the station made
its own software for the program realisation which considerably increased the
productivity of employees and reduced the production expenses.
Radio Plus Forte is especially
proud of good contact it has with the audience. Messages that are coming in
through a paging system and that are related to a contact program, which is on
the air 6 days in a week and lasts 3 hours a day, amount at 15.000 messages a
month. According to the commercial analysis of the paging service the station
calculates that every 8th listener is active in this kind of programmes, while
an estimated audience of this programme is about 120.000 listeners a month –
every third inhabitant of the region.
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TV ERA – Skopje (Albanian language)
Editors: 3
Correspondents, stringers:
Journalists from other local TV stations
Cameramen: 4
Sound technicians: 2
Cutters: 3
Background, history and aims
of the station: TV ERA is the only station in Skopje, the capital of the
Republic of Macedonia, that produces programs in Albanian language. The program
schedule of TV ERA incorporates news and current affairs program, educational
program, cultural program, sports, children's program, entertainment etc.
The purpose for the
establishment of TV ERA, since the very beginning, was to fill in the gap for
Albanian language programming, produced by an independent television.
Editorial policy: The main focus
of the editorial staff of TV ERA is on news and current affairs program. Almost
all of the staff of TV ERA is involved in the production of this program,
bearing in mind that most of the events happen in Skopje as the capital city.
Rate of the own production
programs: from a total of 13-14 hours of programming, approximately 50% is
in-house production.
News and current affairs
programs: consists of 4 news editions, in four time slots (3 p.m., 5.30 p.m., 9
p.m. and 12 midnight). The first editions run for 15-20 minutes, the "News
Bulletin 21" lasts a minimum of 30 minutes, while the midnight news
consists of flash news items that last 5-10 minutes. The agencies MIA, MAKFAX,
QIK, KosovaPress, and ATA are used as sources of information.
In addition, two current and
political programs are broadcasted in the weekly schedule. One of them is a
debate program, with a guest in the studio from the political scene of our
country, while the other program is dedicated to the immediate political
situation and local level problems, meaning the city of Skopje and the nearby
local self-government units.
Audience/Public aimed at (description/numbers):
Potentially over 200,000.
Range/geographical area covered:
Skopje and its vicinity.
Current immediate problems:
Owing to the political crisis of early 2001, the advertising market has
collapsed. According to the director, the station has suffered a 90%-decrease in
advertising, resulting in a loss of 20,000 DM per month. The numbers point to
the well-known fact that a general insecurity in the business community hits the
ethnic minorities first. As a result, the staff is working without salary at the
moment. This increases the danger that employees will quit the job if the
situation will not soon improve.
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TV TERA – Bitola (Macedonian language)
Editors: 6 (4 current affairs
and news editors, 1 entertainment program editor, 1 documentary program editor)
Correspondents, stringers:
Journalists from other local TV stations, and, if required, correspondents from
other Balkan countries, Europe and USA.
Cameramen: 4
Sound technicians: 3
Cutters: 4
Total staff: 20 full-time plus
19 part-time employees.
Background, history and aims of
the station: TERA Television is an independent, private TV station that
broadcasts in the southwestern region of the Republic of Macedonia. Therefore,
it is a regional TV station whose news and current affairs program is the most
dominant program. The program concept of this TV station also focuses on the
production of non-commercial documentary projects (inter-ethnic relations,
historiography, ethnology etc.), educational programs (environment, children and
adult education), as well as other independent current affairs projects that
reflect the image of the overall concept of an independent and modern TV subject,
very popular in this part of the country. According to the strategic marketing
research, TV Tera has been the most dominant media in the region for the last
four years.
Editorial policy: The editorial
policy of TV TERA arises from its essential organizational structure. TERA is a
private TV station funded by the income generated from airtime, a small
percentage from sponsorships (commercial programs) and donations. Funding is
independent from the editorial and program concept of the television, especially
the current affairs program. This only proves the determination of the
television to offer hard facts from all parties involved in an issue and let the
audience derive its own opinion concerning a specific issue.
Rate of the own production
programs: 16 hours of program broadcasted daily, of which 40% is in-house
production.
News and current affairs
programs: production (90 minutes per day news allocated in two big editions at
6:30 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. and short afternoon and after-midnight news reviews),
several current affairs magazines dedicated to immediate social and political
topics in the form of interviews, debates, duels etc. presenting the opinions of
different stakeholders in support of the program determination for objective,
independent reporting free from journalistic commentaries, concentrating only on
facts.
Audience/public aimed at (description/numbers):
Potentially 300,000-350,000 viewers (Pelagonia region), of which 160,000 are
confirmed every-day viewers, according to a survey. Thus, TV TERA ranges second
after TV A1 in terms of audience number.
Range/geographical area covered:
Bitola, Prilep, Krusevo and neighboring municipalities Dobrusevo, Novaci,
Bistrica and Capari.
Current immediate problems:
Although Bitola is – in the words of editor-in-chief Ljubica Angelkova –
situated far off the current crisis region, the general uneasiness of the
business community hits TV TERA as well. As there is a great crisis scare in the
region, the money circulation is decreasing. In addition, the well-known
problems of dumping-prices in advertisement by illegal TV stations accelerates
the economic malaise.
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TV ZDRAVKIN-Veles (Macedonian language)
Editors: 2
Correspondents, stringers: none
Cameramen: 3
Sound technicians: 2
Cutters: 4
Total staff: 9 full-time plus 8
part-time employees.
Background, history and aims of
the station: TV Zdravkin is a local TV station focusing on news and current
affairs programs that cover economic, educational, cultural, sports and other
topics of interest. It is the only legal TV station in Veles.
Editorial policy: The
Editor-in-Chief is in charge of the editing and conceptualization of the program,
in cooperation with the reporters from the Current Affairs Department. TV
Zdravkin is a self-funded and independent medium.
Rate of the own production
programs: 4,5 hours daily in-house production.
News and current affairs
programs: 20 minutes of local and regional news based on the concept of articles,
reviews, commentaries, surveys, etc. are broadcasted daily. Within the framework
of current affairs programming, 150 minutes per day are broadcasted on immediate
topics from the region covered by the television station.
Audience/Public aimed at (description/numbers):
Potentially 60,000.
Range/geographical area covered:
Veles, neighboring settlements Prevalec and Basino Selo, and the surrounding
villages.
Current immediate problems:
While other stations are complaining that the business community is reluctant to
advertise on TV, Zdravkin claims that the advertising is hardly decreasing.
However, the companies are several months behind in paying for it, leaving an
amount of 75,000 DM of missing payment from advertising during the year 2000.
The owner of TV Zdravkin does not believe that the larger companies cannot pay
for the advertising but instead is convinced that the reasons are political, as
the business is preparing for war. On the other hand, he admits that the
enterprises for silk, leather and ceramics are on the verge of bankruptcy. This
leaves the station with the dilemma of being dependent on those companies that
it wishes to criticize for their lack of environmental conscience and enormous
pollution, especially the large melting factory in Veles. The director is
optimistic that after the shutdown of an illegal station in Veles at the end of
March 2001 the advertising market may slowly improve again. As for now, the
station is dependent on the funds allocated by the Macedonian Government, which
is distributed out of 10% of the concession fees according to Macedonian Law.
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Radio VAT – Skopje (Albanian language)
In the resent past, only five
years ago, Macedonian Radio-Television was the only electronic media functioning
in Macedonia. One of the branches of this institution was Macedonian Radio,
broadcasting on three different channels (Radio Skopje-1, Radio Skopje-2 and
Third program, broadcasting part-time). Macedonian Television represented the
second branch of this Media, broadcasting on two channels. Local branches of the
Macedonian Radio, functioning in other municipalities (towns) as local
radio-stations, were the third part of the main and only electronic media in
Macedonia. Macedonian Radio-Television is a media under total governmental
control, financed mostly by the Macedonian Government.
Programme in Albanian language
and other minority languages, were incorporated in the Macedonian
Radio-Television programme schedule, but in a very low percentage. According to
information from the Macedonian Bureau of Statistics, in Macenoia live 484,228
ethnic Albanians, or 23% of total population of the Republic of Macedonia. Only
in Skopje region, 20.8% of the citizens, or 113,426 are ethnic Albanians.
For all these reasons, a need
for fast and objective informing in Skopje region, and wider, in Macedonia,
especially in Albanian language, was immediate. This kind of informing was to be
free of governmental and political propaganda and influence. Radio Vati emerged
as a product of this need.
At first, Radio Vati was a
branch of “Vat-Inos” - a private trading company, owned by brothers Ekrem
& Rahim Kadriu. Due to that, all the activities of Radio Vati were financed
by the commercial programs of the radio and by the company’s running
businesses. Advertisements were large contributors to the budget, but
commercials and sponsored programmes were also covering the needs.
In 1998, according to the new
broadcasting law, Radio Vati was registered as an independent institution, as
Trading Broadcasting Company “Radio Vati”, and was no longer a branch of
“Vat-Inos” Company.
Radio Vat is among the first
private radio stations in Skopje and Macedonia, founded in April 1994. This was
a period when dozens of other private radio and television stations broadcast
without licence, but there was no legal regulation to restrict this work. Only
recently Macedonia finally started regulating the broadcasting. Initially, only
in Skopje region, there where five radio stations and two television stations
broadcasting in Albanian language, and more than 30 broadcasting in Macedonian.
However, Radio Vat overthrew the
competition and became one of the favourite radio stations in the region. This
was possible due to the serious work and dedication of the employees to
professional and objective informing.
The principals of impartial and
objective informing always guide the staff of Radio Vat. Main engagements cover
daily events and developments, especially in Macedonia; but also promotion of
human rights, non-discriminating policy and identifying problems and interests
of citizens.
Multiethnic and multicultural
society of Macedonia, gives us the opportunity to work seriously on these issues,
with a special retrospection in resolving interethnic hatred and intolerance,
which has deep rotes in Macedonia and the Balkans.
Radio Vat is among few
independent media in Macedonia, working with a programme schedule created on the
bases of interests and needs of the audience. Changes in the programme schedule
are always made after consulting the Editorial Council of the radio, but also
different categories of listeners.
Starting from 2000, Radio Vat has its own Editorial
Council, consisted of independent journalists, publishers and analysts,
well-respected persons of Macedonian society. This Council gives suggestions,
proposals and evaluations for all the changes to be done in the programme
schedule. But, the Council never brings decisions about the radio.
Radio Vat is broadcasting a 24-hour programme a day,
always including different issues for different categories of listeners. News;
economic, political and social events; programmes dedicated to women issues
children and youth; music; culture, art and entertainment – these are the
themes (programs) that give a reflection of Radio Vat's work.
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TV BTR Nacional – Skopje (Romani language)
TV BTR Nacional is a private Romani TV station, situated
in Skopje, the capital of Macedonia. As a private station, TV BTR Nacional
finances itself from advertisement. However, considering the economic situation
in Macedonia, and especially considering the fact that this is a Romani TV
station, TV BTR Nacional is not in a position to cover all expenses with incomes
from the advertising. Therefore, we have to look for grants from foundations,
which will help us to cover the main expenses related to the work of the TV
station.
The project proposal "Improving
TV BTR Nacional's situation" addresses the needs that the TV station has in
2001 and which it cannot cover on its own.
Established in 1992, TV BTR
Nacional was the first Roma TV station worldwide that was broadcasting a daily
24-hour program. Over the years the TV station has developed and has improved in
quality.
The primary goal has been to develop an informative
structure that will serve for the media needs of Roma people in the Republic of
Macedonia. Today we can say that we have succeeded in realizing our goal and we
have become a serious informative center. Today we broadcast daily news on
various topics, as well as programs covering the areas of music, health,
education, social issues, many cultural events concerning Roma people, etc.
As a Romani TV station our
target audience is the Roma population – most of the broadcast program is in
Romani language. But we broadcast a program for the majority population as well,
and this program is aired in Macedonian language. By doing this we are on the
one hand trying to improve the educative and the cultural level of the Roma
population, and on the other to introduce the Roma to the majority, so we are
making our own contribution in reducing the ethnical tensions.
Considering the
fact that Macedonia is a relatively new state, it has been undergoing some very
complex processes that accompany this transitional period. One of the problems
that everyone in Macedonia is faced with is the bad economic situation, and the
TV station is not an exception. Therefore the advertisements cannot cover
everything that comes out from our own production and we have to look out for
foundations that can help us in realizing all our ideas.
But still we are
continuing our work and with a lot of hard work we are achieving positive
results. One of the bigger successes is a Second prize that TV BTR Nacional won
in 2000, at the 16th "Golden Beggar" Festival organized in Kosice,
Slovakia. There, the documentary "What is a childhood" in TV BTR
Nacional's production won the second prize in a competition of more than 100
programs produced by almost 50 local TV stations from 16 countries, which were
screened at the festival. TV BTR Nacional was the only representative from
Macedonia, and the documentary was the only Romani production screened at the
festival.
Developing our TV
program more and more is the most important job for us. We are planning to
continue our work as a Roma Television and we are going to give our best in
order to contribute for solving some of the Roma related problems.
-
Radio Cerenja – Stip (Romani language)
Total
staff: 10, of which one is legally employed and the rest are all working on a
voluntary basis. Among them are 4 journalists in all broadcasted languages and 2
technicians.
Potential audience: 45,000 (the
population of Stip), including 5’000 Roma, plus the population of some
surrounding villages.
Roma Radio "Cherenja"
is a voice of the Roma people from Stip. This Radio is the first one in
Macedonia, and maybe within the Balkans, which spreads through the ether the
voice of one civilization, one nation that has been held back through years, a
nation which is scattered throughout the world.
Roma Radio "Cherenja“
was established on 8 November 1994 in Stip. This radio, with very small
financial support, provides great educative and all-inclusive contributions for
civilization to its listeners every day. . It has become a daily need for the
Roma people in Stip and the vicinity. Like other private radio and TV stations,
Radio "Cherenja" depends of the marketing profit. However, Radio
"Cherenja" directly suffers in this regard for various reasons. One of
them is a general prejudice about Roma people among other nations and financial
infirmity of the Roma people to support this radio with commercials, because 90%
of the Roma people are dependent on social support. Nevertheless, to accomplish
our planned program we need to pay our staff that will engage in the realization
of our ambitious goals.
Roma Radio "Cherenja"
is planning the following programs for this year:
The International Media Fund IMF for Macedonia
Seven organisations included
into the IMF – Open Society Institute – Network Media Program (Budapest),
Fond of Open Society Institute – Macedonia (Skopje), Swedish Helsinki
Committee (Stocholm), Press Now (The Netherlands), Norwegian People’s Aid
(regional office in Belgrade), IREX ProMedia (USA) and Medienhilfe
Ex-Jugoslawien (Switzerland) – signed a Memorandum of Understanding, which
regulates the operation and the tasks of the IMF. The main points that regulate
the IMF’s operatio are as follows:
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All decisions are made by the Board, comprisiong of one
representative of the each IMF member-organisation.
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The implementatio is coordinated by the Fond of
Open Society Institute – Macedonia and Medienhilfe Ex-Jugoslawien. Both
organisations have presence in the field.
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Regulation of the grants’ implementation is defined in
a felxible way in order to meet different rules each among the members have.
The grants are usually paid on the account of Fond of Open Society Institute
– Macedonia (FOSI-M) and then implemented by FOSI-M and Medienhilfe
Ex-Jugoslawien.
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medienhilfe, P.O. Box, CH-8031
Zürich, Switzerland