Television and Multiculture

By Radenko Udovicic




Bar, a town in the Montenegrin part of the Adriatic coast, again hosted the Gathering of Public Televisions of South East Europe in May this year. Representatives of public and state televisions from Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Albania, Romania, Moldova, Bulgaria and Slovenia participated for the second year in a row. The gathering was organized by the Center for Media Communications MEDIACOM, which operates within the framework of the International TV Festival in Bar, Media Plan from Sarajevo and Germany's ZDF television.

The greatest value of the Bar gathering is quality of discussions and participants' attitude towards colleagues and televisions from other countries. Some, we dare call them revolutionary meetings occurred last year in the Montenegrin port between former 'enemy' televisions from the triangle - Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia. Although the present managements of these televisions have nothing to do with the war episode in the Balkans, these houses still carry a negative legacy. The significance of the gathering was therefore manifold - dialog was established and a foundation was set for future cooperation.

Two issues that dominated this year's gathering were 'Media and multiculture' and an issue that is still acute in this region - transformation of state televisions into public televisions.

Dilemmas Regarding Multiculture

Multiculture in the media is a top issue all over the world, particularly generated by terrorists attacks on the United States, and it is used in the media to prevent a conflict between Islam and Christianity. In South East Europe, a multinational region with acute conflicts, coverage of these issues brings up many dilemmas, both in aim as well as content.

For the majority of the countries in the region, it is noticeable, especially in terms of media, that multiculture is greatly simplified. Dubravka Valic Nedeljkovic, director of Novi Sad School of Journalism and media analyst, said that coverage of multicultural events is reduced to festivals and performances. 'The media follow only what is in the theater, in concerts, in folklore events or children's recitals,' says Nedeljkovic, adding that this cannot be accepted as media coverage of multiculture and diversity. 'Real issues are very rare. For example, issues speaking about public use of a minority language in a majority community. Also, the issues of non-existence of media or hampered work of media in multilingual or multiethnic communities. I would especially like to stress the lack of issues speaking about problems faced by someone who is a minority and the attitude of the majority community towards minorities,' says the Novi Sad School of Journalism director.

In the countries that emerged following the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia, as well as in all of South East Europe, the term multiculture is often reduced to ethnic rights of minorities and identification of these rights with religious freedoms. Another characteristic, which was partly evident in the programs shown in Bar, is that the main protagonists of items on minorities are residents of rural areas, usually living on the verge of an existential minimum. By analogy, it turns out that ethnic problems only appear in villages and that the poverty of these people is caused by the fact that they are minorities, which of course is not always true.

Bosnia-Herzegovina is in a particularly specific position regarding production of programs on diversities. This country does not have ethnic minorities in the real meaning of the word, but its war legacy is such that each one of its three constituent peoples is a minority in a certain area with jeopardized human rights. What is the formula for producing programming that reflects the Bosnian diversities?

Lazar Petrovic, director of Public TV Service of Bosnia-Herzegovina, said that this country is often compared to a patient who has suffered a serious brain stroke and must start everything all over - to learn, to walk, to write and read, to speak. 'In this post-war therapy, one of the key medicines is Public TV Service of BiH which must teach Bosnians and Herzegovinians, i.e. Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats, something they once knew - respect and coexistence,' said the former journalist and present director. According to Petrovic, the TV service that he runs will present in its program all the diversities that exist in Bosnian society. He said the very fact that this is a TV service of three peoples, which have different religious backgrounds (and usually political affiliations as well), guarantees that it will be multicultural. 'It is important that the programming radiates tolerance and cherishes the right to be different. Along with offering timely and accurate information, that is our main goal,' said Petrovic.

TV achievements dealing with multiculture in countries of South East Europe were shown to initiate discussion in Bar. The very topics of the programs and items showed how broad is the term multiculture. From the already mentioned rural (minority) communities and destitute life in them, through the position of Romas, return of refugees, to cultural events including performances of artists from different communities. Even a cursory glance at the presented programs shows what burdens each society. For example, the Bulgarian program discusses the issue of the Turkish minority, TV Federation BiH focuses on refugee return and ethnic reconciliation, Romanians talk about the Serbian and Hungarian minorities, TV Slovenia speaks about Bosnian refugees who are still present in that country, whilst Macedonians deal with the pan-Slavic vision of culture.

Editors of two programs - from Macedonia and Croatia - emphasized that the main motivation that drives them to make such programs is an event, rather than a directive or compulsion to do something in order to maintain an image of multiculture in the program. Daniela Drastata, editor of Croatian Television's newsroom for ethnic minorities, produces a program called 'Prizma' (Prism), which deals with ethnic minorities in Croatia. Although this is a specialized program, Drastata says that in choosing topics she is guided by what is important and interesting, i.e. by journalistic motivations. Sandra Titizova, editor of Macedonian Television's cultural program and author of one of the films that was shown, 'Macedonian Odyssey 2001,' also believes that multiculture is best presented if a chance is given to authors from different communities to come up with ideas and present them. That is how a theater play of the same name appeared, which she presented in this documentary film.

Returning Neighborhood Into Program

An old rule of journalism says the best editor is one with a vision. Vision is particularly sensitive in the field of multiculture, which covers a broad field permeated with political and cultural influences. 'Mixing up' these influences requires journalistic skill as well as life experience. Editors of televisions in the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro offer some answers on how they do this.

Dzevdet Tuzlic, editor of BiH Federation Television's cultural and art program, was categorical: 'The time of war has passed, we must look to the future.' As Tuzlic says, 'it is essential to return the neighborhood to our everyday option.' Namely, good-neighborly relations in Bosnia-Herzegovina were something which was appreciated the most, and which was well shaken by the past war. 'BiH Federation RTV programming should reflect all phenomena in society, especially ones that reflect diversities in the country and among its peoples. In this way the programming will be in the service of viewers, as well as in the service of Public Service itself to justify its existence,' said the BiH Federation TV editor.

Nikola Mirkov, editor-in-chief of RTV Serbia, said the past decade left a deep imprint on all walks of life, including what we call multiculturality. 'I think this is the right moment, without any Yugo-nostalgic or pretentious political thoughts, to once again enable information to flow among the former Yugoslav republics. I think the time has come for us to carefully follow what is easy, attractive and normal. What is happening in all parts of our former homeland and among all the peoples that make it up is a very interesting, and I would say essential task in the program,' said Mirkov and added that TV Serbia is heading in that direction.

Novica Samardzic, editor of TV Montenegro's cultural and art program, said his house is open to all cultural options today, particularly to the cultures of ethnic minorities living in Montenegro. Samardzic allows for the possibility that there is sometimes certain disproportion in presenting other cultures, but says that it is certainly not intentional. However, in his opinion, the natural harmony of multiculturality in this region is somewhat disturbed by the increasing influence of products of commercial culture imposed by global corporations. 'The trend of such corporations, which have huge influence all over the world, including Montenegro, is to level the taste, regardless of whether we are talking about dominant national culture or the cultures of ethnic minorities,' said Samardzic.

The general view of the majority of participants in Bar was that multiculture and diversity should certainly not be ghettoized and covered in special programs. They need to become an integral part of regular programs, which will include all diversities in the ethnic, cultural, religious, traditional and all other fields in social life. Special programs are desirable, but they should only add to real life reflected in overall programming. A very interesting presentation in this regard was made by Ekkhardt Gahntz, chief coordinator of ZDF news programs, who said that the number of ethnic minorities in Germany is very small (around one percent), but that his country has millions of foreigners who work there or have taken German citizenship. 'These are mostly Turks, people from Eastern Europe… We used to create special programs for them, but they were primarily watched by moderate Germans and ignored by those they were intended for. That is why the best solution is to present all problems, diversities, peculiarities, through regular programming. Stronger background can perhaps be given when covering an issue to make it more understandable, but it certainly should not be separated from actual social reality. In this way, it will become normal and part of German society,' said Gahntz.

Closely related to this was the second topic of the gathering - transformation of state televisions into public services - because these televisions should serve public interest. This, at least in democratic countries, includes multiculturality. An interesting coincidence is that Public Service of Bosnia-Herzegovina senior management, which was present in Bar, received news that the High Representative had imposed the Law on Public Service of Bosnia-Herzegovina, which had started operating in Bosnia-Herzegovina even before that, but was now finally founded formally and legally.

The Second Gathering of Public Televisions of South East Europe resulted in an agreement to exchange television programs among 12 televisions from the region. The project will initially be financed only partly from participating televisions' resources, and the main support will be provided by the South East Europe Stability Pact. The program exchange is envisioned in such a way that each of the 12 televisions, for one offered program, receives 12 programs. The main criteria that each program must meet are high standard of production and professional presentation, as well as relevance of the issue for other countries in the region, because what is interesting in one country may not be in another. That is the whole point of diversity.

Radenko Udovicic is editor-in-chief of the SAFAX news agency and editor of the Media Online news column. Translation by: O.H. ©Media Online 2001. All rights reserved.