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Ethics and Journalism in the South Eastern Europe Regional research conducted by: Albanian Media Institute, Tirana, Albania Media Plan Institute, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina Media Development Center, Sofia, Bulgaria International Center for Education of Journalists, ICEJ, Opatija, Croatia Macedonian Institute for Media, Skopje, Macedonia Media Center, Belgrade, Serbia Media Center, Belgrade 2005 1 Ethics and Journalism in the South Eastern Europe Comparative analysis of the journalistic profession Publisher: Media Center, Belgrade, Serbia For the Publisher: Nebojša Spaić Publication editor: Jugoslava Široka Coordinator: Milan Milošević Number of copies: 600 Printed by: Libra, Belgrade Design by: Miodrag Sindjelić www.mediacenter.org.yu ISBN 86-82827-39-5 Supported by Southeastern Europe Network for the Professionalization of the Open Society Institute FRESTA Program Media (SEENPM) of the Danish Government 2 ETHICS AND JOURNALISM IN THE SEE 1 Journalism in SEE: Aware of the ethical code, but... ........................4 1.1 How to improve the media and journalism ........................................ 7 2 Country reports .................................................................................8 2.1 Albania....................................................................................................... 8 2.1.1 It is a long way from achieving a satisfactory standard......................... 8 2.1.2 A selected choice of characteristic answers ....................................... 16 2.2 Croatia ..................................................................................................... 21 2.2.1 Small improvement, but numerous defects......................................... 21 2.2.2 A selected choice of characteristic answers ....................................... 27 2.3 Bosnia and Herzegovina ..................................................................... 31 2.3.1 Positive, but slow moves..................................................................... 31 2.4 Bulgaria.................................................................................................... 47 2.4.1 From "strongly dependent" to "absolutely free"................................. 47 2.5 Macedonia .............................................................................................. 65 2.5.1 Journalism influenced by politics and business .................................. 65 2.5.2 A selected choice of characteristic answers ....................................... 73 2.6 Serbia....................................................................................................... 81 2.6.1 Journalism in Serbia – degraded, humiliated… .................................. 81 2.6.2 A selected choice of characteristic answers ....................................... 88 3 Metodology .....................................................................................95 3.1 Questionnaire......................................................................................... 95 3.2 Professional foundation - 77 prohibitions ........................................ 98 3 1 Journalism in SEE: Aware of the ethical code, but... The research entitled “Ethics and Journalism in the SEE Region”, supported by the Southeast European Network for the Professionalization of the Media (SEENPM), has been conducted between March and July 2005 with the aim to perform a comparative analysis of the journalistic profession in times of transition, political tensions and electoral fighting. The model of an in-depth research has been used, with thematic, face-to-face interviews. Questions were prepared in advance, and answers were to be given in a free form. The research within the project SEENPM “Ethics and Journalism” has been simultaneously conducted by the following centers: Media Center, Belgrade, Serbia Media Development Center, Sofia, Bulgaria Media Plan Institute, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina Albanian Media Institute, Tirana, Albania International Center for Education of Journalists, Opatija, Croatia Macedonian Institute for Media, Skopje, Macedonia The main goal of the research was to identify joint strategy for improvement of the journalist profession on the basis of the assessed condition. Researchers have tried to find out to what extent were journalists aware of the code of ethics, if they act in accordance to them and if they were inclined to criticize others for breaching the rules. Researchers have tried to determine if journalists were victims of circumstances, political infighting, forced loyalty, self-righteousness or general bad taste. They have also tried to discover if there had been moral erosion in the media and why. The state-of-art in journalistic profession The freedom of information and quality of journalism in the SEE Europe media is open to questioning and debate. The assessment varies from “satisfying” to “worse than ever”. However, most participants believe that things are slowly improving. Lies and head nodding – laziness or ignorance? The following remarks from the research illustrate the sad state of professional and ethical standards in journalism in the Southeast Europe: journalists are prone to publishing unreliable information; they often cite anonymous sources; they don't always publish corrections (symptomatically, one of the journalists said that he did not publish a denial because the original information has been just imprecise and not incorrect, so he just informed his readers in an indirect way). Journalists also often shift responsibility for correctness of information to their sources and rarely react to obvious lies they hear during interviews. Instead of asking questions, journalists just nod their heads during interviews, says one of the editors, who referring to that interview as to an 'epic' one. Bad taste, haste or tendentiousness? The media mostly violates human rights, namely human dignity and the presumption of innocence. The main reason for such violations is sensationalism, but 4 also dilettantism. Journalists publish names of underage victims or perpetrators less often than before, but they almost always publish full names of their parents. One of the journalists told how he was doing a story about a raped girl when her mother showed up in front of his camera holding her hand. He made a picture and used it in his story: “I made a horrible mistake”. In the Southeast Europe's media one will hardly ever find accurate information whether someone is convicted or just suspected, arrested or put into the custody. Physical or mental handicaps are sometimes mentioned with the aim to violate reputation, create sensation or just ridicule a person. Mentioning ethnical origin of the individual is often used for two purposes – to imply someone's “bad” or to smear a nation through an individual. Improvements are visible, but the least for Roma! Pressure and “secret liaisons” Although the time of dominant political control over media is over, the media and journalists in the Southeast Europe are still under pressure from politicians as well as media owners. Politicians and owners are trying to influence public opinion and protect their own interests – most often combined political-financial interests –by using journalists and the media The word 'pressure', as well as the word 'influence', has been used more than 70 times in the analyses of answers received from 180 journalists from the region. Politicians influence the media on two levels: they use their official positions to exert their authority (if they are in power), or they offer journalists some benefits – the material they would use (sources of information) or material gain. Journalists get involved with politicians in variety of ways – they give advice or mediate between politicians: “I did the campaign just the way I wanted!” There are still “secret liaisons” between journalists and politicians, as some kind of power-sharing relic. Some interviewees have indirectly made reference to this – close ties with politicians can still impress some journalists. Owners usually use the most convenient mean of pressure at their disposal – journalists work for them, not the other way around. Owners often either give direct orders to journalists, or use “softer” methods to request from journalists to promote their private interests or interest of the political groups they are closely affiliated with. It is obvious that the media is getting “overpowered by a new force – money”. In both cases, editor in chief sometimes acts as an intermediary for this kind of influence, either by issuing direct orders or by using the notorious 'editorial policy'. According to journalists' testimonies, means of pressure vary from undisguised directives to either avoid or promote certain subjects - when it's in politicians' or businessmen's interest (usually not in public interest) – to 'softer' means, like suggestions and advices. The journalists interviewed said that politicians “always complain” and editorial offices are still receiving phone calls from the politicians shouting threats to journalists (“he shouted and threatened me”). Now businessmen are doing the same thing - “he was angry, although he did not threaten us”. Situation gets even more complicated when political and business interests overlap, for example when the media promotes interests of the politicians who may influence the ownership structure in 5 that particular media outlet. It is general agreement that pressure increases during elections. Analysts also drew attention to several examples