Media and Civil Society in SEE

08 February 2006

Technically speaking - and following a wider definition of the term civil society - the media are, indeed, part of the civil society. They share the same goals, hopefully (but not necessarily) the same ideas with the civil society organizations. Ergo, they should be able to cooperate better.

This wider definition, of course, treats the civil society as a group of values, including pluralism, coexistence and mutual acceptance of divers worldviews and lifestyles. Speaking of civil society organizations, on the other hand, implies the much narrower definition that leaves the media out � at least the majority of the media, which, although may be set up as nonprofit NGOs, belong to the other two organizational sectors: private profit or public sector.

The very fact that we feel the need to discuss the relation between the media and civil society (understood in its narrower definition of civil society organizations and nongovernmental organizations), proves that something is wrong there, that something is missing.

Consider, for instance, the 5th NGO Fair, held in early December 2005, in Skopje, Macedonia. A three day event, with literally hundreds participating organizations, a schedule crammed with workshops, debates and round-table discussions, merited a couple of general announcements in the leading newspapers. The cameras, photographers and reporters were seen in great numbers only for the five or so minutes that the President of the Republic dedicated to the opening ceremony.

You will find a lot of mention of the media dedication to high politics and �show biz� scene in the Balkans, their tabloidization, susceptibility to the scandalous and �glamorous� (if that adjective is applicable, at all) in these parts of the world, to the �bad news is good news� approach. It comes as no surprise, then, that the media apply the same approach to CSOs and NGOs, resulting in presenting them as closed, exclusive, publicly unaccountable entities, often treated �traitors� to the nation or the state, �foreign mercenaries�.

All of that, of course, can be justified under the freedom of speech and sovereignty of editorial policy principles. The question is, what do the civil society organizations do to change that view, to provoke positive coverage and force the media to act on their civil society �obligations� rather than tending to their business or political interests, however legitimate they may be.

A great number of organizations, lamentably, are faced with situations of having to work and go against the flow of the prevailing public opinion in their respective countries. Much greater level of investment in improved public relations skills and know-how must become the order of the day, since the reliance on individual organizations that specialize in this area of work is obviously insufficient.

Following are the brief presentations of the local situations in the countries in the region.

Kosovo

As a result of the NATO campaign in 1999 the population of Kosovo was given a new possibility to develop independent expression of public opinion with the help of free media. The role of the quality press in the development of public opinion is clearly reflected in its objectives.

The press should have an input in building a civil society, �which is characterized by the introduction of democratic structures, an organized legal system, guarantees for human rights and a market economy alternative to the socialist disaster economy�.

Being the most important forum for public discussion, the press must be free and independent in order to create a possibility for the public to judge as independently and as objectively as possible. In post-war Kosovo society, which has begun to head towards a Western-oriented democratic society, this is a difficult endeavour.

It is still very difficult for the quality press to play the role it should play and to find its place in society in a situation where law enforcement still remains weak, public security is rather a wish and the reconciliation process between the ethnic groups of Albanians and Serbs needs a long time.

During the 90s, an early form of civil society developed in Kosovo as well. As the other countries of the Eastern bloc opted for a pluralistic and open society and against totalitarianism and expressed their civic disobedience, in Kosovo a number of alternative groups and associations were also established. At that time, an alternative movement developed. Intellectuals initiated the establishment of opposition groups such as the Writers� Association, the Association of Philosophers and Sociologists of Kosovo, the Council for the Defence of Human Rights and Freedoms, and some opposition journals.

This period led to the creation of a more or less active civil society. As a result of their isolation from public life, Albanians came together with the aim to fulfill their basic social needs of culture, education, and common public life through the possibilities and means of civil society. In addition, various associations, which did not belong to the �parallel power structure�, helped the population in different activities.

This situation changed completely after the war. The initiative of the Kosovo �Civil
Society� was not asked for anymore. The United Nations assigned themselves the task of building a civil society in Kosovo. The citizens were supposed to learn from international organizations how to become �equal participants in the decision making process� of a recently established national government. Many international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) as well as international foundations came to Kosovo and financed the establishment of local NGOs.

This concept of civil society has two major flaws. Firstly, it is not built on the basis of solidarity and voluntary commitment, two features which characterized social cohesion in Kosovo before and during the war and supported public welfare.

The CSOs are an essential element for creation of more effective states, having in mind that they are the basis of collective action. The media is linked to civil society as, when the media is independent, both play important roles in holding the state accountable.

At present, there is a certain level of cooperation between the CSO�s and media in Kosovo, although it remains far below the desired, having in mind that they both cover each other in a rather superficial fashion.

(Extracted from �Paradigms of the Relationship between Civil Society and Media in Kosovo� by Sahadete Limani

Macedonia
The civil sector in Macedonia, over the past 10 years, has strengthened and takes an important place in the development of the democratic processes in the country. There is, however, an evident lack of quality and continued cooperation of the civil sector and the media, and the state institutions.
The current sporadic, inadequate and ineffective approach to the NGOs applied by the media, and vice versa, has resulted in a situation in which the role and the importance of the civil sector is not truly recognized. This lack of communication causes further misunderstandings and wrong interpretation of the work of the NGOs, which ultimately leads to slower political, economic and social reforms in Macedonia.
The majority of the media in Macedonia still believe the generalized view of the civil sector as �political party mouthpiece�, while the NGOs are seen as intransparent organizations that are not held accountable for their financial operations by anyone, including the donors and the state institutions. Lamentably, the civil sector still fights the prevailing opinion that the NGOs are, in fact, �governmental�, some of them even family operations, while others are perceived as party mouthpieces which can�t represent the civil society.

On the other hand, the NGO sector is mostly disappointed by the nonresponsiveness of the media to the civic activities. The media, mostly oriented towards political affairs and tabloid contents, hold many a prejudice regarding the functioning of the civil sector. The media treat the work of the non-governmental organizations superficially and reinforce the black-and-white perception that the two sectors have of each other. Although the civil sector is increasingly more present in the media in the last couple of years, the reporting is reduced to short news, with only a few analyses and comments that would go deeper into the essence of NGO activities. The fact remains that the civil initiatives will enjoy far greater coverage should they integrated into the context of daily political issues.

There is one organization in Macedonia, the NGO InfoCentre, that works to strengthen and improve the communication between the NGOs and the media. It functions as a free PR service for the Macedonian NGOs, and in the moment it is involved in monitoring of professional standards in the reporting of the leading media in Macedonia. The Media Development Centre is concentrated on media legislation, while the Macedonian Institute for the Media � MIM works on education and training of young journalists in Macedonia.

Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina, a country in transition, undergoes a number of changes necessary on its road to Europe. Things unimaginable in the former regime are now on the expansion and path of accelerated development. This is especially true of the civil society, which has become, over a relatively short period of time, one of the important factors of civil activism and organization in the country.

Generally speaking, we can hardly be satisfied with the professionalism of B&H media when reporting on topics directly related to civil society and its development.

There is a general problem with the quality of domestic journalism, starting from the level of language correctness, all the way to the actual contents. Naturally, the so-called yellow press leads these negative trends. The reporting on civil society is unsatisfactory, there is not objective information on the true developments in the area and, having in mind the fact that civil society is a rather complex subject, it requires a great care on the behalf of the journalists. The existing situation requires continuing education of the journalists.

In her review of Media Literacy and Civil Society, Zrinjka Perusko, Associate Researcher with the Dept of Culture and Communication of the Foreign Relations Institute from Zagreb, write that �the subject of media literacy and civil society has not been approached in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the past�.

Having in mind the complex circumstances for B&H civil society, the role of the media gains on importance and much work still needs to be done in that area, to enable the press to fulfil their task and the expectations of the present day times.

Croatia
According to the latest public opinion survey on public views of non-governmental organizations of December 2005, conducted by the 'Ivo Pilar' Institute of Social Sciences, the majority of the citizens of Croatia are familiar with the terms association and non-governmental organization.

On the other hand, approximately 40% of the polled doesn't know what these associations do, one quarter don't know a of a single such organization, and a fifth of the polled citizens recognize organizations in a single field � mostly associations involved in issues of war veterans and victims of war, followed by the environmental organizations. The least known are the organizations that deal with issues of national minorities, civil society development, unemployed and culture.

Furthermore, the survey shows that the media are the main source of information on the work of civil society organizations, above all, the television. The obvious conclusion is that the ability to attract the attention of the media, television in particular, is not equally distributed among all CSOs. Therefore, we should say that the media presence of the Croatian non-profit sector as a whole is inadequate.

One cause of this deficit of public visibility can be found in the low interest and knowledge with the mainstream media journalists about the civil society, as well as the general orientation of editorial policies towards contents that lead to increased circulation and ratings. On the other hand, it most certainly results from the lack of resources and capacities of the CSOs in the area of public relations.

As of late, there is a rising trend in the number of media initiatives for production and distribution of news directly or indirectly related to the non-profit sector. In addition to the television stories on civil society prepared for the national television broadcaster by the FADE IN organization; and ZaMirZine - electronic magazine for CSO visibility; the H-Alter portal was launched recently, specialised in promotion of civil society values; the �Civildreta� radio show on Radio 101 that covers the work of Croatian association; and �Cenzura� TV programme, broadcast by regional television networks in Split-Dalmatia, Primorje-Gora and Istria Counties.

There are also several other media that specialize in individual sectors: gay.hr portal that covers the topics related to LFBTIQ community; Kulturpunkt portal and 04 magazine on independent cultural scene; and Alert, independent environmental magazine.

In spite of their numbers, these are primarily online media. This approach to distribution of information is, certainly, very much suited to non-profit organizations, having in mind the relatively low production costs. On the other hand, the influence of the online media remains weak, compared to the television, even for the most visited news portals. Therefore, the question remains if internet is sufficient to compensate the relative lack of interest on the part of the mainstream media?

Serbia
Unlike the 1990s, when the civil society representatives in Serbia were simply satanized, especially by the regime media, the democratic changes of 5 October 2000 brought about an increasingly more harmonious relations between the media and the civil society. According to a recent survey, conducted by CRNPS in 2002 with the editors of 306 editorial offices in Serbia, the people from the media believe that they work together with the media on the same task � creation of a well-organized society. Only 10% of the polled editors didn�t agree with that view.

Nonetheless, in spite of the huge amount of goodwill expressed on the superficial level, the general impression is of a deep misunderstanding between the media and civil society in Serbia.

The last decade has left catastrophic marks on Serbian journalis. The editorial offices are small and poor, their journalists undereducated. A recent survey conducted by the Centre for Professionalization of the Media, close to one half of all practicing journalists in Serbia have not completed their university degrees.

The CRNPS survey concludes that the media view the importance of the civil society in too general terms, which is combined by the superficial approach and often ignorance in essential matters.

"The understanding of the NGOs as the most logical and direct response of free civil initaitives to its challenges (i.e. �renewal of the rather negledted civic self-organization practices�) does escape, it seems, the social group involved in management of our media outlets�, conclude the authors of the research, Zoran Markovic and Slobodan Reljic.

On the other hand, the NGOs are often close to the media, they don�t speak the media language and don�t understand the conditions in which the media work or their modus operandi, for that matter.

Small, local organizations involved in local issues have, in general, the best passing rate with the Serbian media. The same goes for big humanitarian organizations. The problem, however, appears with organizations involved in human rights related issues � especiall was crimes. Having in mind that their representatives often say thing that the Government, the citiznes and, yes, the media, don�t want to hear, such organizations are often a target to comcerted media attacks.

That is especially true of Natasa Kandic, the Director of the Humanitarian Law Centre; Sonja Biserko, the President of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia; Biljana Kovacevic-Vuco fro mthe Human Rights Lawyers Committee; and Borka Pavicevic from the Centre for Cultural Decontamination. Serbian tabloids call them �the bitches� and the �four witches� and have started a media war against them, attacks which often transform to public call to lynch them.

There is a similar division in the relationship between civil society and media in serbia in terms of the topics covered by the media. The civil society representatives working on legislative solutions or commenting on various moves by the Government are very much present in the media. The organizations that represent minority groups are somewhere on the margins, while feminist and gay activists meet with almost universal ridicule.
Albania
The media in Albania were newly restored after the fall of the communist regime. They have gone through a complete transformation, getting closer to the reality.

Flash back: as a strong instrument, the media was used to control the population behavior through indoctrination. The media worked for the leaders, transmitting �orders� to the society and not by showing what the society needed or claimed. There was a limited media, in number and kind, just one television and one radio station, and less than ten newspapers. They mostly carried information on the success of communism in internal affairs and globally, pushing to the side the cruel reality of suffering people. Even when problems were discussed or showed in the media, they were addressed to institutions controlled by the regime or directly to individuals who were classified �enemy of the people�.

During the collapse of the former regime, the media remained under firm control of the remains of the regime. Nonetheless, the winds of change and liberty already were blowing among the Albanian journalists. The news were always about the �successes and the efforts� of the regime to prevent the changes imposed by �some delinquents�.

Later, there was a boom in the media freedom and freedom of speech, and the media focused greatly on the events and developments in society and the effects that politics had on society. The media tried to be independent in the presentation of the civil society life, but its working experience and the fact that most of the written media were of strong political inclination, contributed to a situation in which the media served the interests of a given part of the political spectrum.

Since then, the media have evolved by leaps and bounds. There is a higher number of printed newspapers and magazines, radios, televisions, and everyone has its own characteristics. Even if most of them are political they can approach the civil society issues. But, in spite of the fact that the good improvements have been recognized, some NGOs have their reservations regarding the media transparence and their neutrality.

Many NGOs organized campaigns against businesses or companies like; KESH, Albanian Beg ambient, INA-Naftaplin, Royal casino etc, but due to the fact that these companies are financing the media through the advertising, the position of the media was not favourable to the civil society. This has been interpreted as a new kind of dependency and censure of the media.