MANJINE I MEDIJI NA ZAPADNOM BALKANU - RRPP

Professionalism – a foundation for a more successful social mission of media
Analysis of content of programs broadcasting in minority languages or in the language of the
majority people speaking about the position of national minorities points to all weaknesses
that are present in professional program editing in general – use of just one source (or
multiple sources with identical meaning), uncritical attitude and bias, influence of political
parties and informal groups, mixing information with commentary. Experience from
Montenegro also warns of an unstimulating general political environment for consensual
agreement of citizens within the newly-created system of the status of peoples and national
minorities. Most media use simple genres and there is a shortage of investigative work and
interesting program solutions, diminishing the opportunity for achieving fuller media effects
in the public. These objections especially regard radio and television programs and
publications edited by national minority members who are often not professional journalists.
In Macedonia, a particular problem called “diaspora editing” is pointed out, which means that
the editorial policies of these programs are often based on the views and opinions of the
policies of institutions and minority organizations from the so-called respective mother
countries to which parts of the ethnic groups in Macedonia belong. Also, at least based on this
monitoring, the most pronounced kind of reporting in Macedonia is from “top to bottom”
which consists of presenting a large number of views of different authorities, primarily
politicians, rather than of the base, i.e. citizens and actors of various social events. On the
other hand, the dominant type of reporting in BiH consists of consulting sources coming from
among regular citizens or NGOs and minority associations. But the reason for this is an
underdeveloped system of informing national minorities where most content is based on
covering the work of national minority associations. In addition, when we talk about content
issues, in all countries, especially in BiH, reporting on the Roma population (regardless of
whether provided by Roma or mainstream media) is reduced to issues of social inclusion and
the extremely grave social and economic position of this minority.
Higher professional quality of these programs may be achieved by boosting the overall
professionalism of the whole media outlet, as well as through continuous inclusion of editors
of minority programs in the real life of media newsrooms, i.e. in all agreements and activities
that strengthen professional and ethnic criteria of program editing. On the other hand,
journalists should find reliable sources (fixers) from minority communities who will draw
their attention to problems in the particular community, suggest sources and thus give ideas
for deeper and better coverage of these issues.
There is a general need in developed newsrooms of public services and minority media to
organize continuous training programs, seminars and practical classes for editors and program
presenters, especially for those who are not professional journalists. This particularly regards
programs for the Roma community where good journalists and presenters in the Romany
language who also speak well the language cannot be ensured.
In the countries monitored in this survey, there are organizations and institutions that have
experience in education of specific staff for programs about minorities and for minorities.
Equipping media professionals with knowledge of minority languages
Use of national minority language in media, in particular on radio and television, is an
important and sensitive program issue. A program in one’s mother tongue means promoting
one’s identity, especially culture, education and preservation of the historic heritage of a
people, but such programs are inaccessible for the broader audience, they remain closed, and
19