Since December 2005, project ‘Media education of Roma in BiH’ is also supported by Swedish Helsinki Committee for Human Rights. Thanks to this support, three important activities will be realized:
INTRODUCTION
The years 2005 – 2015 were declared the Decade of Roma Inclusion across Europe. The international community is trying to launch a general campaign to change the social, economic, cultural and education position of Roma to help them better integrate in the social community and to provide a better legislative foundation for solving their problems globally and locally. The media play a big role in this regard.
In Bosnia and Herzegovina, Roma and other minority groups are neglected and often shunned by society. There is a law on minorities at state level, but many obligations are not being implemented. The state and the local institutions have few support services available, and there is limited information on the services that are available. The Roma Council of the relevant ministry at state level and the Minority Council in the Republika Srpska are among the few institutions set up to help solve minority problems and support the preservation of identity of minorities in B&H. Public broadcasting services at state and entity levels (with the exception of TV Republika Srpska) do not fulfill their obligations related to producing and broadcasting specialized minority programs.
B&H passed a law on ethnic minorities only recently. At state level there is a council on Roma issues, as well as a number of local Roma associations. But attitude to Roma, as to minorities in general, is inappropriate, below the level of commitments of the state and its institutions, including the media community.
Therefore, Media Plan Institute decided to launch an informational and educational campaign aimed at helping the media give more attention to Roma issues and their socialization in B&H and to help Roma associations establish better relations with society.
Media Plan Institute has eight years of experience in education of journalists through the High College of Journalism and other education projects, experience in projects intended for minorities implemented in cooperation with STINA Institute from Split and Novi Sad Journalism School, as well as experience in education of the Roma population through conflict resolution training.
PROJECT OBJECTIVES
The mission and general objective of Media Plan Institute is to support further development of independent media in B&H, particularly introduction of new programming contents lacking in present radio and TV production which are important for development of a democratic environment in the country, satisfaction of public interest and development of the media market.
The project aims to improve the quality of news and programming available to all citizens of B&H. Only two radio stations in B&H /Student Radio EFM from Sarajevo and Studio 88 from Mostar/ have programs in the Roma language (although Roma are the biggest ethnic minority in B&H), and even these programs are not broadcast regularly and do not have educated journalists and other correspondents. Media Plan Institute will achieve the objectives of the project by providing journalistic and technical training for media correspondents from the Roma population, which will facilitate better contact between the Roma community and media, especially public services, and allow this deficient and poorly covered issue from the social milieu of Bosnia and Herzegovina to be better planned and covered. At the same time, the expert assistance given to Student Radio EFM from Sarajevo and Studio 88 from Mostar will help these radio stations’ managements and editors advance their editorial approach and content production, which as a rule is underdeveloped in the media due to the specific qualities of the Roma audience and difficulties in finding, selecting and providing media education for potential correspondents for such programs.
ACTIVITIES
This project provides basic training for representatives of Roma associations in communication with the public (educating fixers), education for contributors of public radio stations in covering Roma issues in local communities, and expert support to two radio stations in B&H to advance the quality of radio programs intended for Roma. After the training is completed, media outlets that take these correspondents will have sources of information in the Roma community. They will be stimulated, in cooperation with Roma associations and institutions of government and civil society, to better identify existential, social and cultural problems encountered by the Roma community and to launch media projects and campaigns aimed at stimulating the state and civil society to solve Roma problems faster and more efficiently and to help them integrate in the local community.
1. TRAINING
There will be training organized for 11 Roma. This number is sufficient to start with in order to provide a correspondent foundation for radio stations (public and private) which display interest in this kind of cooperation in large cities in B&H.
Training will consist in five parts:
Part one: Foundation – introduction to communication between media and public, what media can do, PR for Roma associations – how to contact media and how to use media to make local communities work actively towards solving Roma problems and their efficient integration in the social community, how to communicate with sources of information, how to maintain contact with media, ABC of journalism, computer and technical education.
Part two: Practical part – computer training, training in the field and in a radio studio, writing – event, news, contact with sources of information and field work, ethical rules, how to put initiatives to the newsroom, specific qualities of targeted programs – radio programs for Roma and informing the public about the life and problems of Roma in regular programs.
Part three: Organization of work in a newsroom – team work, how a specialized program is made, hosting programs, contact with listeners, magazine preparation.
Part four: Exercises, simulation of correspondent and editing work, hosting programs; simulation of a radio program to be aired as a pilot project on a radio station. Visit to a radio station.
Part five: Analysis, evaluation and discussion with media editors on how to implement cooperation, visit to newsrooms.
2. EXPERT SUPPORT PROGRAM (RADIO STATIONS)
B&H radio stations will be included in the implementation of activities as Media Plan Institute’s strategic partners. Student radio eFM from Sarajevo and Studio 88 from Mostar are interested in receiving expert support for their radio programs for Roma, as well as education of correspondents (attached are letters of intent). Media Plan Institute will establish cooperation with the public radio stations BH1, Radio Federation BiH, and RTV RS, which presently do not have any programs in the Roma language, but plan to launch them soon. Experience from TV RS which does have such programs will be used. Also, during the project other radio stations will be identified which want to start Roma programs. Public services in BiH have an obligation to cover what are called minority issues and to broadcast programs in ethnic minority languages. The Roma minority is the most numerous one in BiH and editorial teams of both public and commercial radio stations have expressed a desire to start such programs several times, but have cited staffing deficiency within the Roma population that can implement these programs, or at least cooperate with them. Therefore, Media Plan Institute will maintain direct contact with radio stations to inform them about the implementation of the project. In addition to making visits to Studio 88 and Radio eFM and working there, the training program participants are also planned to visit the public service, where they will have an opportunity to learn about the global technology of work and production of programs and to talk to editors and journalists about cooperation with existing programs or initial creation of new programs which participants will join after completing training.
Media Plan will launch a public awareness campaign for radio stations, inviting them to join the project of training Roma to cooperate with media by explaining to editors that most events involving Roma, or events in which Roma are the main participants, are insufficiently covered, or not covered at all, because journalists do not have enough input or sensibility for such issues. Roma, i.e. representatives of their associations, will be included as associates by becoming persons in charge of sending initial news or announcements of events, making telephone contact regarding events from a particular field related to Roma, as well as working as fixers – providing professional journalists, in a particular community, with support, contacts and additional information from that community.
Media Plan Institute will provide practical expert assistance to these radio stations’ managements and editors. The expert support program for these two radio stations will take place in five stages:
Part one: Listening to a current program for Roma, i.e. a program in the Roma language, analysis of content and the journalistic and technical methods used.
Part two: Learning about the Roma issue in B&H; specific qualities of targeted programs – radio programs for Roma and informing the public about the life and problems of Roma in regular programs.
Part three: Training with a production team:
- how to organize cooperation with sources of information,
- how to organize a newsroom,
- how to host a program,
- how to provide a bilingual program for listeners speaking Roma language and B/C/S language
Part four: Direct assistance in implementing a radio program.
Part five: Analysis, evaluation and continuous expert monitoring of how the program of cooperation between Roma, who will participate in training process, and selected radio stations, will be implemented, and how feedback information will be provided on a regular basis.
EXPECTED RESULTS
After the media education program is completed successfully, the Roma participants will be educated to work in the media: as fixers helping media teams; correspondent work – covering day’s events for radio programs; team work in large radio programs and campaigns, work in newsrooms which produce specialized radio programs in Roma language.
Expert assistance will be provided to Student Radio eFM in Sarajevo and Studio 88 in Mostar to improve the quality of their programs in Roma language, in particular to enable these media outlets to cover civil society activities aimed at solving the problems of the Roma population in local communities. This will help stabilize these specialized programs.
