CIRCOM regional CIRCOM Regional Newsmonthly o CR is the European Association of 380 Public Regional TV Stations o December 1999 / Issue A Circom Regional initiative Portugal's Porto South Eastern Europe is the 2001 CR gets special TV program Conference site. Porto, a beautiful seaside city in the through sponsoring northern part of Portugal, will be the 2001 site for the CR conference. The final decision was taken during the Southeastern Europe is one of the main priorities in the busy schedule of the CR European Board meeting in 2000 CR conference in Potsdam, June 1. Potsdam, Nov. 28 CR President R. CR members from SE Europe, media experts from the region and from Allerdt and General Secretary Boris Bergant who visited Porto are quite international institutions, will discuss and try to find possible ways for CR and enthusiastic about the available the EBU to set up a television plan for SE Europe in the framework of the Pact facilities and the city itself. for Stability. Porto with a nearby airport linking the city with Lisboa and other capitals of Europe is only three hours away from By the end of the day it is expected stations will work closely with Lisboa by train -which is an extremely that a concept of media support will colleagues from the SE European convenient way of transportation. be presented to the conference region over a longer period of time". Trains are modern and clean, with TV and taped music programs. delegates together with a plan being The daily program of the station from Portugal's CR National Coordinator developed right now under the title midnight to 6 am will be broadcast by Djalme Neves, who was present for the "Partnership -the SE Europe TV Eutelsat. It is understood that the CR meeting presented through video Program Project". European Commission will try to the city, potential hotel sites, etc. The project will be a pilot with an make this time slot available for the It is probable that the Porto conference will be held late June -"perfect timing" initial time limit of five years which new station. for some delegates who already claim will be designed and implemented Nothing has been decided yet for the spending their summer vacation after with independent, public sponsorship. "major mid-European city, which will the hectic schedule of the assembly in "The plan -says CR President Reimar be geographically close to the Balcan the beautiful Portugal coastline resort. Allerdt- includes a jointly produced region and have access to the Porto (or Oporto) is a port in NW Portugal, near the mouth of the Douro television program as a guideline, infrastructures of modern electronic River: the second largest city in which will help establish modern, media where" where the Partnership Portugal, famous for port wine (begun democratic media in SEEurope. Project will be based. in 1678). Population: 1.652.000. Employees of major European TV Thessaloniki Festival will Croatia, Denmark, Netherlands, Poland showcase best CR TV programs Four countries vie An offer by Greece's ERT3 to organise for CR Secretariat a CIRCOM Regional Best Program Showcase was accepted by the CR European Board during the Nov. 27 Four countries and a corresponding number of CR national coordinators are meeting in Potsdam. According to the plan the five best candidates for the seat of CR General Secretary in 2002. programs of the Prix Circom from each Poland, Croatia, Netherlands and Denmark expressed their interest during the one of the four (or five) categories will file:///D|/CIRCOM/NEW%20DESIGN/html/circomreport/december/reportdecember1999.html (1 of 12) [26.3.2003 11:59:49] CIRCOM regional recent European Board meeting in Potsdam. No decision was taken, so that all be screened during a three day festival parts interested make a thorough presentation during the 2000 general in Thessaloniki. This festival, fully conference in Potsdam, explain how they are going to run the secretariat, financed by ERT3, with the cooperation of the Film Festival of Thessaloniki, will present a letter from the direction of their station stating the backing of such take place at the Olympion cinemas, an operation and answer questions. owned by the FFT, in Aristotelous not The search and discussion started last year in Cavtat, Croatia. After the final precede the CR Conference and rather decision the new General Secretary will spend long time consulting with Boris take place during September or Bergant and his team for day by day commitments, obligations and problems. October, when the Executive Committee might have at the same time a meeting in Thessaloniki and More reports from Potsdam, page 7 attend the screenings. TV viewers from Greece's leading newspapers and magazines will make up the jury members who will give their prizes, irrespective of the Prix Circom A major bid for funds to support CR training in Central-Eastern Europe A major for funds to support Circom Regional training in Central and Eastern Europe over the next three years was delivered by helped me a lot. Circom means a lot to Rick Thompson, CR Coordinator Training and Development, to me. You can't imagine how much". One young producer from VTV in the European Commission. A full report on this and other issues Hungary (Szeged's local station) is now that Thompson has been involved with lately was presented producing two live programmes each during the CR Executive Committee in Dortmund. Here's the week, and says the CR course helped complete report by Rick. her a great deal. 4.Ethnic TV Festival at TVP By Krakow. Rick Thompson Immediately before the Executive 1.Bid to the European Commision CR Coordinator Committee, I will be representing CR In August, I delivered to the European Training and at this year's EEBE Ethnic TV Festival, Commission in Brussels a major bid for Development 'At Home", organised by TVR Krakow, funds to support Circom Regional conducting two seminars in multy- training in Central and Eastern Europe cultural broadcasting, and helping to over the next three years. This bid is to the conference in Cavtat. The results judge the programme prizes. the "European Initiative for Democracy from the anonymously completed The British Know-How Fund has and Human Rights""(DGIa). The 75- feedback forms show hight agreed to pay my travel costs. page document follows strict rules laid appreciation once again. An hour-long On September 20th , I represented CR down by the EC, which are designed to video report on the training and in Strasbourg at a meeting of the support stability and democratic conference presentation was shown "media-partners" of the Council of development in target countries. The three times in Europe-by-Satellite, it is Europe, where I bid for funding to "Circom Regional Democratic available on the CR website and VHS expand the training at the next year's Television Journalism Initiative" has copies went with a full written report to Ethnic Festival. I am fairly confident eight elements, following the training all participating national co-ordinators. that 21.000 Euros will be provided, but strategy approved by the Executive We stayed within the allocated CR not firm decision will be taken until the Committee last year. budget. end of the year. 3.The Trainee Network - Follow Up 5.Slovenia Regional News Study Many of the young journalists who At Boris Bergant's request, I conducted attended the Thessaloniki, Szeged and a study of regional news operations at file:///D|/CIRCOM/NEW%20DESIGN/html/circomreport/december/reportdecember1999.html (2 of 12) [26.3.2003 11:59:49] CIRCOM regional • Young Journalist's Workshops. Cavtat workshops keep in touch with RTV Slovenia's station in Koper, and (Practical workshops for the editors of the tutors and each other, in an informal have offered suggestions for the future, brought together from support network. Some of the feedback improvements to the output and regional TV stations across Europe. is very encouraging. For example ; organisation. Two workshops each year. One of 6.European programme material. these would be held at the annual Several CR stations have asked for my conference). help in developing their coverage of • Reporting Diversity Workshops. Six EU affairs. I have been able to provide over the three years. (Designed for TV contacts, stories, and access to free journalists in the Balkans, and Report on programme material, (for example, the organised in collaboration with the monthly Contact Magazine from the Training and Commission, Eurinfo from the Thomson Foundation). European Parliament, and science, • Newsroom Management Workshops. Development education and environment videos from One each year .(For Senior Editors). the Mostra company in Brussels). • On - site Development Consultancies. 7.AEJ Two 7 - day projects per year. (For CR The Director General of Albanian In September I attended the stations seeking immediate help in Television, Eduard Mazi, told me that Association of European Journalists achieving radical change). the six Albanian trainees who went to Szeged and Cavtat had "benefited (AEJ) annual congress in Berlin, and • Political Reporting Seminars. (For was able to address the conference stations in Accession Countries). greatly" from the experience, and were doing much better work. One of them briefly to tell them about Circom • Bilateral Exchanges of Key Staff. Regional. They have offered support (Between CEEC and Western wrote to me to say the Cavtat course had taught her many useful things. "It for our training enterprise in Potsdam stations). was the best two weeks of my life. I next year. CR producer Guidelines. (Writing and • came back from Croatia full of 8.Sony Sponsorship Distribution of practical guidelines on enthusiasm to do my work better". She With the help of our training Technical ethics and standards in democratic TV has conducted her own workshop in her Coordinator, Karol Cioma from BBC journalism).