27. 11. 2010

THE RICH SEE MEDIA AS THEIR PLAYGROUND

Belgrade, November 27.2010. (Danas) - Among the Sebian media owners, there is no awareness of the importance of the education and training of the people working for media. Changes in the journalists' formal education are also necessary, because it pays too much attention to the theory - says for Danas Carsten von Namen, from Deutsche Welle Academy.

Von Namen, who visited Serbia on the occasion of this Academy's alumni gathering, said that hitherto this Academy have held around 30 trainings for around 300 journalists in Serbia.

We heard during the trainings that journalists were not paid by their media houses for the period spent at trainings. This shows that their managers see such trainings as a leisure activity without understanding that if they would like to advance the quality of their media, they must invest into it strategically -Von Namen explained. 

- What are the experiences of the Deutsche Welle Academy from trainings in Serbia?

- We have been working in Serbia for ten years and this gathering is an opportunity for us to see how much we have contributed to the media scene. What often happens is that people who had attended our trainings were not able to implement new knowledge completely because of the situation in their media house. However, we found out it was not enough and therefore we established the collaboration with the OSCE Mission a year ago in regard with the legal framework in this field.

- Could you give us your opinion on the situation of the media scene in this region? Could you compare it with the situation in other countries in the region? 

Athough, some differences do exist, problems the countries of the former Yugoslavia face are basically the same.  Ethical and professional standards are often not respected by journalists and editors-in-chief and political pressure also contibutes to it. 

       - Could you notice a certain progress of the Serbian media in the period of the last ten years?

The media scene in your country is freer comparing to the period of the Milosevic's regime. However, the transitional period have been very hard and complicated. Journalist and media managers often understand that media freedom means that they could do whatever they want. This led to the situation that the rich see media as their toys. 

- Which segments have to be changed?

- Changes should start from the journalists themselves, which means that the attitude toward journalism should be changed. A greater collaboration and solidarity among journalists are needed as well as investing in building the journalists' quality. Legal framework should also be improved.

The fourth society's pillar in Germany

"Media in Germany have a role of control mechanism, the fourth society's pillar, while this is not the case in Serbia and journalists often change their profession because of that. Journalists' profession in Germany is among highest paid jobs because it requires academic degree", Karsten von Namen stressed out.