edition-dw-akademie-in-the-service-of-the-public-functions-and-transformation-of-media-in-developing-countries-pdf

– According to the interviewees, the internal structureof RTS has to be modernized; both people and costsshould be reduced and the effectiveness increased. Currently,RTS has too many employees. A plan is neededfor a systematic reduction of staff.– Independence of the RRA council should be guaranteedand it must be ensured that all members fulfill thedetermined criteria, i.e., are real experts and thus workprofessionally.– The RRA should take its task seriously and rigorouslymonitor and control RTS’s programming. It should bemore critical and make sure that all legal provisions arefulfilled. Further, the RRA council should appoint a governingboard of RTS, which is free of political influenceand consists of high level experts of the field.– RTS should develop and implement an ethical coderegarding editorial guidelines, which are adopted by allemployees.– In order to ensure that its staff is constantly trained,RTS should establish its own systematical journalismtraining program such as an in-house traineeship. Inparticular younger journalists who have not benefittedfrom the training provided by BBC Media Action wouldprofit and be able to better meet international professionalstandards. For continuing education it would befurther advisable to establish the internal training centeragain.– Regarding its programming, RTS should not favorthe political party in power and equally criticize andcover all political and social actors and topics. Further, itshould enlarge its programs that provide follow-up andbackground information and thus offer political andsocial orientation. Investigative journalism should bestrengthened.– RTS should be aware of the communication needs ofSerbia’s national minorities and take them into accountin their programs. The same is true for the regionalpopulation – regional issues should not be constantlyunder-represented.Overall, RTS is one example that shows that a successful transformationfrom a former state broadcaster to a public servicebroadcaster is possible. Despite the remaining problems thenetwork generally has sufficient resources – both physical andprofessional – to further advance its transformation process.Moreover, the potential EU membership of Serbia is likely tohave an additional positive impact on its public service broadcaster,as the country is forced to meet EU standards. The inter-viewees pointed out that further international support suchas topical training workshops (e.g., on EU issues) or supportin the organizational development of the broadcaster in thecontext of the modernization of its internal structure mightbe helpful. However, there was a general consensus that currentlyno major international interventions are necessary – afact that further supports the assumption that generally RTS’stransformation process has been successful. DW Akademiestill supports some initiatives for innovation among PSM inthe Balkans: Currently, a center of excellence is being establishedwhich aims to promote public service media in SouthEast Europe and ensure the participating media a close exchangeabout the individual reform processes. The center willbe located at the Serbian regional public service broadcasterRTV in Novi Sad and supported by national and regional PSMsof Serbia’s neighboring countries (Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo,Macedonia, Montenegro) as well as RTS.B92 and RTS: Different Approaches to Public Service BroadcastingB92 and RTS could not be more different: On the one handthere is B92, the commercially-funded formerly public service,ideology-driven, innovative, critical and banned semi-pirateyouth radio, which due to changes in the ownership structurehas become a profit-driven, less public service-oriented commercialnational media network. On the other hand there isRTS, the traditional and well-established former mouthpieceand propaganda tool of the authoritarian Milošević regime,which after a complex transformation process is Serbia’s officialpublic service braodcaster, offering socially responsiblemedia content.This chapter shows that despite their differing preconditions,both B92 and RTS managed to serve as public servicebroadcasters in their respective time and context. While B92from the beginning followed an ideology of social responsibilityand was always led by strong public service principles, themedia outlet had very limited technical and financial resourcesat its disposal. In order to be able to survive and guaranteesustainability, B92 journalists gave their media outlet into thehands of profit-oriented businessmen; a fact that, not surprisingly,led to an increase in commercialization and a decreasein the fulfillment of public service functions. RTS, in contrast,lacked public service principles for a long time, but always hadat its disposal generally secured resources through the statebudget and later license fees. This shows that in one case thelack of resources and in the other case the lack of public serviceideology prevented the media outlets from being realpublic service broadcasters. Consequently, from the examplesof B92 and RTS, the following basic assumption can be derived:In the ideal case public service media should act in an environmentof both strong, deeply-rooted public service principlesand sufficient and secured resources in order to be able to fulfillits public service functions without major obstructions.172