Media in Multilingual Societies: Freedom and Responsibility by OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media

REPRESENTATIVE O N FREEDO M O F THE MEDIA

M e dia in M ultilingual So cie tie s Freedo m and Respo nsibility Edited by Ana Karlsreiter

Vienna 2003

O n the cover is a draw ing entitled Des Schreibers Hand (The Writer’s Hand) by the Germ an author and Nobel prize laureate (1999) Günter Grass. He has kindly let our O ffice use this as a label for publications of the O SCE Representative on Freedom of the Media. The draw ing w as created in the context of Grass’s novel Das Treffen in Telgte, dealing w ith literary authors at the tim e of the Thirty Years War.

The publisher thanks the goverm ent of the Federal Republic of Germ any for its financial support to this publication © 2003 O rganization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (O SCE) O ffice of the Representative on Freedom of the Media Kärntner Ring 5-7, Top 14, 2. DG, A-1010 Vienna Telephone: +43-1 512 21 450 Telefax: +43-1 512 21 459 E-m ail: pm -fom @osce.org

The reports represent solely the view s of the authors them selves and do not necessarily correspond w ith the official position of the O SCE Representative on Freedom of the Media. Design: WerkstattKrystianBieniek, Vienna Printed by Eugen Ketterl, Vienna

Co ntents

Freim ut Duve Preface Milo Dor Co nference Address Tanja Popovic The fo rmer Yugo slav Republic o f Macedo nia Reco mmendatio ns fo r the fo rmer Yugo slav Republic o f Macedo nia

7 15 21 45

Rom ain Kohn Luxembo urg Reco mmendatio ns fo r Luxembo urg

49 68

Natalia Angheli Mo ldo va Reco mmendatio ns fo r Mo ldo va

71 93

Nena Skopljanac Serbia (Serbia and Mo ntenegro ) Reco mmendatio ns fo r Serbia (Serbia and Mo ntenegro )

125

Roger Blum and Andrea O chsner Sw itzerland Reco mmendatio ns fo r Sw itzerland

131 159

Conference Program m e List of Participants The Authors

161 164 166

Freim ut Duve Preface

This publication is the result of a project w e launched in Septem ber 2002: Freedom and Responsibility â&#x20AC;&#x201C; M edia in M ultilingual Societies. Thus, it is appropriate that in recent years there has been increasing recognition of the crucial im portance of the role of the m edia in different languages w ithin m ultilingual dem ocracies. The project has addressed for the very first tim e this im portant issue in a com plex and com prehensive w ay. Independent experts w ere appointed to w rite country reports investigating the current w orking environm ent for the m edia in five m ultilingual countries w hich, both in their pasts and presents, couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be m ore different: the form er Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Luxem bourg, Moldova, Serbia and Montenegro, and Sw itzerland. All reports contain the sam e structure: the starting point is a description of the legal fram ew ork, w hich is follow ed by a detailed overview of the m edia outlets functioning in different languages. A special chapter is alw ays devoted to the best practices existing in the countries. The sim ilar structure allow s the reader to com pare the situation in the different countries. The project w as a prem iere not only from the point of view of its uniquely broad geographical scope but also on account of its theoretical approach. The subject w as not investigated from the com m on m ajority-m inority perspective, w hich autom atically brings w ith it a dem arcation and differentiation. O ur project, on the contrary, w as m eant to show that w hat w e should focus on is not how languages divide us but on w hat unites us, w hich is being a citizen of a country FREIMUT D UVE

w here w e live. The key w ord here is “citizenship”. O f course, all of us have different backgrounds, but as citizens w e have a com m on responsibility and com m on rights. Sw itzerland and Luxembourg represent undeniable historical successes in the management of linguistic diversity. At the beginning of the tw entieth century, the “national myth” w as more or less consciously developed to this end in Sw itzerland. In practice, this meant that the supposedly destabilizing quadrilingualism of the country w as turned into an advantage and, more precisely, construed into a w orthy trait. What w as perceived as a fatal rift has developed into the essence of the Sw iss nation. Sim ilarly in Luxem bourg, historical tradition and, of course, econom ic necessity have resulted in the peculiar situation of the peaceful coexistence of three languages. In Sw itzerland and Luxem bourg nobody sees the language variety as a threat to the security or unity of the country, but rather as an enrichm ent of their identity and their culture. The Sw iss and Luxem bourg unique experiences w ith diversity in their societies have validity and a value w hich arguably transcends their national boundaries. Indeed, in line w ith our history of thousands of years of m igration and m ixing of different peoples, no society is truly hom ogeneous. According to som e sources there are approxim ately 5,000 national groups living in the contem porary w orld, and about 3,000 linguistic groups. In fact, all European countries are m ultilingual! The question then rem ains, w hy are the different language and ethnic groups in certain geographic regions still considered as a source of problem s? Statistics clearly state that in Western Europe exactly the sam e percentage of the population, nam ely 14.7 per cent, belongs to national or linguistic groups, as in the Central and Eastern European region 1 . In the 1980s in Vojvodina, part of today’s 8

PREFACE

Serbia (Serbia and Montenegro), 26 nations and nationalities w ere present and w ere living peacefully together, and, according to Marta Palics, a journalist w ith M agyz Szo, even the w ord “m inority” w as alm ost an insult during these tim es. No society is truly hom ogeneous, and the transition to dem ocracy cannot be accom plished w ithout recognition of this fact. The essence of dem ocracy assum es the full inclusion and integration of all peoples into the life of the nation, no m atter w hat language they speak. The form er Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Moldova, and Serbia and Montenegro are countries at the beginning of their nation-building process and civil society developm ent. Media, in all languages, spoken in the country represents a pow erful social resource that can – and m ust – be m obilized to assist in this process. The five country reports, w hich w ere elaborated in the course of the project, w ere m ade public for the first tim e at a conference m y O ffice organized in co-operation w ith the Institute of Mass Com m unication Studies in Bern, on 28 and 29 March 2003 in Sw itzerland. We w ould like to thank the Sw iss Federal Departm ent of Foreign Affairs for the generous financial support to the conference. It w as im portant that Milo Dor, him self a w riter w ith a m ultilingual background, agreed to address the event. The conference brought together journalists, m edia NGO s and governm ental representatives from the five countries not only to report about the current w orking environm ent for the m edia, but also to exchange inform ation and view s w ith their colleagues from the other countries. Thanks to this broad geographical approach – reports on Sw edish-language 1

Snezana Trifunovska, M inority Rights in Europe. European M inorities and Languages (The Hague, 2001).

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m edia in Finland and Germ an-speaking m edia in Denm ark w ere also presented – the conference becam e a unique forum for discussion. The session devoted to “diversity reporting”, as an efficient instrum ent to prom ote tolerance and understanding through the m edia, becam e a highlight of the conference. Representatives of three w ell-know n m edia NGO s presented the concept of “diversity reporting” and critically evaluated their w ork in South-East Europe. During the last session of the conference som e of the best existing practices in all five countries w ere presented. The conference has identified som e key problem s holding back the developm ent of m edia in different languages, especially in the form er Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Serbia (Serbia and Montenegro) and Moldova: • m issing self-sustainability of the m edia outlets • insufficient professionalism of the m anagem ent • low level training in diversity reporting • lack of collegial solidarity betw een journalists from different ethnic backgrounds. In the cases of Sw itzerland and Luxem bourg, speakers at the conference acknow ledged that governm ent and m edia should do m ore to better integrate m igrants by creating specific program m es in national broadcast and print products. Additionally, they should be offered better opportunities to learn the languages spoken in their new hom eland. The results of the project have show n that, despite all differences that are determ ining the w orking environm ent of the m edia in the different countries, the follow ing factors have universal validity: 1. Support from the government is of crucial importance for the survival of media in different languages everyw here. The state 10

PREFACE

institutions should be aw are of their responsibility and create a legal framew ork that w ould be favourable to media in different languages, if this has not yet been established. Possibilities for defining legal provisions that w ould introduce positive discrimination should be explored. In addition to this, and bearing in mind the fact that this kind of media can never be fully self-sustainable, governm ents should continue or begin to provide long-term financial support to these media outlets. O n the other hand, the practice of direct state funding w hich exists in some countries alw ays leaves room for state control over media and should be abandoned. Follow ing the examples of Sw itzerland, Luxem bourg, Finland and Denm ark, m echanism s of indirect support, such as tax policy and postage costs, should be considered in order to enable media to operate independently. Governments should ensure that citizens w ho are members of linguistic groups have the right and the opportunity to freely express, preserve and develop their language via media. If this is not the case and the readers, view ers and listeners have little or no trust in the locally produced media, there is a tendency to look to the neighbouring foreign media, w hich I describe as “big brother media”. In the long term this could have a destabilizing effect on society. Each country needs its ow n independent, emancipated media w hich is a guarantor for the public debate that is imperative for the development of a civil society.

2. The m edia should be able to play a constructive role in com bating discrim ination, prom oting understanding and building stable peace in m ultilingual societies. The reports show ed that “hate speech” and hatred against the others have to a great extent disappeared from the m edia scene, but the gap betw een the different audiences still exists. “Positive speech” about each other is still very rare. The aim of the FREIMUT D UVE

m edia should be to reflect the m ulti-ethnic and m ultilingual society instead of focusing only on their ow n com m unity and forgetting the needs of other groups. Professional standards and ethical principals of journalism should be set and im plem ented. Journalistic education is of very high im portance. All levels of education have to be developed and im proved.

3. The role of public service broadcasters is still vitally im portant. The private sector alone cannot guarantee per se a pluralistic m edia landscape. Besides the legally secured am ount of program m ing in different languages, public broadcasters should devote pertinent attention to the life and situation of the different ethnic groups living in the country. The coverage of issues concerning these groups m ust be one of the m ajor priorities of prim e tim e new s and current affairs program m es.

4. Bilingual or m ultilingual m edia, i.e. one m edia outlet broadcasting or publishing in different languages, w ill be able to deliver positive results only if society accepts m ultilingualism as part of a norm al everyday situation. O ne should consider applying the exam ple of Radio Canal 3 from Biel/Bienne in Sw itzerland. The program m es there are prepared by m ultilingual staff but are broadcast in one language. The Finnish exam ple of using subtitles for m ost TV program m es should also be seriously considered in other m ultilingual countries in order to avoid the danger of â&#x20AC;&#x153;ghettoizationâ&#x20AC;? of society through the m edia, w hich w as reported at the conference. As a result of the project, recom m endations for each country feature in our publication to be used as guidelines for future developm ents in the m edia in the respective countries. 12

PREFACE

I am convinced that this publication w ill have a productive effect in tw o w ays. In the examined countries, all those involved â&#x20AC;&#x201C; governments, media NGO s, journalists â&#x20AC;&#x201C; w ill think about new w ays of facing the positive challenge of their multilingual structure. Further, I am sure that the project is also very valuable because the best practices described in the country reports and the recommendations could be used to benefit the further development of the media in other multilingual societies. I w ould like to share w ith you som ething on the background of the song w ith w hich I opened the conference in Bern. The history of this song w as brought to m y attention in a rem arkable docum entary by the fam ous Bulgarian film m aker Adela Peeva, and is at the sam e tim e very com plicated and very sim ple. The song exists in not less than seven languages, in Turkish, Greek, Albanian, Serbian, Macedonian, Bulgarian etc., and has a different nam e in all these countries. But it is alw ays the sam e song and this is w hat is im portant! Songs and languages should join us and not divide us! My O ffice w elcom es and w ill support all specific project proposals w hich w ill take shape as a follow -up of this publication! Vienna, June 2003

FREIMUT D UVE

Milo Dor Co nfe re nce A ddre s s

My ancestors w ere Serbs, w ho had fled to Austria m ore than 300 years ago to escape the Turks, and settled north of the Danube, a natural border, on the fertile plain left by the now vanished Pannonian Sea. They w ere granted land on condition that they w ould defend this border area against the O ttom ans. At this tim e, Belgrade w as an outpost of the Turkish Em pire, w hich w as occupied for a short tim e by the Austrians at the beginning of the eighteenth century. After the fortress w as lost again to the Turks, Maria Theresia had the area to the north, w here Hungarians, Rom anians and Serbs w ere already settled, further populated by people of Sw abian and Ruthenian origin, the latter from both Ukraine and Slovakia. O thers w ho found refuge there w ere Greeks and Bulgarians, w ho had fled before the Turkish advance, as w ell as Jew s in search of a hom eland. Thus this â&#x20AC;&#x153;m iltiary frontierâ&#x20AC;? becam e a true reflection of the m ulti-ethnic state. Up to the final collapse of the Habsburg Em pire, in other w ords until 1918, m y ancestors used to receive a certain am ount of salt and oil each year, under an agreem ent dating from the eighteenth century. I spen t m y ch ildh ood in th is region , kn ow n as Vojvodina (in Germ an Woiwodschaft), w hich by the m iddle of the nineteenth century had acquired a kind of autonom y. Although th e Austro-Hun garian Em pire n o lon ger existed, m an y traces rem ain ed, above all th e colourful m ix of eth n ic groups th at M ILO D O R

w ere all at h om e th ere. Apart from m y m oth er ton gue, I w as quite used to h earin g Germ an , Hun garian an d Rom an ian spoken w idely. M y gran dm oth er on m y m oth erâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s side, a Greek lady w h o w as brough t up in Vien n a, spoke Germ an w ith m e, because sh e could n ot express h erself too w ell in Serbian . My father, born in 1895 in a village in Banat, had grow n up in a huge area, geographically-speaking, w here m any ethnic groups had lived together, w illingly or not. But this state structure had fallen apart because the rulers w ere not in a position to solve the national problem s, and therefore indirectly, the social problem s. When the First World War broke out, m y father had just left school and w anted to study m edicine. That w as the reason w hy he w as called up to serve in the m edical corps. Although he lived after the w ar in the new ly-created Yugoslav State, he continued his studies in Budapest, in other w ords in the territory of the form er Dual Monarchy. When the new Hungarian authorities began to indulge in extrem e nationalism , m y father, instead of returning to Yugoslavia, w ent on to Poland, w here in Poznan he took his final tw o sem esters and com pleted his doctoral diplom a. At the end of 1939, w hen Poland w as overrun by Hitlerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s troops, part of the beaten and disarm ed Polish arm y fled tow ards the south and cam e by w ay of Rom ania to Belgrade, from w here the Poles w andered further. My father used to speak to Polish officers or even ordinary soldiers on the street and invite them back to lunch or dinner, just to speak to them in Polish. The first surgery m y father started practising in w as in a Rom anian village. Then for a tim e he w as the local general practitioner in a village in the Batschka, inhabited by Serbs and 16

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Ruthenians, w ho w ere know n there as Russinen. Later, he studied plastic surgery w ith a Jew ish professor in Berlin. During the m iddle of the w ar, he m oved to Vienna, in order to be close to the prison in w hich I w as kept. Here he again becam e a GP, and looked after the Italian forced labourers, w ith w hom he got on w ell. I adm ire m y father, w ho m astered so m any of the languages spoken in the form er Habsburg Em pire. Altogether it w as six – his m other-tongue, Serbo-Croatian, or Croat-Serbian, then Germ an, Hungarian, Polish, Rom anian and Italian. To that could be added three dead languages, Ancient Greek and Latin – w hich he learned in secondary school – and Hebrew, w hich out of boredom he had picked up out of a Konvikt (Jew ish book) from a Rabbi friend of his father’s. My father w as a true Central European, or better, a European w ithout being conscious of it, because for him it w as natural to learn the languages of his patients, instead of forcing them to speak to him in his ow n language. It w as just as natural for him as m inistering help to sick patients; he took them as he found them , w ithout asking about their nationality, religion or som e exceptional or stupid view. He w as a practising hum anist, and I adm ire that in him because I, as a w riter, only have at m y disposal w ords, w hose effect can be questionable. After the collapse of com m unist ideology – w hich had m ade it possible in the nam e of international solidarity for the Soviet Union to repress so m any ethnic groups just like a nineteenth-century colonial pow er – there began to re-em erge from the ruins of a bankrupt system (though not only there) the ancient ideological spectres, w hich one had hoped had been safely packed aw ay in the trunks of history; above all the spectre of nationalism . M ILO D O R

By that I m ean of course not national consciousness, w hich stem s from the free, hum ane traditions of an ethnic group, but that form of nationalism as an aggressive ideology, w hich sees an enem y in every different or different-looking group. No nation exists w hich has not at som e point in its history com m itted som e w rong. The battles, w on or lost, in pursuit of greater em pire, the pow er struggles betw een different dynasties usually ending in m urder, the repression of others or groups w ith a different w ay of thinking, are no reason to feel particularly proud. European culture, of w hich w e can all rightly be proud, is the result of the efforts of num erous individuals from m any ethnic groups, w ho succeeded in looking beyond the narrow horizons of their ow n m ountains and valleys. This has resulted in the Renaissance and the Enlightenm ent, that prom ise to m ake Europe into a hum ane land, a com m unity in w hich it is com pletely irrelevant w ho belongs to w hich nation and to w hich god he prays, w here the only thing that counts is how one person behaves tow ards another and w hat he does. In com parison to this diverse culture w ith all its freedom s and dem ocratic traditions, the nationalist rallies w ith their separatist flags and their m artial brass-band m usic shrink into a foolish folklore. Never w ere half so m any people so vehem ently seized w ith the idea of a European identity as today, yet never w ere so m any petty iron curtains erected, blocking a true association w hich m ust be based on a free exchange of people, goods and ideas. It is plain that such a union of all European ethnic groups is the only chance to survive in this beautiful, colourful w orld. Yet how can w e put a stop to these raised spectres of intolerance and contem pt for fellow m en (in the eyes of m ilitant 18

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nationalists all the peoples of other nations are inferior) w hen all appeals to intelligence apparently fail? “What do w e have left?” the great Croatian, non-conform ist w riter, Miroslav Krleza, has asked him self, only to respond at once: “A box of lead-type, and that is not m uch, but it is the only thing that hum ans have invented until today as a w eapon to defend one’s hum anity.” What other choices are indeed left to us if w e don’t w ish to look helplessly on as our hopes of a bright, free, equalitysharing Europe of m any nations appear to finally disappear in the foggy haze of aggressive, dogm atic nationalism ?

M ILO D O R

Tanja Popovic The fo rm e r Yugo s lav Re public o f M ace do nia

As part of the form er Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, the form er Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia is going through a traum atic social, econom ic and political transform ation. This long-term and m ultifaceted process has a direct im pact upon the developm ent of the print and electronic m edia. I. Le gal fram e w o rk fo r the m e dia The form er Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia is populated by various ethnic groups: Macedonians (1,378,700/ 66.4 per cent), Albanians (479,000/ 23.1 per cent), Turks (81,600/ 3.9 per cent), Rom a (47,400/ 2.3 per cent), Vlachs (44,462/ 2.2 per cent), Serbs (39,900/ 1.9 per cent) and others (23,900/ 23.9 per cent). 1 In the form er Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia m inoritiesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; rights w ere relatively w ell respected, especially in the m edia field. Apart from the dom inant role of the party and its socialist policies, ethnic groups could cultivate their language and prom ote their cultural heritage via their ow n m edia. New spapers w ere published in Albanian, Hungarian, Rom ani and Italian and diverse TV and radio program m es w ere available. 2 1

The population figures are based on the national census of 1994. A new census w as conducted in Novem ber 2002. The first results w ere presented in January 2003 and the final results w ill not be issued before 2004.

Dunja Melcic, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Zw ischen Pluralism us und Denkdiktatur. Die Medienlandschaftâ&#x20AC;?, in id. (ed.), Der Jugoslawienkrieg. Handbuch zur Vorgeschichte, Verlauf und Konsequenzen (O pladen, 2000), 317-31.

TANJA PO PO VIC

Since the country’s independence in 1991 several regulations have shaped the general legal fram ew ork. The Constitution adopted in 1991 guarantees in Article 16 the freedom of speech, as w ell as the freedom to establish institutions for public inform ation. Furtherm ore, it guarantees free access to inform ation, as w ell as the freedom to receive and dissem inate inform ation. Additionally, Article 48 of the Constitution guarantees that m em bers of the ethnic com m unities have the right to freely express, cultivate and develop their identity and national characteristics. The Constitution guarantees the protection of the ethnic, cultural, linguistic and religious identity of the ethnic com m unities. The Constitutional Am endm ent no. 8, adopted in Novem ber 2001, defines furtherm ore that m em bers of the com m unities have a right to freely express, cherish and develop their identity and characteristics and use the sym bols of their com m unities. This provision guarantees the protection of the ethnic, cultural, linguistic and religious identity of all com m unities. Com m unity m em bers have a right to establish cultural, artistic and educational institutions, as w ell as scientific and other associations for expressing, cherishing and developing their identity. In accordance w ith the guaranteed rights of the ethnic com m unities as stipulated in the Constitution of the form er Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, the Law on Broadcasting Service (the “O fficial Gazette of the Republic of Macedonia” no. 20/97) precisely defines the m anner in w hich those rights should be im plem ented. Article 45, paragraphs 2 and 3, obliges public broadcasting enterprises to broadcast program m es in the languages of the respective ethnic groups in regions w here these groups m ake up the m ajority or a significant proportion of th e population . Paragraph 4 of Article 45 defin es th e righ t of 22

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com m ercial broadcastin g com pan ies to broadcast in lan guages of th e oth er eth n ic com m un ities in addition to th eir program m es in M acedon ian . Th e Law on Broadcasting S ervice also con tain s regulation s for fin an cial support for radio an d TV production s, both in M acedon ian an d in lan guages of th e oth er eth n ic com m un ities, fun ded by th e broadcastin g fee. 3 The Law on Establishing the Public Enterprise M acedonian Radio and Television converted M akedonska Radiotelevizija M RTV into a public broadcaster (the “O fficial Gazette of the Republic of Macedonia” no. 6/98 and no. 98/2000). Article 6 clearly stipulates the obligation of M RTV to provide program m es in the languages of the ethnic com m unities, m eaning m em bers of all com m unities that live in the form er Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.4 In Jan uary 2003, th e Stability Pact M edia Task Force an d th e Coun cil of Europe fun ded efforts, un der th e auspices of the M edia Development Centre M DC, to redraft the m edia law. The law, w hich is expected to be adopted by parliam ent later in 2003, sh ould im prove th e provision s w h ich con stitution ally guaran tee th e in depen den ce of M RTV an d clear th e w ay for it to becom e a fully in depen den t public broadcastin g service. The Crim inal Code also safeguards linguistic freedom . Article 138 of the code states that activities that violate the right to use the language of your choice are crim inal (outlined in the chapter “Crim inal acts against freedom s and rights of the person and the citizen”). According to the Journalists’ Code (Article 10), a journalist should not consciously create or process inform ation that jeopardizes hum an rights and freedom s, should not use hate speech 3

Article 77, paragraph 1, line 5 and Article 78, paragraph 2.

Article 6, paragraph 1.

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or encourage violence and discrim ination of any sort (nationality, religion, race, sex, social class, language, sexual orientation, political orientation…). Article 11 obliges journalists to respect the general social standards of decency and the ethnic, cultural and religious differences in the country. The O hrid Framew ork Agreement of 13 August 2001 invites the international community to promote media in languages of different ethnic communities. Article 6 “Culture, Education and Use of Languages” states: “The parties invite the international community, including the O SCE, to increase its assistance for projects in the area of media in order to further strengthen radio, TV and print media, including Albanian-language and multiethnic media. The parties also invite the international community to increase professional media training programmes for members of communities not in the majority in the country. The parties also invite the O SCE to continue its efforts on projects designed to improve inter-ethnic relations.” II. M e dia lands cape 1 . Print m ed ia . As a result of all the socio-political changes and dem ocratization of inform ation, the interest in establishing and publishing public m edia has been constantly increasing in the country since its independence. Up until Decem ber 2002 the Agency of Inform ation registered 926 print m edia – new spapers, m agazines, review s, journals, bulletins, as w ell as new sletters, alm anacs and other kinds of publications. 5 The m ajority of these registered m edia are in Macedonian, but there are 73 in Albanian, 8 in Turkish, 4 in English, 4 in Vlach, 2 in Serbian, and 15 are m ultilingual.6 There is trem endous com petition am ong these publications for the rather lim ited m arket of tw o m illion inhabitants, coupled w ith a w eak econom y. Many of the outlets struggle to find sufficient 24

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advertising revenues, international assistance and other m eans of support. Journalists are generally paid very low w ages w hich has had an im pact on quality. There are only tw o m ajor printing houses in the country – a result of the form er state control of the m edia. This appears to have had som e effect on the independence of the m edia. Q uality varies enorm ously, from the top end of the m arket w ith dailies like Dnevnik to poorly produced and underfunded state new spapers like N ova M akedonija. 1 .1 . M a ced onia n-la ngua ge p rint m ed ia . The m ost popular and relatively independent Macedonian-language daily Dnevnik (circulation 60,000) claim s that it has a policy of inclusive reporting. According to Dnevnik’s ow n inform ation it counts m any Albanians am ong its readership. How ever, the interest of the Albanian audience in the new spaper is based on its credibility as a relatively reliable source of inform ation on the political situation in the country. The Albanian readers m iss a regular and fair coverage of Albanian issues, apart from crim inal or sensationalist activity. The paper does not em ploy any Albanian journalists (although it does have a couple of Albanian translators), but it is distributing as a supplem ent the free m onthly m agazine M ulti-ethnic forum in Macedonian, Albanian and English. The authors of M ulti-ethnic forum are from various language and ethnic backgrounds and report about one com m on topic like “Macedonia after the elections” or general subjects like gender, poverty etc. The second m ost popular Macedonian-language paper Utrinski Vesnik (circulation 33,000) also claim s to have a policy of ethnic inclusivity. In a project established by an international 5

According to inform ation provided by the Macedonian Agency of Inform ation.

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NGO in 2002, the paper exchanged articles w ith the leading Albanian daily Fakti and in the past it has em ployed Albanian journalists and colum nists. But the m anagem ent adm its that “due to the dem ands of our Macedonian-language readership” the new spaper’s priorities centre on the interests of the Macedonian population. 1 .2 . Alba nia n-la ngua ge p rint m ed ia . According to the latest data from January 2003, there are 15 daily and periodical new spapers published in Albanian: Flaka, Fakti, Lobi, Globi, Dzidzelima, Ndzenesi, Edukimi Kutetar, Stili, Hana e re, Grafiti, Fatos, Lobi dito, Jehon and Brezi.7 Despite the large num ber of publications, the Albanian com m unity is currently not w ell served by print m edia in its ow n language. The low circulations of Albanianlanguage new spapers can also be explained by the fact that they often focus on new s from Kosovo and Albania and in m any cases fail to provide the Albanian-speaking com m unity w ith relevant inform ation from their ow n country. The oldest Albanian-language daily Flaka w as founded in 1945. Today the new spaper is continuously losing readership due to its poor journalistic quality, political affiliation and biased coverage. The first non-state Albanian-language daily Fakti, w hich w as founded w ith international financial support in 1998, offered an im portant alternative to the state-run Flaka. Today it claim s to be the m ost w idely read Albanianlanguage new spaper. The latest developm ents in 2003 show politically biased reporting. The print run is the highest am ong Albanian-language print m edia. The independent w eekly new spaper Lobi, founded in 2001 by Skopje-based Albanian intellectuals, is considered relatively m oderate and an alternative to Flaka and Fakti. Up to now it has succeeded in resisting the strong political pressure 26

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from Albanian interest groups and has m aintained its pluralistic goal. It is dem onstrating high standards of journalism but has yet to becom e a strong player in the m arket. 1 .3 . Turkish-la ngua ge p rint m ed ia . The Turkish-language print m edia have to com pete not only w ith Albanian-language new spapers and m agazines but also w ith products from Turkey. Birlik, w hich w as founded in 1946, is the oldest new spaper in Turkish and has a long tradition as a political, inform ative new spaper. Today it is published by N ova M akedonia three tim es a w eek and is the m ain source of inform ation in the Turkish language. How ever, like all N ova M akedonia publications, it is suffering from the problem s that all its sister publications are facing. According to the latest official inform ation the print run is 2,016 copies. The w eekly Z aman has been published since 1994 in Turkish and Macedonian (print run: 6,000) but only appears irregularly from tim e to tim e. 1 .4 Rom a ni-la ngua ge 8 p rint m ed ia . The print m arket in Rom ani language is surprisingly rich and active. Both individual efforts and a general activeness of the Rom a com m unity have had vivid effects and w ithin the last few years have led to a w ide range of print products. The Rom a population and their m edia are still lacking real political and public influence, but the pure existence of their ow n m edia is m otivating and em pow ering future attem pts to increase their role in Macedonian society in general. Roma Times, w hich w as founded in 2000 7

According to inform ation provided by the Macedonian Agency of Inform ation.

Rom ani is a language w hich still lacks unification and standardization. In this report the term â&#x20AC;&#x153;Rom ani languageâ&#x20AC;? is used in a general sense.

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and published by the Romani Informatikani Agencia (Rom ani Inform ation Agency), is in fact the only new spaper for the Rom a com m unity w ith articles in Rom ani and Macedonian. It is published three tim es a w eek and provides on its 16 pages inform ation both on international and national new s, education, entertainm ent, m arketing, sports etc. Most im portantly, the new spaper focuses on coverage of Rom ani issues. Since 1997 a m onthly childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s m agazine called Cirikli has been distributed, offering education, inform ation and entertainm ent for children in Rom ani and Macedonian. Due to the success of Cirikli, the national pedagogical union recom m ended its use in prim ary schools in 1998. Romana and Vilo, established in 2001, address issues of interest to Rom a w om en and teenagers in their m onthly editions. Whereas Vilo focuses on entertainm ent, m usic, rom ance, com puter and education topics, Romana offers typical advice on w om enâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s issues such as health, cosm etics and fashion, and interview s fem ale celebrities. The interesting aspect of these last tw o publications is that they are even trilingual (Macedonian, Rom ani and English). The publishers print articles in Macedonian and Rom ani and/or English as they accept that m any Rom a are not fluent in Rom ani and need the Macedonian articles to understand the sam e article in Rom ani. Because there is no standardized Rom ani language, these publications are trying to prom ote a unified vocabulary. 1 .5 . Vla ch-la ngua ge p rint m ed ia . The Vlach (Arom ons, Cincars) are recognized as a language group speaking an ancient Rum anian dialect. As one of the sm allest com m unities, it has largely been integrated into the m ajority Macedonian population, partly due to their com m on adherence to O rthodox Christianity. The w ell-integrated Vlachs are facing the risk of 28

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becom ing com pletely assim ilated and are concerned about the decline of know ledge about the Vlach language. In recent years, the Vlach have rediscovered their cultural heritage and are attem pting to m aintain their language, custom s and architecture. The m onthly publication Feniks has been issued since 1995 (print run 1,000). It focuses on historical and everyday issues of Vlach life. Since O ctober 2002, the “Cultural Society of Vlachs Santa Sypsy” at Stip in the eastern part of the country, has been publishing a free bilingual monthly paper called Bilten Armanamea. This presents local issues of the Vlach community on eight pages. 1 .6 . Print m ed ia in Serbia n, C roa tia n a nd Bosnia n la nguages. There are no periodical print media in Serbian, Croatian and Bosnian languages produced in the country. Affordable print products im ported from the neighbouring countries a re e a sily a va ila b le . 2 . Broa d ca st m ed ia . Follow ing the im plem entation of the liberal licensing law s the country has experienced a boom in the num ber of TV and radio stations. There are currently over 157 TV and radio broadcasters in the country – a num ber that is im possible to sustain in such a sm all m arket place w ith very lim ited advertising revenue. In addition there are m any illegal broadcasters – particularly radio – w hose existence threatens the activities of legal broadcasters. The problem of the m ajority of TV stations in this sm all m arket is partly due to party political interference in granting broadcasting licences and collecting the annual fee for this licence from broadcasters. It appears that especially in preelection tim es (e.g. 2002), the num ber of legally registered radio and TV stations seem s to m ushroom only for them to disappear again after ballots close. TANJA PO PO VIC

The rules of the m arket place ought to dictate that m any of the unprofitable broadcasters should close dow n, but the present situation is influenced by political donations or developm ent aid from international organizations. The m edia outlets in Albanian, Rom ani and Turkish etc. are having even m ore difficulties surviving than their colleagues from the Macedonianlanguage m edia.9 Many of these private m edia outlets therefore rely on support from equipm ent grants and donations for productions. Due to the ever-changing broadcasting landscape, it is often difficult for an outsider to obtain accurate inform ation. The data available not only varies from source to source but is also often out of date by the tim e of publication. 2 .1 . M a ced onia n-la ngua ge broa d ca st m ed ia . The Public Broadcaster M RTV (M acedonian Radio and Television), one of the strongest players in the broadcast sector, is facing a crossroad – it is overstaffed, heavily indebted, using outdated technology and facing declining view ership. It has never been considered by the m ajority of Macedonians, irrespective of their ethnic background, as anything other than the “state” broadcaster. M TV’s concept of m ulti-ethnicity is inherited from the Titoist era and is based on a quota system of a separate production for Albanian, Turkish, Rom ani, Vlach and SerboCroatian languages. Whereas M TV 1 and M TV 2 broadcast in the Macedonian language, the program m es in other languages are broadcast on the third channel M TV 3, created in 2002. The quality of the private Macedonian-language electronic m edia varies enorm ously. There are tw o national Macedonianlanguage concessions (Sitel and A1) of w hich A1 is the m ost popular, independent and respected. A1 is w idely w atched by view ers irrespective of their ethnic background and language 30

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preferences; how ever it has a lim ited am ount of coverage of new s relating to the everyday life of the other ethnic com m unities. Sitel has strong political affiliations and during 2001/2002 w as regarded by m any Albanians w ith hostility. Apart from these few exceptions, the standard of private Macedonian-language electronic m edia new s production is poor and is often politically influenced. There is also a lack of m arketing, audience research and targeted program m ing. Salaries are low and m anagem ent skills basic. Many local broadcasters hope for a change in the law to allow them to becom e regional broadcasters, in order to increase their com petitive advantage. The radio m arket is as overcrow ded as the TV m arket. There are m ore than one hundred licensed and unlicensed radio stations, w ith altogether 56 Macedonian-language stations offering program m es in som e other languages. 2 .2 . Alba nia n-la ngua ge broa d ca st m ed ia . In August 2002, tw o days into the election cam paign, the Albanian-language program m e of M TV 3 w as suddenly increased from approxim ately 2.5 to 9 hours per day in order to im plem ent the decisions of the O hrid Agreem ent. This w as hailed by the ruling coalition (VMRO -DMNE, DPA) as a clear signal that the Governm ent w as prom oting Albanian language rights. How ever, the staff w orking at the Albanian-language desk did not appear to be able to use the additional broadcasting tim e very effectively. Much of the new program m ing consisted of recycled Albanian m usic show s and South Am erican soaps w ith Albanian subtitles. The expansion of the Albanian program m e 9

Claude Nicolet, “Medien in Mazedonien: Zw ischen Kriegshetze und Friedensförderung”, Südosteuropa M itteilungen, 31/41 Jg. (2001), 282-89.

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w as to the detrim ent of the other language program m es that w ere shunted into unpopular tim e-slots. The recent broadcast schedule includes a tw o-and-a-half-hour programme in Turkish on a daily basis. The program m es in Vlach, Rom ani, Serbian, Croatian and Bosnian languages are lim ited to half an hour three tim es a w eek and a one-hour program m e once a w eek in each of the languages. This program m e schem e did not prom ote inter-ethnic harm ony betw een the different language desks at M RTV and there are persistent com plaints from the other sm aller desks that their rights are being neglected. Additionally the lack of finances for equipm ent, professional staff or decent programming means that M TV 3 appears to be attracting few view ers even am ong its target groups. Many m edia experts view M TV 3, in its present form , as an ill-conceived m istake. How ever, in 2003 there are signs that a new ly appointed reformist management at M RTV is trying to address some of the m ajor problem s afflicting the organization. The new Director General Gordana Stosik has already announced the creation of m ixed editorial team s for m ultilingual program m es. 10 Eleven privately-ow ned local TV stations, predom inantly in the w estern and northern parts of the country, broadcast in Albanian. There are great variances in the quality and quantity of their program m es, but the m ajority of them are suffering from the sam e problem s of a difficult financial situation, poorly m otivated staff w ith low salaries and low professional expertise, as their colleagues from the private Macedonian-language m edia outlets. While m any of the TV stations broadcasting in Albanian claim that they need to fill an inform ation gap resulting from the poor perform ance of M TV 3, generally the standard of new s program m es is low. During the conflict in 2001 and 32

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before the elections in 2002 Albanian stations often show ed blatant bias as w ell, and their reactions differed little from m any of the Macedonian-language m edia. There are, how ever, som e notable exceptions: For exam ple TV Era (Skopje), TV Art (Tetovo) and TV Hana (Kum anovo) as w ell as Radio Vati (Skopje) m aintain a relatively independent editorial policy and are som e of the m ost prom ising Albanian private broadcasters. O f the five different public national radio program m es offered by M RTV, only Radio 2 is dedicated to ethnic com m unities. Unfortunately it has a relatively sm all audience of no m ore than 5 per cent. The 29 local public radio stations broadcast program m es in other languages (depending on the com position of the population), but like the public local TV stations have alm ost no influence. O n the other hand there are 17 private local radio stations broadcasting in languages that include Albanian, Turkish and Rom ani. Som e of them offer program m es in m ore than one of these languages. As w ith all privately-ow ned m edia outlets, the quality of the program m ing varies dram atically. Follow ing a general, global trend tow ards “tabloidization”, these outlets often produce program m es for entertainm ent rather than a real “tool” for fast and effective inform ation and education. Som e local radio stations are no m ore than a tape recorder and a m icrophone and transm it from sheds. 2 .3 . Turkish-la ngua ge broa d ca st m ed ia . The choice of Turkish-language electronic m edia is sm all. M TV 3 provides a rather sm all program m e in Turkish and the com m unity follow s satellite program m es from Turkey. In order to im prove this situation several journalists of Turkish origin established 10 Q uoted from an interview w ith Gordana Stosik. Forum, br. 121 (17.1.2003), 29.

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in 2001 the â&#x20AC;&#x153;O rganization for the Developm ent of Turkishlanguage m edia in Macedoniaâ&#x20AC;? (w w w.turkishm edia.org.m k). The organization is currently investing efforts into im proving the professional and educational level for young journalists in order to provide their com m unity w ith better access to inform ation in their ow n language. 2 .4 . Romani-language broadcast media. There are tw o TV stations addressing the Roma community: TV BTR Nacional and TV Sutel. Both are based in the Roma suburb of the capital Skopje and broadcast in both Romani and (primarily) Macedonian. They provide an important public service by offering new s, educational, language and cultural programmes in Romani, but tend to focus primarily on entertainment. Interestingly enough these tw o stations have both Roma and Macedonian view ers w ho enjoy the traditional music and local comedies on offer. The situation regarding Rom a radio stations is rather unstable: Whereas Radio Cerenja (Stip) is able to survive due to donor support, others like Radio Ternipe (Prilep) and Radio Roma (Gostivar) are struggling w ith alm ost no incom e, bad technical equipm ent and insufficient m anpow er etc. Rom a TV and radio stations suffer in general from a lack of proper financing, leading to the use of obsolete equipm ent and frequent technical problem s. How ever, the Rom ani TV and radio stations are also am ong the few truly m ultilingual broadcasters w ith staff from Rom a and Macedonian com m unities w orking together. 2 .5 . Vla ch-la ngua ge broa d ca st m ed ia . There are very few TV and radio program m es in the Vlach language. M TV 3 provides an hour per w eek and som e radio stations are currently attem pting to include a Vlach-language program m e. 34

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2 .6 . Broa d ca st m ed ia in Serbia n, C roa tia n a nd Bosnia n la ngua ges. Croatian, Serbian or Montenegrin TV can be w atched w ithout problem s and attract quite a considerable audience due to the w idespread know ledge of the language and the help of subtitles. The notorious Serbian TV channel TV Pink attracts an especially w ide audience w ith its folk m usic and entertainm ent. M TV 3 offers a one-hour program m e in these languages. III. M ultilingual m e dia and pro gram m ing agains t hate s pe e ch The conflict in February 2001 saw the arrival of “hate speech”: m ost Macedonian-language m edia w ere using the term “terrorists” to describe m em bers of the ethnic Albanian com m unity, w hile Albanian-language m edia w ere listing the alleged hum an rights abuses of the Macedonian security forces. During and im m ediately after the conflict public and private m edia w ere often guilty of inflam m atory m isinform ation and few attem pts w ere m ade to show the other side of the story. For exam ple, the Macedonian-language TV station Channel 5 broadcast a report show ing an in-house reporter firing a gun at Albanian positions, w hereas local Albanian-language TV stations, nom inally independent, broadcast an hour-long docum entary about the Albanian National Liberation Arm y w ithout canvassing any opposition opinion. Likew ise the Albanian dailies Fakti and Flaka becam e overtly political and pro the Albanian struggle, w hile the hitherto relatively independent national Macedonian-language daily, Dnevnik, adopted a veneer of Macedonian nationalism . M RTV in particular becam e an efficient propaganda tool in the hands of politicians from both sides during the conflict. The separation of broadcasting betw een the different languages TANJA PO PO VIC

described above m ade this dual influence possible – w hile the Macedonian ruling elites concentrated on controlling their language new s program m es on M TV 1, the Albanian ruling parties (w hichever w as in the governm ent coalition at any given tim e) w ere allow ed to dom inate the Albanian-language program m es. This had the rather strange effect that during tim es of conflict, M RTV w ould broadcast com pletely different new s bulletins in Albanian and Macedonian. This first becam e very noticeable during the Kosovo Crisis in 1999, w here the split in the perception of NATO ’s intervention, especially betw een Albanians and Macedonians, becam e obvious. The Albanian-language service rallied to the support of their relatives in Kosovo and therefore supported NATO ’s intervention, in direct opposition to w hat the Governm ent w as stating on M TV 1. During this period the first indications of the future conflict em erged as the Albanian position w as perceived by m any Macedonians as a sign of “Albanian separatism ” in the country w hereas the Albanian population felt rejected and accused by Macedonians. 11 Follow ing the O hrid Agreem ent of 13 August 2001, hate speech has disappeared from the Macedonian m edia scene, but the politicization and polarization have rem ained. A Macedonian com m entator in 2000 stated: “We don’t have hate speech but w e do have fear speech. We don’t know w hat the Albanians think because w e don’t know their language. So w e’re frightened of them (…).”12 These w ords are still valid today and truthfully describe the situation in Macedonian society and m edia. The m edia is divided linguistically w ith each outlet reporting to its respective ethnic com m unity and there is often very little attem pt to discover w hat another ethnic com m unity is thinking or saying in the m edia. There is very little ethnically inclusive journalism or m ixed language program m es or new spapers. 36

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This is especially astonishing given the fact that the members of the different ethnic groups in the country as a rule speak several languages. Albanians are usually fluent in Albanian, Macedonian, Turkish 13 and Serbian-Croatian-Bosnian 14. Turks converse in Turkish and Macedonian, som etim es in Albanian 15 and Serbian-Croatian-Bosnian as w ell. The representatives of the Roma com m unity speak Rom ani and Macedonian, and som etim es Albanian and Serbian-Croatian-Bosnian. The Vlachs, the sm allest group, speak Vlach and Macedonian, Serbian-CroatianBosnian and even Greek. The Serbs are usually fluent in both Serbian and Macedonian. By contrast Macedonians usually do not speak any of the other languages spoken in the country. The exception is Serbo-Croatian, the lingua franca in the form er Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Given the diversity of languages spoken by m em bers of the national groups one w ould also suppose that there is great potential for co-operation am ong different m edia outlets and a large m arket for m ultilingual m edia. Unfortunately, the opposite is the case, especially betw een the Albanian and Macedonian-language m edia. Nonetheless there are positive exam ples (see below ). 11 Tw o new publications reflect this issue from different points of view. See Dona Kolar-Panov, “Troubled Multicultural Broadcasting in Macedonia”, Journal of Socio-linguistics (2002), in press and Veton Latifi, The Two Truths and Two ‘Publics’ in M acedonia, in press. 12 Mark Thom pson, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, M acedonia (FY RO M ) and Kosovo. International Assistance to M edia (Vienna: O SCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, 2000), 6. 13 Som e of them speak Turkish because there w as a forced m igration, organized by authorities in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia betw een the tw o World Wars, of Albanians from Kosovo and Macedonia to Turkey. Thousands w ere expelled. Som e of them returned after World War II. Som e still have connections w ith relatives in Turkey and send their children there to study etc. 14 This is a legacy of Yugoslav history w here Serbo-Croatian w as the lingua franca. This predom inantly concerns the educated population approxim ately over the age of 25. In this paper the term “Serbian-Croatian-Bosnian” is occasionally used to describe Serbo-Croatian. 15 Albanian is spoken only by those living in areas w ith an Albanian m ajority.

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Another considerable hindrance for the developm ent of m ultilingual m edia outlets is the lack of w ell-educated journalists. Although for som e years training has been a priority of NGO s and international organizations w orking in the field of m edia developm ent, the skills of journalists in the country, irrespective of their ethnic background, fall behind the European standard. The situation is exacerbated by an outdated m edia studies curriculum at the St Cyrill and Methodius University in Skopje w hich additionally produces very few recruits w ho are not from a Macedonian background. In 2003, for exam ple, there w as just one Albanian student studying journalism at the university. At the South-East European University in Tetovo, there are currently no journalism courses. The international com m unity has m ade som e efforts to prom ote m ultilingual m edia. The NGO “Search for Com m on Ground” publishes a free m onthly m agazine M ultiethnic forum, printed in Macedonian, Albanian and English, and distributed as supplem ents of Dnevnik, Fakti and Utrinski Vesnik. In Septem ber 2002, there w as an interesting venture w ith the privately ow ned, bilingual daily Global (Macedonian/ Albanian). It w as published in tw o separate editions w ith the same content – one edition in Macedonian and one in Albanian. This w as an am bitious attem pt to provide new s and inform ation w hile trying to overcom e the linguistic barrier betw een its readerships. Unfortunately, after a hopeful start, the distribution w as stopped in Decem ber 2002, apparently due to financial problem s. Gostivar Voice, another interesting initiative, is a biw eekly new spaper in Albanian, Macedonian and Turkish published in the Gostivar region and com piled by an inter-ethnic group of young journalists. Funded by the O SCE Spillover Monitor Mission in Skopje and the International O rganization for Migration 38

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(IO M) and im plem ented by the â&#x20AC;&#x153;Inter-ethnic Project Gostivarâ&#x20AC;?, the projectâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s aim is to establish a m ulti-ethnic, politically independent forum for local m unicipality new s, serving the Gostivar region, w hich is deprived of print m edia. The purpose of this project is also to provide an opportunity for young journalists and editors, w hich includes inter-ethnic co-operation and confidence-building to help prom ote better understanding betw een ethnic groups. Gostivar Voice is non-political and avoids all political com m ents and other issues that are likely to prove contentious in a m ulti-ethnic environm ent. The new spaper, w ith a total of eight pages, is printed in three separate versions: Albanian (1,500 copies), Macedonian (1,000 copies) and Turkish (500 copies). The content of all three versions is identical. The latest project POINT is an eight-page student new spaper in the Tetovo region printed in Macedonian and Albanian and focusing on the com m on interests of young people. Supported by the O SCE and the International O rganization for Migration (IO M), PO IN T w ill be issued every tw o w eeks w ith a print run of 10,500, of w hich 2,500 are in Macedonian and 8,000 in Albanian. A Turkish edition is also planned. Five independent, private local TV stations have been cooperating since sum m er 2002. Three Macedonian-language stations, TV Tera (Bitola), TV Vis (Strum ica), TV Z dravkin, and tw o Albanian-language stations, TV Art (Tetovo) and TV Era (Skopje), are w orking on current affairs productions in order to provide their audiences w ith inform ation from alm ost all regions in the country. The program m e is subtitled w hich is usually lacking in m ost broadcasts. O n the one hand these productions aim to strengthen professional collaboration and program m e exchange betw een stations of different ethnic origins. O n the other hand the strategy is to em pow er these TANJA PO PO VIC

TV stations to focus m uch m ore on local new s by covering issues in a professional and responsible m anner relevant for all inhabitants. This entails journalistic self-reflection about the variety of view s on behalf of different ethnic com m unities and language groups. Radio Life is an independent bilingual radio station broadcasting in Macedonian and Albanian in the Skopje area. It w as originally established w ith international donor m oney in March 2001. The program m es are presented by one Macedonian and one Albanian presenter w ho use the technique of paraphrasing to co-present the program m e in both languages. The bilingual technique is a step tow ards diversity and tolerance in Macedonian m edia. The radio station has an enthusiastic follow ing am ong young people. Radio Tetovo, Radio Semi (Debar) and Radio Albana (Kum anovo), operating under their ow n authority, have agreed to rebroadcast all the program m es. IV. Be s t practice s A variety of already existing or planned projects and program m es w ill be presented in this chapter. They all deal w ith m ulti-ethnic challenges and try to find feasible and attractive solutions for different dem ands in the sphere of print and broadcast m edia. 1 . T V Tera : â&#x20AC;&#x153;D ifferences b ind us togetherâ&#x20AC;?. A very special com bin ation of in ter-eth n ic an d bi- or m ultilin gual aspects is prom oted by a private local TV station . TV Tera h as laun ch ed a region al cross-border project w h ich is th e first attem pt to reflect th e m ulti-eth n ic lan dscape in th e south -w est region of th e coun try, th e n orth -w est part of Greece an d th e south -w est part of Alban ia. Th e production con tain s six broadcasts, in w h ich th e differen t eth n ic groups 40

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(M acedon ian s, Greeks, Alban ian s, Vlach s, Turks, Rom a etc.) in th e region are presen ted. Th e docum en taries “D ifferen ces bin d us togeth er” focus on th ese eth n ic groups’ legal situation , th eir cultural activities an d gen eral w ay of life, con fession an d gen der aspects, tradition al con flict solution s an d perspectives of m ulti-eth n ic societies from a m icro (local) an d m acro poin t of view (region al – cross-border). Th e project’s aim is to presen t th rough life stories of th e population th at h as lived on th e sam e groun d for cen turies, ideas about open societies an d future cross-border co-operation betw een th e m un icipalities an d com m un ities as an im portan t m ean s of con fiden ce buildin g, preven tin g culm in ation of prejudices and half-truths. Q uotes, given in speakers’ native languages, w ill be subtitled in Macedonian and the productions w ill be offered to the local TV stations in Korcha/Albania and Kozani/Greece and subtitled in Albanian and Greek if requested. 2 . TV M : “La ke C hronicles”. TV M is a Macedonian-language TV station w hich broadcasts in O hrid, Struga and the surrounding area. It has recently launched a new regional m ultilingual feature program m e called “Lake Chronicles”. This program m e w ill provide m ore extensive and m ore diverse new s w ithin the w hole Struga and O hrid region at Lake O hrid, w ell know n for being populated by m any ethnic groups since tim e im m em orial (Macedonians, Albanians, Turks, Vlachs, Egyptians, Serbs etc.). 3 . Ra d io C erenja . This is a Rom ani-language m edia outlet w ith an ethnically m ixed editorial team (Rom a, Turks and Macedonians). It is going to initiate a m ultilingual project com prising a program m e in Turkish and Vlach (one hour per w eek each). It w ill provide inform ation about local self-govern m en t, TANJA PO PO VIC

education , cultural even ts, tradition an d custom s. Th e program m es sh ould cover curren t affairs for 60 per cen t of th e tim e an d th e oth er 40 per cen t sh ould provide m usic. Th is is a very in terestin g an d h opeful experim en t as it m ean s th at a Rom a radio station m igh t becom e a platform for oth er lan guage groups an d h elp to stren gth en toleration an d co-operation am on g eth n ic com m un ities. 4 . C ity D esk Tetovo. This project is a m ulti-ethnic m edia desk in Tetovo, dedicated to covering daily new s in the Tetovo area for all m edia outlets. The project w as based on the idea of local journalists and initiated by the Media Developm ent Unit of the O SCE Spillover Monitor Mission in Skopje in April 2002, as a m ulti-ethnic confidence-building m easure in the form er crisis area. The project prom otes and enables co-operation betw een journ alists w orkin g in M acedon ian an d Alban ian . Its objectives are to im prove access to in form ation , to w iden th e n ew s agen da to serve th e public better, to prom ote m ultieth n ic n ew s an d un derstan din g, an d to im prove overall stan dards of journ alism . Its overridin g goal is to produce n ew s th at is w ell research ed, balan ced an d objective. Th e City Desk produces daily n ew s features on a broad ran ge of subjects in cludin g th e econ om y, en viron m en t an d culture of th e region . Th e n ew s stories are research ed an d produced by eth n ically m ixed team s an d are broadcast free of ch arge in both M acedon ian an d Alban ian by all partn er TV an d radio station s in th e area. In addition th e n ation al TV station A1 an d various Skopje-based TV ch an n els also broadcast th e n ew s features.

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V. Co nclus io n The current w orking environm ent for the m edia, irrespective of language, is very difficult. The 926 registered print m edia and 157 TV and radio broadcasters struggle to survive. This is not an easy task considering the rather lim ited m arket of tw o m illion inhabitants and the w eak econom y. The quality of reporting varies enormously, political influence is still w idespread and the standards of journalism leave m uch to be desired. After an in itial peaceful post-in depen den ce period, ten sion s betw een th e M acedon ian an d Alban ian population s erupted in open figh tin g in February 2001. Th e con flict h as dram atically affected th e coun tryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s m edia. Hate speech becam e an efficien t in strum en t for th e prom otion of eth n ic exclusivity by som e political forces. Follow in g th e O h rid Agreem en t of 13 August 2001, th e gun s h ave fallen silen t, h ate speech h as disappeared from th e M acedon ian m edia scen e an d th ere is a large n um ber of m edia outlets fun ction in g in differen t lan guages. But th e eth n ic division s in th e m edia are still presen t. M edia outlets often still con cen trate on on e eth n ic audien ce an d fail to address issues beyon d th is group. Th ere is very little eth n ically in clusive journ alism , m ultilin gual n ew spapers an d m ultilin gual program m es on th e radio or television . For th ese reason s th e m edia is still n ot able to play th e role it sh ould play to prom ote toleran ce betw een th e differen t lan guage groups in th e coun try. Now adays there are plenty of good ideas and initiatives on how m edia could prom ote tolerance and understanding. Experiences have encouraged new insights, m any new and prom ising projects have already begun and m any m ore are pending, just w aiting to be started.

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Biblio graphy EastWest Institute, Working Brief for the Media Transfrontier Cooperation Round Table Project. EastWest Institute project fostering inter-com m unity dialogue and cooperation through transfrontier cooperation in the Lake Prespa/ O hrid region – tow ards the establishm ent of the Euroregion. Meeting 8-9 Novem ber 2002, Korcha, Albania. Forum, br. 121 (17.1.2003), 29. Ko lar-Pano v, D o na, and Van den Haute, Francis, and Marko vik, Marjan (ed.), M AP 2000 – M acedonian M edia Audience Research Project, Institute for Sociological, Political and Juridical Research (Skopje, 2000). Ko lar-Pano v, D o na, “Troubled Multicultural Broadcasting in Macedonia”, Journal of Sociolinguistics (2002), in press. Melcic, D unja, “Zw ischen Pluralism us und Denkdikatur. Die Medienlandschaft”, in id. (ed.), Der Jugoslawienkrieg. Handbuch zur Vorgeschichte, Verlauf und Konsequenzen (O pladen, 2002), 317-31. Nineski, Blago ja, Lokalnite elektronski mediumi vo M akedonija (Prilep, 1998). Nineski, Blago ja, Pecatenite i elektronskite mediumi vo M akedonija (Skopje, 2000). Nico let, Claude, “Medien in Mazedonien: Zw ischen Kriegshetze und Friedensförderung”, Südosteuropa M itteilungen, 31/41 Jg. (2001), 282-89. So vet za radio difuzija na Republika Makedo nija, Informacija za radio i TV programite na jazicite na nacionalnostite na elektronskite mediumi vo RM (Skopje, 2002). Tho mpso n, Mark, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, M acedonia and Kosovo. International Assistance to M edia (Vienna: O SCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, 2000). Trpevska, Snezana, “Das Mediensystem Mazedoniens”, in Hans-Bredow Institut (ed.), Internationales Handbuch (Baden-Baden, 2002), 425-35.

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Re co m m e ndatio ns In order to bridge the gap betw een the different com m unities the legal preconditions are of crucial im portance: • Several w orking groups are now elaborating a draft version of the broadcasting law. This m odified, com pleted and therefore m ore pow erful legal regulation w ill be im portant for im plem enting already existing law s as w ell as com bating the w ell-know n problem s like an overcrow ded m edia m arket w ith unfair com petition. • A new law against broadcast piracy w ould foster the country’s ow n production w hich w ould then m irror its rich and colourful society better. In order to foster a joint public sphere and to abolish prejudice and ignorance: • Media in all languages spoken in the country should strive to reflect the country’s multi-ethnic structure instead of focusing solely on one community. This could be achieved through more “positive speech” about each other, and a greater focus on common problems and everyday issues affecting the w hole population instead of informing along ethnic lines. • Practices like inter-ethnic exchange of program m es, com m on new sroom s and m ixed editorial staff are of crucial im portance. Furtherm ore, one very sim ple but effective w ay of reaching a w ider audience is to subtitle program m es. At the m om ent M RTV is not able to offer a m ultichannel sound program m e, but this very beneficial service m ay be feasible in the future. • The production of local new s to reflect the local population’s needs and to cover issues relevant to all inhabitants, RECO MMENDATIO NS

including diverse view points of the various com m unities, should be strengthened. The ongoing process of establishing local self-governm ent offers huge potential, particularly for the m inority m edia to play this im portant role. Education and research require special attention: â&#x20AC;˘ Research needs to be encouraged and supported in order to im prove know ledge about the m edia. The first steps com prising professional surveys and m edia m onitoring have already been undertaken, but these are needed on a regular basis and should be developed to guarantee perm anent research and observation. These results m ust be shared w ith the m edia com m unity, journalists, associations, m edia NGO s etc., in order to build up an exchange betw een scholars and journalists. â&#x20AC;˘ Journalism education is of utm ost im portance. All levels of education have to be developed and strengthened. Whereas m edia NGO s are focusing on training for journalists, the Journalism Departm ent at the St Cyrill and Methodius University in Skopje is in a period of transform ation. The curricula have to be updated and the courses need to be adapted to m eet the real dem ands of todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s journalism . Education and training on diversity reporting issues should especially be fostered and fortified. To strengthen exchange and interaction w ithin the population in general and to encourage inter-cultural com m unication on all levels (national, regional, local and cross-border) m edia still depend on support and assistance from the international com m unity. Further com m itm ent and m ore-sustainable international support in the future are im perative.

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Rom ain Kohn Luxembo urg

Luxem bourg has a unique society. It is as m uch m ulticultural as it is m ultilingual. As the sociologist Fernand Fehlen rem arked: â&#x20AC;&#x153;If there is one specific Luxem bourgian language com petence, then it is m ultilingualism .â&#x20AC;? In the Grand Duchy three languages coexist: Luxem bourgish, French and Germ an. So far there has been no political or cultural hierarchy betw een them . The use of the language depends m ostly on the situation you find yourself in. For instance, in the m edia the linguistic use is com plex and not easy to understand for an outsider. But then again there are no exact rules and those that exist are m ore and m ore difficult to define. Until recently the language of the press w as clearly Germ an (even though there have alw ays been articles in French and som etim es even in Luxem bourgish and English in every edition). It is still the dom inating language of the print m edia as a w hole, but several m onolingual French papers have recently appeared. O n radio and television, Luxem bourgish is spoken alm ost all the tim e. Som e local program m es are broadcast in English and Rom ance languages. So, w hile Germ an rem ains the m ost prom inent language of the press, and radio and television broadcast in Luxem bourgish, the adm inistration alm ost exclusively uses French. It is obvious that in everyday life French has advanced since the early 1990s as the lingua franca. This trend is counterbalanced by the fact that the Governm ent is supporting the idea that the integration of im m igrants into local society should occur RO MAIN KO HN

through acquiring the vernacular language. In fact, the im portance of Luxem bourgish and the unprejudiced use of the three com m on languages are perceived by a m ajority of the population as the focus of their national identity. This is not m uch of a surprise considering the dem ographic com position of the country (year of reference: 2001). O ut of the 440,000 inhabitants of the Grand Duchy, only 277,000 have a Luxem bourgian passport. This m eans that non-nationals m ake up alm ost 37 per cent of the population, the Portuguese representing the largest foreign com m unity w ith 59,000 people. Add to that som e 89,000 French, Belgian and Germ an com m uters arriving every w eekday in Luxem bourg from their native country because they hold a job in the Grand Duchy. Under these circum stances it is alm ost im possible to determ ine w ho speaks w hen in w hich language to w hom . There are m any variables that influence the use of a certain language rather than another so that it is im possible to draw up a list of reliable rules. I. His to rical backgro und Luxem bourg (Lucilinburhuc in O ld Germ anic language) w as founded as a fortress back in 963. It w as part of the Holy Rom an Em pire of the Germ an Nation and the language spoken w as a High Germ an dialect. Four centuries later the territory had expanded to the north and the w est and w as divided in tw o: a French part (w here people spoke Walloon) and a Germ an part (w here people used a Luxem bourgish dialect). The w ritten and adm inistrative languages w ere divided according to region into French or Germ an in their ancient form s. The city of Luxem bourg w as an exception to this rule: even though it belonged to the Germ an part, the adm inistration chose French as its w orking language. 50

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During the first occupation by King Louis XIV and his troops in 1684, the use of the Germ an tongue w as alm ost com pletely banned. A century later due to the French Revolution the im portance of the French language rose and even penetrated the local adm inistration of the Germ an-speaking region. But even after the introduction of the Code Napoléon in 1804 – the first code of French civil law that becam e necessary as a fram ew ork because of the m any separate system s of case law existing in France before 1789 – Luxem bourgish rem ained the language shared by all. In 1839, during the London Conference, Luxem bourg w as given its political independence. The price to pay for this w as the splitting of the territory. The Kingdom of Belgium received the Walloon region and the rem aining territory consisted of w hat is know n today as the Grand Duchy of Luxem bourg, w hich w as then situated in the Germ an-speaking area. But the Germ an language did not jeopardize the pre-em inence of French because the Dutch King-Grand Duke William II did not back his civil servants in this m atter. In the end the Luxem bourgian notables succeeded in establishing French as the adm inistrative, judicial and even political language. The industrial revolution brought im portant sociodem ographic changes at the end of the nineteenth century. Luxem bourg, w hich had alw ays been a poor agricultural country inducing m any of its citizens to seek a better life overseas, now becam e attractive for im m igrants first from Germ any, then from Italy. The linguistic positioning becam e a political m atter. In order to m ark a distance from the Germ an Confederation and to protect Luxem bourg from the Germ an nationalists, a law w as passed w hich put French on the sam e level w ith Germ an as a language that children had to learn in elem entary school. The final linguistic program m e w as defined in the far-reaching school reform of 1912. RO MAIN KO HN

The im portance of the Luxem bourgish language for the country’s national identity becam e obvious during World War II w hen Luxem bourg w as occupied by the Nazis. The Germ an gauleiter (head of district) decided to hold a census in O ctober 1941 as he w anted the citizens of Luxem bourg to profess their affiliation to Germ an culture. Everybody w as told to choose “Germ an” three tim es w hen asked about his or her language, citizenship and ethnicity. Even the fact that the Nazis had w arned people of the consequences should they reply “Luxem bourgish” did not stop the natives from doing exactly that. As the Nazis becam e aw are of the people’s pride in its ow n identity (m ore than 95 per cent said “Luxem bourgish” as an answ er to all three questions) they stopped counting. II. Le gal fram e w o rk fo r the m e dia Freedom of speech and freedom of the press are guaranteed by Article 24 of the Constitution dating back to 1868: “Freedom of speech in all m atters and freedom of the press is guaranteed, subject to the repression of offences com m itted in the exercise of these freedom s. No censorship m ay ever be introduced. A security deposit m ay not be dem anded from w riters, publishers and printers. [...]” The use of languages w as only regulated after World War II w hen parts of the Constitution w ere changed in 1948. Article 29 sim ply reads: “The law w ill regulate the use of languages in adm inistrative and judicial m atters.” The form er Article 29 dating back to 1868 stated: “The use of the Germ an and French language is optional. It cannot be lim ited.” In 1984 a Law on the Use of Languages w as passed. The Constitution referred to this upcom ing law as early as 1948, but it took an article in a Germ an right-w ing new spaper in 1980 to start the legislative process in the Grand Duchy. Neo52

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Nazis claim ed that Luxem bourgers w ere speaking Germ an, since their native tongue w as a m ere Germ an dialect. The public and the politicians w ere upset. Parliam ent passed a m otion in w hich it asked the Governm ent to prepare a bill. The law that resulted from the debates regulates the use of languages on the legislative, adm inistrative and judicial level. It does not m ake any reference to the m edia as they are not generally perceived as part of the public sphere in w hich the Governm ent should interfere. There are three m ajor points in this law, w hich is the only one that deals w ith the use of languages on a grander scale. First, Luxem bourgish w as granted the status of national language (an im portant nuance in com parison to an official language as understood by the European Union for instance). Secondly, all legislative docum ents have to be w ritten in French. Last, in adm inistrative and judicial m atters, all three languages (Luxem bourgish, French and Germ an) can be used. When addressing the adm inistration, citizens can use w hichever of the three languages they prefer; the answ er should be in the sam e language, “as far as possible”, as the law states. This m eans that alm ost all requests to the adm inistration call for a French reply, as the civil servants are not used to other languages or are not fam iliar w ith the technical vocabulary in a language other than French. The current Press Law dates back to 1869. It has long been considered in need of reform and, in 2002, the Ministry of State as the governm ent departm ent responsible for the m edia subm itted a draft for a new law, w hich is still under discussion. It takes into account the European Convention on Hum an Rights as w ell as the jurisdiction of the European Court for Hum an Rights. François Biltgen, the Minister of Com m unications in charge of the bill, expects it to becom e RO MAIN KO HN

one of the m ost m odern m edia law s in Europe w hen it is probably passed by parliam ent later on in 2003. The changes m ostly deal w ith the status of the journalist but w ill not add any regulations relating to languages. In 1976 a law w as passed in order to subsidize the press w ith public m oney. In 2001, the adm inistration gave 4.3 m illion euro directly to the papers, notw ithstanding all the indirect support the print m edia receives from the Governm ent, w hatever its political leanings. In order to be eligible for a subsidy, a paper has to be published at least once a w eek, em ploy at least five journalists and be of general interest (i.e. dealing w ith national and international new s, econom y, social affairs and culture). O nly papers m ainly w ritten in one of the three languages of Luxem bourgish, French and Germ an qualify for public m oney. Som e papers w ould have a hard tim e to survive w ithout the press aid; others like Le Jeudi w ould probably never have been created w ithout the prospect of being subsidized by the State. III. The m e dia and the ir us e o f language s The situation of the Luxem bourgian m edia, w ith the use of the different languages, is as unique as it is com plex. As a general rule, it may be said that the press is dominated by German (even if several French only papers have been put on the market in the last few years), w hereas on radio and television Luxembourgish is the lingua franca (again w ith som e notew orthy exceptions). 1 . Print m ed ia . According to UNESCO statistics, Luxem bourgers are avid readers of the press. O ver a quarter of all households purchase m ore than one national daily, alm ost alw ays by subscription. Thanks to their know ledge of languages, Luxem bourgers are able to read new spapers from 54

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m any different countries (m ostly special interest m agazines that do not exist in the Grand Duchy, w ith the exception of m agazines dedicated to cars). How ever, in order to read about local new s they have to rely on the dom estic press. In 1848, nine years after Luxem bourg gained its independence, a Constitution w as draw n up for the Grand Duchy. With the new legal rules censorship disappeared. It did not take very long for the first new spaper to be published: Luxemburger Wort. Not only does this daily still exist, it has m oreover the largest readership (w ith 49 per cent) and circulation (w ith m ore than 78,000 copies sold, representing approxim ately double the circulation of all the other dailies com bined) in Luxem bourg. The paper is ow ned by the archbishopric and has a strongly Catholic editorial appeal. But over the last years it has opened its pages to other ideological currents w ithout ignoring its religious origins. It surely is the m ost reliable paper in the new s reporting section. Its ideological counterpart is called Tageblatt (20 per cent readership). It w as first published in 1913 and belongs indirectly to the socialist trade union O GBL. In the 1930s both papers fought each other mercilessly: Tageblatt saw the Nazis as a political enem y to be got rid of, w hereas, at least in the early years, Luxemburger Wort shut its eyes to Hitlerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Germ any as the political right regarded him as the last hope to protect Western Europe from the com m unist threat. When the Nazis occupied Luxem bourg in 1940, both papers w ere brought into line. Dow nright political organs are the com m unist Z eitung vum LĂŤtzebuerger Vollek (established 1946, 1 per cent readership today) and the liberal Journal (established 1948, 5 per cent readership today), since both are ow ned by their respective party. The initiators of both papers played an im portant role in the RĂŠsistance against the Nazi invaders. RO MAIN KO HN

D’Lëtzebuerger Land (3 per cent readership) is the oldest political w eekly. It w as started in 1954 w ith the help of financiers close to the steel giant Arbed. The other political w eekly is close to the Green party and has a readership of one per cent. Renam ed Woxx in 2000, after it started 12 years before as Gréngespoun, it has alw ays been perceived by its m akers as an alternative to the “bourgeois” press. Thus, every current in the political and econom ic landscape has its ow n paper. But in term s of the level of sales needed to run at a profit, there should be room for only one of these new spapers on the m arket. If all continue to exist despite their sm all circulation figures and revenues this is due to an overall w ill expressed by every political party to uphold a diversity of opinions guaranteed by the press aid. O ther papers to receive m oney from public finances are Revue (established 1946, 25 per cent readership today) and Télécran (established 1978, 34 per cent readership today), tw o w eekly illustrated m agazines w ith an em phasis on the television program m e, and Le Jeudi (established 1997, 7 per cent readership today), a French only w eekly. In late 2001 tw o dailies w ere established: La Voix du Luxembourg and Le Q uotidien. They have a readership of 7 per cent each and only publish articles in French. Their political stance is far less obvious, even if they are ow ned by the tw o m ain press groups: Groupe Saint-Paul (Luxemburger Wort, Télécran, La Voix du Luxembourg) and Editpress (Tageblatt, Revue, Le Jeudi, Le Q uotidien). 1 .1 M ultilingua l m ed ia . It is difficult to im agine that the first edition of Luxemburger Wort, published shortly after the abolition of censorship in 1848, contained only articles w ritten in Germ an. Anyone w ishing to read one of the leading national new spapers now adays w ill need to be fam iliar w ith Germ an 56

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and French at least. Articles in both languages are side by side and no translation is provided. Moreover, you can find a French quote in a Germ an article w ith no translation and vice versa. Germ an reports account for approxim ately 70 per cent, French articles for 25 to 30 per cent, and the difference is m ade up by reports in Luxem bourgish or any other language. This unique system w orks sm oothly as Luxem bourg is a kind of linguistic m elting pot. In 1988, the linguist Guy Berg undertook a quantitative analysis of the languages used in the m ultilingual papers Luxemburger Wort and Tageblatt. He divided both papers into 13 categories and found sim ilar results for each of them . Sports had the highest use of a single language: about 95 per cent of the articles w ere w ritten in Germ an. Editorials in Germ an m ade up for 91 per cent, local new s for 87 per cent, the front page for 84 per cent, international affairs for 80 per cent and national affairs for 73 per cent, the rem aining percentage w ere French articles as Luxem bourgish does not play an im portant role in these categories (except for local new s w ith 4.5 per cent). At that tim e, the arts pages had a ratio of 56 to 41.5 per cent in favour of Germ an articles; today this ratio m ay have sw itched in favour of French. Job offers w ere the category in w hich French w as leading w ith 84 per cent; today you w ill also find a num ber of job offers in English. Fifty-tw o per cent of advertisem ents w ere published in French, 38 in Germ an and 10 in Luxem bourgish; today there could be even less Germ an com m ercial m essages. An area from w hich Germ an is alm ost banned is the social announcem ents. At the tim e, m ore than 80 per cent of birth or m arriage announcem ents w ere w ritten in Luxem bourgish. Interestingly people tended to choose m ore French ads (45 per cent) w hen they had to announce the death of a person. RO MAIN KO HN

1 .2 . M onolingua l m ed ia . As the num ber of foreigners living in Luxem bourg has been on the constant rise since the 1970s and currently m akes up for alm ost 37 per cent of the population, French increasingly takes on the role of the lingua franca in everyday life (especially in com m erce and the catering trade w here a high percentage of the w orkforce are French and Belgian com m uters). That is w hy Luxem bourgian publishers have recently m ade efforts to target the country’s Frenchspeaking com m unity. Right now there are three French m onolingual papers: the tw o dailies La Voix du Luxembourg and Le Q uotidien as w ell as the w eekly Le Jeudi. Th e m ain reason for th e foun dation of th ese th ree papers is com m ercial (even if paradoxically n o publish er really expects to m ake m on ey w ith h is ven ture). Som e publish ers believe th at as th ere are m ore an d m ore Fren ch speakin g people in Luxem bourg, th ere sh ould also be a n ew readersh ip to be gain ed. Th is is even m ore th e case because Fren ch speakers are usually un able to read th e m ajority of Germ an articles in th e m ultilin gual papers an d th us h ave n ot bough t a local daily or w eekly so far. Th is is true en ough , but th en again La Voix du Luxembourg an d Le Q uotidien are n ot really a success as yet. Th eir readersh ip of 14 per cen t altogeth er lies on ly 3 poin ts above th e Luxem bourgian edition of the French daily Le Républicain lorrain w hen it closed at 11 per cen t at th e en d of 2001. Th is edition started in th e early 1960s but in th e last years circulation an d reven ues w ere con stan tly fallin g. (For th e record: Le Républicain lorrain is a partn er in Le Q uotidien.) There is also a cultural dim ension to take into account w hen trying to explain the publishers’ relative failure to catch a new readership. There seem s to be a discrepancy betw een the num ber of inhabitants of the Grand Duchy w ho are fluent 58

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in French and those am ong them w ho are interested in Luxem bourg’s current affairs. The potential “natural” readers of a m onolingual French press (bankers, eurocrats, im m igrants, com m uters) prefer to stick to the papers published in their hom e countries (w hich is quite easy as all the im portant titles from abroad are available in Luxem bourg). If this w ere not the case, then w hat possible explanation is there for the fact that Le Q uotidien did not succeed in w inning over Le Républicain lorrain’s readers? Le Q uotidien is clearly Le Républicain lorrain’s successor (as this paper stopped publication w hen Le Q uotidien first appeared and as it took over its subscriptions). The difference lies in their editorial agenda: Le Q uotidien focuses m ore on Luxem bourg and less on France and the Lorraine region. So w hen Le Républicain lorrain stopped publishing its Luxem bourg edition after 40 years in late 2001, you could observe readers buying Le Républicain lorrain’s edition from Thionville rather than Le Q uotidien or for that m atter La Voix du Luxembourg. Another finding of a m ultim edia poll conducted by TNS (Taylor-Nelson Sofres) show s that the readership of La Voix du Luxembourg is equally divided betw een Luxem bourgers and foreigners (the poll does not say if this also applies to Le Q uotidien but one could assum e that the figures are the sam e). In the end this all m eans that if the fierce com petition betw een the tw o m onolingual French dailies continues, it is not because there is an overw helm ing dem and from the Frenchspeaking inhabitants and com m uters. It has to do m ostly w ith predatory pricing betw een the tw o m ost im portant and ideologically opposed press com panies in the Grand Duchy as both sides seem to assum e that only one paper w ill survive in the end. (Ironically enough, the readers’ choice betw een La Voix du Luxembourg and Le Q uotidien does not seem to be influenced by their political view s, according to the social research RO MAIN KO HN

institute Ilres, contrary to readers’ behaviour on the m ultilingual press m arket. But then again these papers are m uch m ore politically biased.) The English press is so far beyond the reach of the tw o main media groups. In 1981 the human resources manager Pol Wirtz had the idea to publish a w eekly for expats: Luxembourg News. It w as follow ed seven years later by the monthly magazine Business. Both have to survive w ithout the support of public finances, as English is not among the three tongues mentioned in the 1984 Law on the Use of Languages. O n 25 March 2003, International City Magazines announced that it w ould “cease publication of all its titles”, among them Luxembourg News and Business. Pol Wirtz is currently looking for new investors and he is confident that his papers w ill be relaunched soon. There are also papers addressing the local m arket in Portuguese. The first to appear w as Contacto (9 per cent readership). The current w eekly w as founded in 1970 and belongs to Groupe Saint-Paul. Its com petitor Correio (4 per cent readership) is ow ned by Editpress and w as started in 1999. In April 2003, Présence hellénique w as started as the first m onthly in Greek (and French). Apart from English, Portuguese and Greek papers and m agazines, no press product for any other language groups are published in Luxem bourg. If Italian, Spanish, Flem ish or Dutch inhabitants w ant to read papers in their native tongues, they have to go to the kiosk w here they w ill find m ore than one daily or w eekly im ported from their countries. O ne final consideration or, m ore probably, a speculation: It is hard to im agine that one day a publisher w ill start a Germ an only new spaper. This is firstly because of the Nazi occupation during World War II w hich m ade Luxem bourgers adopt a certain critical distance tow ards Germ any and its culture 60

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(even though Luxembourgers read far more German than French papers and books and w atch m any m ore TV program m es from Germ any than from France). And secondly, this is sim ply because nobody sees the need for a m onolingual Germ an press in a m ultilingual cultural context. 1 .3 . Foreign p ress. Luxem bourgers are keen readers of the foreign press. This habit is not only related to their m ultilingualism , it is also a consequence of the country’s size. You w ill not find any m agazines w ith special interest them es like com puters, cooking or sports at the new s-stand. And those Luxem bourgers w ho do not w ant to read only press agency reports about international affairs, w ill have to turn to foreign dailies or w eeklies. The local press sim ply does not have the financial m eans to have its ow n correspondents throughout the w orld’s im portant cities or even to send a reporter on special assignm ent to a place of crisis. All the im portant international papers can be found at the new s-stands in Luxem bourg, in total m ore than 5,300 titles. But their single sale figures are sm all in com parison to the local press. With one notable exception: the Germ an tabloid Bild. Even though it com pletely ignores the Luxem bourgian reality and current affairs it is read by eight per cent of the population. 2 . Broadcast media. Radio and television are definitely the areas w here Luxem bourgish is the lingua franca, but as in the print m edia there are m inor m ultilingual exceptions on m any program m es. The only national TV station RTL Télé Lëtzebuerg as w ell as the three national radio programmes, RTL Radio Lëtzebuerg, the sociocultural Radio 100,7 and DNR (Den neie Radio), broadcast in Luxem bourgish. This also applies to tw o out of the three regional stations: Radio Ara and Eldoradio. Radio Latina, RO MAIN KO HN

how ever, broadcasts in the Romance languages, mostly in Portuguese. With the exception of one station (w hich broadcasts in Portuguese and French), all other 13 local radios use almost exclusively Luxembourgish on the air. The three TV channels that are distributed via cable are also in Luxembourgish. Even if now adays there is a m ultitude of radio and television program m es for the local population, this is a fairly new situation as RTL held a broadcasting m onopoly for six decades and the liberalization of the w aves only started after 1991 w hen a law w as passed. The history of electronic m edia began in 1931 w hen the Com pagnie luxem bourgeoise de radiodiffusion w as founded, the current RTL Group. But in the first three decades of its existence only program m es in French, Germ an and English w ere broadcast throughout Europe. These program m es did not especially address the local population. Radio Lëtzebuerg (in Luxem bourgish) only took off in 1959. Ten years later Télé Lëtzebuerg started (also in Luxem bourgish but for m ore than 20 years only as a tw o-hour program m e every Sunday afternoon; the current daily m agazine program m e and new s show has only been produced since 1991). In general, the m agazine program m e and the new s are presented in Luxem bourgish. But if a guest on a radio or TV program m e com es from Germ any or France, the interview is conducted and broadcast in his or her language and no translation is provided. Again there is a unique feature. In order to address the foreign com m unities in the Grand Duchy the Governm ent is providing funding for a French translation of the daily half-hour TV new s program m e. It is broadcast sim ultaneously on the second stereo channel. The sociocultural Radio 100,7, w hich hit the airw aves in 1993, is the first and only program m e to be financed w ith public m oney. As it has a cultural as w ell as a political m ission, it 62

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broadcasts every m orning a 15-m inute-long new s program m e in French. In the past RTL used to have w eekly radio program m es for the Portuguese, Italian and Spanish com m unities and citizens from the form er Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and on television for the Italian speakers. But over tim e they disappeared. As RTL lost its broadcasting m onopoly it considered that it no longer had to assum e the public m ission to inform the foreign com m unities in their ow n tongue. Radio Latina took over and addresses especially the Portuguese, Italian, Spanish and French speakers in the Grand Duchy. Several regional and local radio stations broadcast m ainly in English, but their program m es are very m uch m usic oriented and do not provide their audience w ith journalism . Another quite unique phenom enon is the spillover effect. Everybody w ishing to w atch the m ain public and private TV program m es in Europe or to listen to the Belgian, French and Germ an radio stations in the area next to the frontier can do so. This applies to both the native and the foreign population. But it is clear that, com pared w ith non-national inhabitants, the Luxem bourgers have a preference for Germ an radio and television program m es.

29% RTL Télé Lëtzebuerg 3% O ther TV 12% French TV

Audience share fo r TV pro grammes by language Luxembo urgian po pulatio n

56% Germ an TV

During w eekdays the share of Luxem bourgers w ho w atch RTL Télé Lëtzebuerg (in Luxem bourgish) is 29 per cent; Germ an TV channels are w atched by 56 per cent of natives, French by RO MAIN KO HN

12 per cent and the rem aining TV program m es in any other language by 3 per cent (according to an Ilres poll from 2001).

22% RTL Télé Lëtzebuerg 9% O ther TV

Audience share fo r TV pro grammes by language Luxembo urgian and fo reign po pulatio n

24% French TV 45% Germ an TV

If the survey takes into account the w hole population of the Grand Duchy, the share for RTL Télé Lëtzebuerg and Germ an TV drops to 22 and 45 per cent respectively, w hereas the share for French and all the other TV stations clim bs to 24 and 9 per cent respectively. 11% O ther TV 17% Germ an TV 26% Portuguese TV

TV view ing preferences by language amo ng Po rtuguese po pulatio n 46% French TV

Portuguese people w atch m ostly French channels (46 per cent), follow ed by Portuguese TV (26 per cent), Germ an program m es (17 per cent) and the other TV stations (11 per cent). The sam e trend can be observed w hen you analyse the radio listening habits of the population. Luxem bourgers prefer to tune in to Germ an rather than to French program m es. How ever, the share of French radio stations goes up w hen you consider the w hole population. But there is one big difference from TV: 85 per cent of the audience share from the native 64

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population listen to Luxem bourgian radio stations. This m eans that in contrast to TV only 15 per cent of Luxem bourgers are tuning in to foreign radio program m es. The m ain reason for this is the poor range of program m es on RTL Télé Lëtzebuerg, w hich has 30 m inutes of a m agazine program m e and 30 m inutes of local new s per day, but no m ovies and show s for instance. 3 . Internet. There are no rules for the choice of language on an Internet site but French and English are dom inant. The adm inistration alm ost exclusively uses French, not because it responds to a public dem and but because it is the adm inistration’s language in general. The new spapers’ sites are predom inantly in Germ an w ith the exception of Tageblatt w hich is m ainly in French, even if the print edition is pending tow ards the Germ an language. The com m on Internet site for RTL radio and television is one of the few w ritten in Luxem bourgish and at the sam e tim e one of the m ost – if not the m ost – visited sites in the country. IV. Language pre fe re nce s o f jo urnalis ts Regarding m ultilingual print m edia, a journalist’s reasons for picking one language rather than another can be very diverse. A journalist m ay have studied in a Germ an-speaking country and so prefer to use Germ an. O r a reporter w ho generally w rites articles in Germ an, m ight sw itch to French out of courtesy w hen covering a conference given by a philosopher from Paris – if he considers his bilingual talents to be good enough. Revue and Télécran are alm ost exclusively Germ an-language m agazines, in w hich m ost French w ords are used in the advertisem ents. These m agazines address the w hole native population, from the housew ife to the m anager and from the teenager RO MAIN KO HN

to the grandparent. So they have to use Germ an, as it is the language m ost easily read by the m ajority of Luxem bourgers. V. Co nclus io n Luxem bourg is definitely a m ultilingual country, but unlike other m ultilingual societies like Sw itzerland and Belgium there are no (separate) linguistic com m unities. In the Grand Duchy everybody speaks three languages reasonably w ell: Luxem bourgish, Germ an and French. At least those people w ho w ent through the local school system are in com m and of all three. Reading books and papers, listening to a radio program m e or w atching TV w ithout w orrying about the language (be it Luxem bourgish, French or Germ an) is part of the cultural and political identity of Luxem bourg and its citizens. O f course everybody has their personal linguistic preferences but they are not led by a hidden agenda. So far, the use of languages in public life follow ed som e rules that developed through decades of practical evolution rather than through legislative m easures. The adm inistrationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s w ritten language is French and its spoken tongue Luxem bourgish. Radio and television program m es are broadcast in Luxem bourgish and the papers are m ainly w ritten in Germ an. But it is getting m ore difficult to stick to these strict distinctions. The transitions are m ore than ever in a state of flux. So far Luxem bourg prides itself for being at the crossroads of tw o im portant cultures. Its citizens not only speak the different languages, they also grasp the cultural differences. If this is the core of the countryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s identity, then there is no reason w hy people should not continue to stick to it in the future.

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Biblio graphy Berg, Guy, M ir wëlle bleiwe, wat mir sin. Soziolinguistische und sprachtypologische Betrachtungen zur luxemburgischen M ehrsprachigkeit (Tübingen: Max Niem eyer, 1993). Ko hn, Ro main, “Ein Volk von Zeitungslesern”, in Editions Saint-Paul (ed.), Kaleidoskop (Luxem bourg: Editions Saint-Paul, 2002), 115-24. Ko hn, Ro main, “Im Zw eifel für den Leser. Wie Presse, Radio und TV die Sprachenvielfalt im Land m eistern”, Süddeutsche Z eitung, 19 January 2001. Loi du 24 février 1984 sur le régime des langues, Mém orial A n° 16, 27 February 1984, 196-197 <http://w w w.legilux.lu> Loi du 3 août 1998 sur la promotion de la presse écrite, Mém orial A n° 81, 23 Septem ber 1998, 1592-1593 <http://w w w.legilux.lu> Majerus, Pierre, L’Etat luxembourgeois. M anuel de droit constitutionnel et de droit administratif (Luxem bourg, 1990). New to n, Gerald (ed.), Luxembourg and Lëtzebuergesch. Language and Communication at the Crossroads of Europe (O xford: Clarendon Press, 1996). Peeters, Ro ger J., “Trilinguism e et triglossie: l’em ploi des langues dans la presse quotidienne luxem bourgeoise”, O rbis (Bulletin international de docum entation linguistique), Tom e XXXIX 1996-1997, 127-57 Service Info rmatio n et Presse (ed.), About... languages (Luxem bourg, 1999) <http://w w w.gouvernem ent.lu/publications/dow nload/about.pdf> Service Info rmatio n et Presse (ed.), About... media and communications (Luxem bourg, 2002) <http://w w w.gouvernem ent.lu/publications/dow n load/m ediaENG.pdf>

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Re co m m e ndatio ns Luxem bourg is a m ultilingual society, w here Luxem bourgish, French and Germ an are used follow ing num erous practical, w ritten and unw ritten rules. To argue in favour of m onolingual m edia w ould probably lead to social segregation and in the end to a “dilution” of citizenship. The cultural identity of Luxem bourgers is very strongly linked to an equal-to-equal coexistence of both their national language and their m ultilingualism . This type of m ultilingualism is specific to Luxem bourg and probably not com parable w ith any other nation. It is im portant to note that a m ajor part of Luxem bourg society is in com m and of m ore than one of the three official languages: Lëtzebuergesch, Germ an and French. Also, a m ajority of Luxem bourg’s im m igrants speak at least one of the three official languages, French having becom e a lingua franca or a com m on denom inator. French is also the language m ostly used by cross-border w orkers from France, Belgium and Germ any. Im m igrants especially from Rom ance-speaking countries have “their” m edia: tw o Portuguese w eeklies, a radio in different Rom ance languages, a French translation of the TV new s (in Luxem bourgish) and a French daily radio new s program m e (on public radio). Tw o all-French new spapers and an exclusively French w eekly give French com m uters and im m igrants from Rom ance-speaking countries a broad insight into Luxem bourg activities. In the press, Luxem bourgish has never been established as a language of com m unication. This is largely due to the fact that there is no real dem and from the citizens to read their new spapers in the national language, as it rem ains first and forem ost a spoken language and is hard to read (and to 68

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w rite) w hen you are not accustom ed to this exercise. Things are different on radio and television, w here Luxem bourgish is the m ajor language of com m unication. Put in this perspective, the Governm ent should: • Continue to encourage foreigners/im m igrants to learn Luxem bourgish as a language of integration; • Encourage the creation of m ultilingual broadcasting or boost the production of radio and TV broadcasts for a m ultilingual audience in languages other than Luxem bourgish (in particular on the public radio station); • Leave the choice of the language to the speaker, i.e. journalist (not to the readers or the radio and TV audience).

RECO MMENDATIO NS

Natalia Angheli M o ldo va

Situated at the crossroads betw een the Slavic and the Latin w orlds, Moldova is hom e to m any ethnic groups. According to the results of the latest census, 64.5 per cent of the population are of Moldovan descent, 13.8 per cent are ethnic Ukrainians, 13 per cent are Russians, 3 per cent are ethnic Gagauz, 2 per cent are Bulgarians, 1.5 per cent Jew ish and 2.2 per cent belong to other ethnic groups (Belarusian, Polish, Germ an, Rom a, etc).1 The cultural landscape of Moldova is a kaleidoscope of traditions and languages. Som e are sim ilar to those of other peoples in the region – Rom anians, Russians, Ukrainians, Bulgarians. O thers are unique to this area – like the Gagauz, a Christian O rthodox group speaking a Turkic language. Eleven years after the break-up of the Soviet Union, the country is still in search of its identity and its place in the new Europe – all of w hich affect the w ays in w hich different ethnic groups perceive them selves and each other. Safeguarding the interests of these groups rem ains a challenge both for the country’s authorities and the civil society, especially in conditions of grave econom ic crisis and the unresolved Transdniestrian dispute.

1 Q uoted from “The Decision of the Parliam ent of the Republic of Moldova No. 1039-XII from 26.05.92 on The Legal Status of Persons Belonging to Ethnic, Linguistic and Religious Minorities in the Context of the Arm ed Conflict in the Districts of the Eastern Part of the Dniester”. N ATALIA ANGHELI

I. Le gal fram e w o rk fo r the m e dia In Moldova, the rapport betw een the titular nation and the other ethnic groups is often view ed through the perspective of the language issue. Until the late 1980s, despite the diversity in the national structure Russian and Moldovan languages predom inated. Thus, in 1989, 59.4 per cent of scholars w ere taught in Moldovan and 40.6 per cent in Russian.2 Russian w as the m ain language of official com m unication. Moldova’s em ancipation from com m unist rule brought about the revival of the national aw areness of ethnic Moldovans. As part of this m ovem ent, a Law on the Functioning of Languages on the Territory of M oldova w as adopted in 1989. Under the law, Moldovan gained the status of the official language, w hile Russian w as declared “the language of com m unication am ong nations”.3 While raising the status of Moldovan, the law also stipulated the use of Ukrainian, Bulgarian, Hebrew, Yiddish, Rom a language, etc. to m eet the needs of various ethnic groups living in Moldova.4 The law also stipulated the use of Latin alphabet, elim inating the only difference betw een Moldovan and Rom anian. How ever, the nam e of the language, i.e. Moldovan vs. Rom anian, has becom e a topic of heated debates. Part of the population use the nam e “Rom anian”, and call them selves “ethnic Rom anians”, w hile others m aintain that they speak Moldovan. Since “Moldovan” is the nam e used in all legal acts, this is the term that w ill be used in the present report in reference to the country’s official language. The use of Moldovan as the country’s official language is also stipulated in Article 13 of the Constitution. The Article also recognizes the right of Moldovan citizens to prom ote Russian and other languages spoken on its territory. Article 10 of the Constitution safeguards the right of Moldovan nationals 72

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to preserve, develop and express their ethnic, cultural, linguistic and religious identity. Neither the language law nor the Constitution w as accepted in Transdniestria, a region in eastern Moldova largely populated by ethnic Ukrainians and Russians. Here the residents protested m ost vocally against Article 7 of the language law, w hich prescribes the know ledge of Moldovan to those holding positions in state adm inistration bodies. In the rest of the country, the implementation of the language law and linguistic provisions of other legal acts has been piecemeal at best, and striking a balance betw een Moldovan and Russian, especially in the spheres of business and media, has remained a sensitive issue. Most educated Moldovans speak both Moldovan and Russian, w hereas for many other ethnic groups Russian remains the first, and, sometimes, the only means of communication. Even though the 1989 law did not contain any provisions expressly regulating the m edia, it has laid the foundation for m any of the subsequent developm ents in that field. In line w ith the language law are the linguistic provisions of the country’s broadcast legislation. Article 13 of the 1995 Law on Broadcasting stipulates that a m inim um of 65 per cent of program m es should be in the country’s official language. The law has set the fram ew ork for the activity of the Audiovisual Co-ordinating Council (CCA), w hich, am ong other things, is required to facilitate the developm ent of broadcasts in the country’s official language.5 2 Atanasia Stoianova, “National Minorities Education in Moldova: The Legal Fram ew ork and Practice”, Report presented at The World Congress on Language Policies, Barcelona, 16-20 April 2002 <w w w.linguapax.org/congres/ taller/taller3/article23_ang.htm l> 3 Article 3 of the Law on the Functioning of Languages on the Territory of M oldova. 4 Article 4 of the Law on the Functioning of Languages on the Territory of M oldova. 5 Article 37 of the Law on Broadcasting. N ATALIA ANGHELI

The language provisions of the 1997 Law on Advertising are fairly liberal. Follow ing an am endm ent adopted in 2001, advertisem ents can be published in the countryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s official language or, upon the request of the advertiser, in other languages.6 Access of different ethnic groups to the m edia is also provided for by the 2001 Law on the Rights of Persons Belonging to N ational M inorities. Article 13 of that law stipulates that representatives of ethnic m inorities and their organizations have the right to produce publications in their native languages, w hile the governm ent authorities are required to organize broadcasts in these languages on the state TV and radio. Sim ilarly, the 2002 Law on the N ational Public Broadcaster proclaim s cultural diversity, and acknow ledges the right of ethnic groups to have program m es in their languages. In order to facilitate the im plem entation of the language law and prom ote the state policies in the area of inter-ethnic relations, the Governm ent created the Departm ent on National Relations and the Functioning of Languages (subsequently renamed the Department of Inter-ethnic Relations). The departm ent is charged w ith m onitoring the situation w ith respect to the rights of ethnic groups and those of the titular nation, as w ell as supporting the activities of various non-governm ental organizations in that field. II. M e dia lands cape A plethora of print and electronic m edia outlets have appeared in Moldova since it gained independence in 1991. As m ost have been financed by political parties and groups, they have reflected the w hole spectrum of political opinions in the country. There has been, how ever, far less variety in the w ay these publications have reflected the interests of various ethnic groups in Moldova. 74

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The m edia scene in Moldova is extrem ely volatile. Due to the low purchasing capacity of the population and fickle political interests the lifespan of m any outlets has been fairly short. According to the data collected by the Independent Journalism Center, Moldova, as of Novem ber 2002 there w ere 79 national print publications, 23 local print outlets, 2 national TV channels, 1 national radio channel, 32 local TV channels, 24 local radio stations and 8 new s agencies. O ut of a total of 169 outlets, 82 published or broadcast their program m es in Moldovan, 33 in both Moldovan and Russian, 44 in Russian only, 6 in Russian and Gagauz and 4 in other languages (these data do not include inform ation about m edia outlets in the breakaw ay Transdniestrian region).7 The price of new spapers and m agazines is prohibitively high for m ost Moldovans, and radio and television channels broadcast through the state netw ork are the m ost likely sources of inform ation and entertainm ent. Radio M oldova, TV M oldova 1 and O RT M oldova are available in practically all households. Until 10 August 2002, TV Romania 1, the public channel from the neighbouring country, w as also broadcast to m ost Moldovan hom es through the state com m unications system .8 The Moldovan authorities suspended the broadcasts claim ing that additional intergovernm ental accords stipulating the m ethod of paym ent for the use of the Moldovan relaying facilities w ere necessary. A w ave of public protests follow ed, and rebroadcasts w ere finally resum ed in March 2003. It is also possible for residents of northern Moldova and the Transdniestrian region to receive broadcasts from the neighbouring Ukraine in their hom es. 6 Article 8 of the Law on Advertising. 7 “Media Guide 2001-2002”, Independent Journalism Center, Moldova. 8 Victor Bogaci, “TV Transmitters and Stations in the Counties of Moldova”, Mass Media in Moldova, December 1999, Independent Journalism Center, Moldova. N ATALIA ANGHELI

Still, low salaries do not allow m any Moldovans to purchase up-to-date radio or television equipm ent. As a result, they do not have access to the stations broadcasting over the air, and rely chiefly on transm issions of state-ow ned local stations through old-style cable radio. 1 . Rus s ia n-la ngua ge m ed ia in M old ova . Russian rem ain s th e m ain lan guage of th e m edia in M oldova. In fact, due to th eir large n um ber, h igh circulation an d vast pen etration it is h ard even to call th ese outlets “m in ority”. Accordin g to a sum m er 2002 opin ion poll, th ree of th e five m ost w idely read n ew spapers in M oldova w ere publish ed in Russian , an d tw o of th e five m ost popular radio station s broadcast th eir program m es in th at lan guage. 9 Th e sam e poll sh ow ed th at th e m ost popular TV ch an n el w as th e Russian -lan guage O RT. Th e n ew spaper w ith th e h igh est popularity ratin g in M oldova is Komsomol’sk aya Pravda, w ith a circulation of 50,000 plus copies, far m ore th an th at of an y M oldovan lan guage publication . In fact, m any of the m ost popular Russian-language new spapers are Moldovan editions of fam ous Russian titles (Komsomol’skaya Pravda, Argumenty i Fakty, Trud). Sim ilarly, Russian-language broadcasts w ith the highest rating are rebroadcasts of TV and radio channels from Russia (O RT, Russkoe Radio, Radio Hit FM ). In general, the share of rebroadcasts from Russia is considerable. According to the CCA register, as of sum m er 2002 out of 23 licensed over-the-air radio stations 11 rebroadcast the program m es of Russian stations. By com parison, tw o stations had valid licences to rebroadcast program m es from Rom ania, one from Turkey, and one station w as authorized to rebroadcast Radio Liberty. 76

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The num ber of broadcasters w ho are engaged in illegal broadcasts is m uch higher. According to the CCA, unauthorized retransm ission of foreign broadcasts is the m ost com m on violation of broadcasting regulations.10 Estim ates of the Association of Electronic Media (APEL) put the num ber of such violators at 90 per cent of licence holders.11 The choice of program m es for rebroadcasting is often indiscrim inate, and Moldovan new s consum ers frequently learn about the exact tim e in Moscow, the price of real estate in St. Petersburg, or the w eather forecast for Siberia. Lacking the necessary financial m eans, and technical or professional expertise, local stations often use these rebroadcasts as a w ay to stay alive. A typical exam ple in this sense is Info Radio – a private channel, w hich w as launched in August 2000 w ith listings that contained prim arily new s from Moldova (in Moldovan and Russian). By late 2001 it w as rebroadcasting the Moscow based Ekho M oskvy station. According to the CCA regulations, applicants that provide “adequate” coverage of relations betw een the titular nation and other ethnic groups living in Moldova, and prom ote the values of the Moldovan national culture and those of “co-living” ethnicities get priority in the selection process. How ever, these criteria have seldom been put into practice giving rise to vocal criticism s from local m edia w atchdogs.12

9 “Mass Media in the Republic of Moldova: Access, Audiences, Preferences, Attitudes”, M ass M edia in M oldova, June 2002, Independent Journalism Center, Moldova. 10 “Broadcast Council Head Criticizes License Holders”, M oldova M edia N ews, 17, O ctober 2002. 11 Interview w ith Victor O sipov, APEL executive director, O ctober 2002. 12 “Criteria for Distributing Licenses to Winners of Contests for Broadcast Authorization” <w w w.cca.m d> N ATALIA ANGHELI

In 2000, the Association of Graduates of Foreign Universities (CAIRO ) even brought a law suit against the Council claim ing that it had failed to “protect the national inform ation space from foreign incursion”. The court ruled in their favour and ordered the broadcasters to respect the linguistic provisions of the country’s broadcasting law. The decision caused uproar am ong Moldova’s Russian-speaking population, and the O SCE High Com m issioner for National Minorities criticized the restrictions on a hum an rights basis. O ther international pressure follow ed, and the Moldovan parliam ent issued an interpretation of the language provision, stipulating that 65 per cent of locally produced content, rather than that of the total airtim e, had to be in the official language. For local affiliates of stations from Russia this m eant rem aining on the air w ithout having to m ake any changes in the listings. The CCA has had little success in enacting the language and other provisions of the country’s broadcasting legislation. Most of the broadcasters sim ply defy the sanctions and rem ain on the air. Thus, for exam ple Avto Radio continued to broadcast even after both its broadcast and technical licences w ere w ithdraw n. Most recently, the Council has adopted a far m ore cautious approach and has not applied any serious sanctions. Unable to effectively facilitate the im plem entation of the relevant legislation, the CCA now claims it avoids applying harsh sanctions for fear of “destroying” the Moldovan broadcast space.13 2 . Ukra inia n, Bulga ria n, Yid d ish a nd Rom a -la ngua ge m ed ia . The w eight of m edia in languages other than Russian and Moldovan in Moldova is m inim al. As of Novem ber 2002, there w ere no nationally distributed print m edia in languages other than Moldovan and Russian.14 The only tw o publications 78

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w ith nationw ide circulation w ere Istoki and N ash Golos. Both focus on the life of the Jew ish com m unity in Moldova, and publish all their m aterials in Russian. Ukrainian-language m edia are underdeveloped even though this is the second largest ethnic group after Moldovans. The Chisinau-based Ukrainian-language Ukrainski Golos depends on private donations for existence, and these are not enough to ensure that the paper w ith a circulation of 3,000 copies appears regularly. Promini, a Ukrainian-language new spaper published in the northern tow n of Balti, is also issued irregularly.15 The situation is sim ilar in the Bulgarian-language press. Rodno Slovo, the new spaper of the Bulgarian society in Moldova ceased publication som e three years ago because of lack of funds. Insufficient funding has also ham pered the publication of Blgarski Glas in the southern tow n of Taraclia. Since its foundation in 1991, only 50 issues of the new spaper have been published. There is no full-tim e staff w orking for the publication, and new issues appear w hen private donations are m ade. In 2002, the attem pts of local authorities to subsidize the paper only had a lim ited effect – even though support for 12 issues had been pledged, funding for just 3 issues w as secured. 16 Several local broadcasters have program m es in Bulgarian. Thus, the state TV channel STV 41 based in Taraclia broadcasts local new s, business program m es, and entertainm ent 13 “Broadcast Council Head Criticizes License Holders”, M oldova M edia N ews, 17, O ctober 2002. 14 “The Catalog of Periodicals in the Republic of Moldova and CIS”, 2002. 15 Interview w ith Pyotr Grabchiuk, president of the Ukrainians Association in Moldova, Novem ber 2002. 16 Interview w ith Dim itr Borim echkov, editor-in-chief of Blgarski Glas, Novem ber 2002. N ATALIA ANGHELI

show s in Bulgarian. TVardita, an over-the-air channel in the tow n of Tvardita in southern Moldova also has several broadcasts in Bulgarian. How ever, the ratio of original program m ing on m ost of these stations is very sm all, and the different languages are m ostly used to broadcast “m usical greetings”. The sam e applies to Ukrainian-language broadcasts of the AVM Studio in Edinet, and Canal-X in Briceni – both in northern Moldova, as w ell as BAS-TV in the tow n of Basarabeasca in central Moldova. The range of coverage of all these channels is w ell below 50 kilom etres. There are program m es in six languages other than Moldovan on TeleRadio M oldova, the country’s national broadcaster. The “Com unitatea” departm ent of Moldovan public TV carries 8 hours and 30 m inutes of program m ing, w hereas the m onthly broadcasts of the languages departm ent of the national radio total 7 hours and 45 m inutes. TV and radio listings include program m es in Bulgarian, Gagauz, Yiddish, Rom a, Russian and Ukrainian. How ever, lack of qualified staff and adequate financing seriously affect their quality. Because of low salaries, few young journalists join the staff of these departm ents. As of Novem ber 2002, the Rom a TV program m e w as not broadcast because there w as no host.17 Journalists m iss im portant events because they lack funds, w hich are necessary to go on field trips outside the capital Chisinau. Their daily com m unication needs are poorly served because the offices are not equipped w ith com puters or fax m achines. Representatives of the ethnic com m unities in Moldova have repeatedly expressed their dissatisfaction w ith the amount and schedule of program m es in their languages on the Moldovan national broadcaster. In July 2002, these concerns 80

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w ere voiced in a letter sent by the director of the Departm ent of Inter-ethnic Relations to the head of TeleRadio. The letter called for an increase in the volum e of broadcasts in the languages of the different ethnic groups, their scheduling during prim e tim e, and im proving the coverage of the sm all ethnic groups in Moldova (Belarusians, Arm enians, Azerbaijanis, Tartars, Poles, Lithuanians, etc). The letter also urged the broadcaster’s m anagem ent to provide an international perspective in program m ing by covering ethnic issues from abroad.18 Since Novem ber 2002, the content and broadcast tim e of program m es in different languages on the national TV and radio has rem ained largely unchanged. The shortcom ings in the field of m inority access to the m edia cam e under the scrutiny of the Council of Europe (CoE) in January 2003. In the context of m onitoring the Framework Convention for the Protection of National M inorities, its Com m ittee of Ministers called on Moldovan authorities to “take account of the legitimate interests of all national minorities including those disadvantaged or num erically sm aller.” According to the CoE, the im plem entation of the Convention “has not been fully successful w ith respect to the Rom a”, and further efforts are needed to provide “access to m edia inter alia for Ukrainians.”19 3 . Media in the G agauz autonomous region. The 1994 Law on the Special Legal Status of Gagauz Yeri granted territorial autonom y to som e 170,000 ethnic Gagauz w ho live in southern 17 Interview w ith Tam ara Saapega, head of the Com unitatea Departm ent at TeleRadio M oldova, Novem ber 2002. 18 Letter from Tatiana Mlecico, director general of the Departm ent of Interethnic Relations to Ion Gonta, chairm an of the State Com pany TeleRadio M oldova, 8 July 2002. 19 “Protection of Minorities in Germ any, Arm enia and Moldova”, Council of Europe N ews, 15 January 2003 <w w w.coe.int> N ATALIA ANGHELI

Moldova, and gave them the right to independently settle issues relating to the political, econom ic and cultural developm ent of the region. Under the law, the official languages of Gagauz-Yeri are Moldovan, Gagauz and Russian. How ever, the predom inant means of communication in the region are Russian and Gagauz. The problem s that the m edia in the region face are sim ilar to the professional and econom ic challenges to journalists in other parts of Moldova. Lack of qualified staff, lack of funds, and attem pts of the authorities to censor the m edia – these are the m ain issues. Th e circulation of m ost periodicals does n ot exceed several th ousan d copies, an d m an y of th em are produced by very sm all team s of journ alists, som etim es even by editorsin -ch ief th em selves. The region’s parliam ent is the founder of Vesti Gagauzii, a four-page w eekly w ith a circulation of 5,000 copies. Three pages appear in Russian, and one is published in Gagauz. Tw o m ore periodicals are sponsored by the local authorities – Z namea from Ceadir-Lunga and Panorama from Vulcanesti. Both are Russian-language w eeklies. Z namea has a print run of 5,000 copies, w hereas Panorama is a tw o-page flyer w ith a circulation of 500 copies. Because of inadequate financing, the Gagauz-language Ana Sözü, Gagauz Halki, Sabaa Yildizi, Gagauz Yeri, Gagauz Sesi, and Halk Birlii appear less regularly, and so does the Russian-Gagauz new spaper Açik Göz.20 Financial aid to the Gagauz m edia from the central Moldovan authorities is lacking. O n the other hand, several publications have received support from Turkey. Ana Sözü, a four-page fortnightly new spaper, and the m agazine Sabaa Yildizi have been sponsored by the Turkish International 82

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Co-operation Agency (TIKA), w hile the fortnightly Gagauz Sesi new spaper has received donations from private individuals. TIKA has also provided a technical grant for the developm ent of broadcasting in the region. The funding has covered the costs of a relaying facility aim ed to increase the quality of radio transm ission by Radio Gagauzia, the state-ow ned channel in the tow ns of Com rat, Ceadir-Lunga and Vulcanesti. Curren tly, th ere is just on e radio ch an n el in th e region – th e private Radiostantsia Jug, w h ich h as a m ixed m usic/ n ew s form at an d broadcasts largely in Russian . Th ere are five licen sed TV station s in th e region , but on ly four are curren tly on th e air. Th e origin al program m in g of th ese ch an n els ran ges betw een on e an d six h ours per w eek, m ost of w h ich are in Russian . Th e rest are retran sm ission s of Russian ch an n els. For exam ple, Ayin Açik ch an n el from Ceadar-Lun ga uses 90 per cen t of its broadcast tim e to retran sm it program m es from th e Russian ch an n els O RT an d RTR, w h ile Bizim Aydinik from Com rat rebroadcasts program m es of th e M oscow -based M UZ -TV an d Channel 3. Th e coverage ran ge of th ese ch an n els is betw een 10 an d 40 kilom etres, th e sm allest bein g th at of TV S ud from Vulcan esti an d th e largest th at of Yeni Ay in Com rat. The m edia groups from the region have repeatedly urged the central authorities to facilitate the developm ent of broadcasting to autonom y, and grant m ore radio frequencies to local private broadcasters. The Independent Centre of Journalism in Gagauzia, a local m edia NGO , sent open letters to the Moldovan president, parliam ent speaker and prim e m inister urging them to intervene.21 20 Ivan Topal, “The Press in the Gagauz-yeri Autonom ous Region”, M ass M edia in M oldova, June 2002. 21 Interview w ith Stepan Piron, director of the Independent Centre of Journalism in Gagauzia, Novem ber 2002. N ATALIA ANGHELI

Local authorities frequently interfere in the activities of the m edia, especially of the state-ow ned outlets. Political infighting often results in censorship and sacking of journalists. Thus, according to the League for the Defence of Hum an Rights in Moldova (LADO M), during the autum n 2002 cam paign for the election of the local governor the authorities sacked the editor-in-chief of Z namea, and threatened staff m em bers w ith layoffs in a m ove to ensure pre-election coverage biased tow ards one of the candidates.22 In Novem ber 2002, the local authorities closed dow n the state-ow ned TeleRadio Gagauzia. This w as the only com pany w ith a region-w ide coverage and original broadcasts in Bulgarian, Gagauz, Moldovan and Russian.23 4 . M ed ia in Tra nsd niestria . The self-proclaim ed Moldovan Trans-Dniestrian Republic (Transdniestria) has been in existence since Septem ber 1990. Unlike the rest of the country, this region in eastern Moldova is populated by 39.9 per cent Moldovans, 28.3 per cent Ukrainians, 25.5 per cent Russians and 6.4 per cent are representatives of other ethnic groups.24 The drive for the revival of Moldovan culture and language in the late 1980s, especially the adoption of the language law, w as perceived as a threat by m any of the local residents. Their strongest fear w as that Moldova w ould eventually reunite w ith neighbouring Rom ania. Hardly any of the Ukrainians and Russians from Transdniestria speak Moldovan, and they w ere afraid to w ake up one day as foreigners in their ow n hom es. The 1991 referendum to preserve the Soviet Union, boycotted in m ost of Moldova, w as w idely hailed in the region. Since then, the breakaw ay republic has created all the accoutrem ents of a state. In 1992, the parliam ent of the selfproclaim ed republic abolished the 1989 language law, and 84

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reintroduced the use of Cyrillic alphabet for Moldovan. Its Constitution declares Moldovan, Russian and Ukrainian as the region’s official languages.25 The 1993 Law on the Press and O ther N ews M edia guarantees the right of its citizens to have access to inform ation in their native languages.26 How ever, the overw helm ing m ajority of m edia outlets in the region publish or broadcast inform ation in Russian. Additionally, new s m edia from Russia are w idely available through rebroadcasts and kiosk sales. As of Novem ber 2002, there w ere 63 registered m edia outlets in the region. O nly tw o new spapers w ere published in languages other than Russian, and non-Russian program m es w ere available only through the Transdniestrian state broadcaster.27 The only Moldovan-language publication is Adevarul Nistrean. This new spaper w ith a print run of 1,000 copies is sponsored by the region’s authorities and is issued tw ice a w eek. The w eekly Gomin in the Ukrainian language is also financed from the state coffers. It has a circulation of some 2,300 copies.28 Transdniestrian state radio has daily new scasts in Moldovan and Ukrainian, along w ith analytical program m es and feature m agazines on w eekends. The state television carries Moldovan and Ukrainian-language new s program m es three tim es a w eek, as w ell as children’s and entertainm ent program m es in these languages. 22 “Hum an Rights Activists Deplore Media Pressure in Gagauzia”, M oldova M edia N ews, 17, O ctober 2002. 23 Interview w ith Stepan Piron, director of the Independent Journalism Center in Com rat, Novem ber 2002. 24 “Pridnestrovie v Yazykovom Zerkale Mezhetnicheskoy Integratsii”, M oldova Academic Review, 2002 <w w w.iatp.m d/academ icreview > 25 Article 12 from the Constitution of the Moldovan Trans-Dniestrian Republic. 26 Article 3 of the Law on the Press and O ther N ews M edia. 27 Interview w ith Andrei Safonov, editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta, Nov. 2002. 28 “Media Guide 2001-2002”, Independent Journalism Center, Moldova. N ATALIA ANGHELI

The predom inance of the Russian language in the region’s m edia is frequently explained by its authorities by the “linguistic preferences” of its residents. According to an opinion poll they cite, 20 per cent of Transdniestrians regularly w atch TV program m es in Moldovan, 37 per cent in Ukrainian and 95 per cent in Russian. The idea, w hich is w idely dissem inated am ong the local population, is that Russia is m uch closer to it in spirit and cultural heritage than Moldova.29 Tense relations betw een central Moldovan authorities and Transdniestrian leaders, especially after arm ed skirm ishes in late 1991 and early 1992, have resulted in a serious m edia hiatus betw een the breakaw ay region and the rest of the country. In the early 1990s both sides regularly jam m ed each other’s broadcasts. Until recently Moldovan new spapers w ere practically unavailable in Transdniestria and vice versa. In May 2001, Moldovan President Vladim ir Voronin and Transdniestrian leader Igor Sm irnov signed an agreem ent providing for a free circulation of the m edia. Under the agreem ent, the population w ere given the possibility to subscribe to periodicals published on both banks of the Dniester River. Still, few Transdniestrian residents have access to broadcasts of Moldovan national radio and TV because it is not available through the regular over-the-air netw ork. Establishing a rapport betw een the m edia in the breakaw ay region and the rest of the country still rem ains a problem . Reports about developm ents in Moldova are regularly censored by the Transdniestrian authorities, and their authors are accused of “acting as a fifth colum n for Moldova” and frequently threatened w ith layoffs. In a sim ilar m ove, in 2001 the Moldovan authorities closed dow n the Kommersant M oldovy new spaper for publishing reports allegedly biased tow ards Transdniestrian authorities. 86

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Despite the 2001 agreem ents, access to inform ation in the region is lim ited, and the authorities on the tw o banks of the Dniester River occasionally resort to “tit-for-tat” revoking of journalists’ accreditation. III. The “o the r” in the m e dia Dire econom ic straits, lack of qualified journalists and attem pts by the authorities to interfere in the activities of new s outlets – these are the problem s that ham per the developm ent of the m edia in Moldova, irrespective of their language. These problems are augmented by a lack of professional solidarity among journalists from different ethnic backgrounds. The media are largely divided along ethnic lines, and the coverage of major political, social and economic events in the Russianlanguage media differs significantly from coverage in the Moldovan-speaking media. Moreover, through their w ork many journalists have heightened inter-ethnic tensions and have contributed to the creation of the image of the hostile “other”. The m ost vivid exam ple w as the coverage of events in Transdniestria in 1991-1992. When fighting betw een governm ent forces and Transdniestrian insurgents broke out, the new s m edia readily adopted the style of coverage that bred the stereotypes of the “enem y” and provided a sim plified “black-and-w hite” perspective of the events. Labelling of Transdniestria, its authorities and residents by Moldovan national m edia at that tim e w as quite com m on. Sim ilarly, the m edia in the breakaw ay republic used disparaging epithets and m etaphors w hen describing Moldovan central authorities and its residents, w ho w ere calling for m ore linguistic and cultural rights. 29 “Pridnestrovie v Yazykovom Zerkale Mezhetnicheskoy Integratsii”, M oldova Academic Review, 2002 <w w w.iatp.m d/academ icreview > N ATALIA ANGHELI

Thus, the official Moldovan daily Nezavisimaya M oldova often referred to the region’s authorities as “conservative forces”, “cham pions of colonial policies” and som etim es even as “crim inals” or “gangsters”. The policies of Transdniestrian leaders w ere frequently described as “devilish”, w hile the residents of the breakaw ay republic w ere labelled “strangers” and “tram ps” im plying that the non-Moldovan population had no real roots there.30 In its turn, Dnestrovskaya Pravda frequently referred to Moldovans claiming their language and cultural rights as w ell as the country’s authorities as “fascists”. They w ere also labelled the “dark forces of Moldova”, and disparaging com m ents w ere often m ade about their alleged lack of culture and education. The coverage of “the other” across the frontline consistently lacked historical background, and opinions of just one side w ere presented. By and large, Transdniestrians remained a faceless, homogeneous and hostile mass for Moldovans, and vice versa.31 Since the early 1990s the language of new s coverage has been significantly toned dow n. Still, num erous problem s rem ain, and reporting about relations betw een different language groups continues to lack balance, consistency and depth. Professional discussions of these issues w ere form ally launched in 1999. Then the Moldovan Journalists’ Union adopted a code of professional ethics, w hich, am ong other things, urged m edia professionals to “oppose violence, hate speech and confrontation, or any discrim ination based on culture, sex or creed.”32 Follow ing the adoption of the Code, the journalists set up the National Ethics Com m ission. How ever, the com m ission has not m anaged to w ield enough influence on the w ork patterns of local m edia professionals, and to unite journalists in the quest for diverse and ethical reporting. Recrim inations of ethnic insensitivity, especially betw een representatives of Russian and Moldovan-language m edia, have continued, and in 2001 a journalist from the Russian-lan88

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guage Vremya w eekly w as sued for allegedly prom oting hate speech through the m edia. Crim inal charges w ere filed against Yulia Korolkova after m em bers of CAIRO accused her of insulting the national honour of Moldovans and instigating inter-ethnic strife. According to CAIRO , her article entitled “Suitcase. Train Station. Russia”, w as denigrating to the titular nation. The article claim ed that access to positions in state pow er bodies for Russian-speakers w as hindered, and that som e officials, w ho w ere ethnic Moldovans, took bribes. The charges against Korolkova w ere later dropped, but tensions persisted. Moreover, leaders of the Russian com m unity w ho stood up in Korolkova’s defence claim ed that she had been unfairly singled out for punishm ent. In their opinion, articles openly inciting inter-ethnic hatred in the Moldovanlanguage press, “w ent legally unobserved”.33 Ethnic division has found its w ay into journalists’ professional organizations, and som e of these have been form ed to prom ote the interests of certain ethnic groups. For exam ple, the Chisinau-based Association of Mass Media unites m ainly editors-in-chief of Russian-language m edia, and there are also Unions of Gagauz and Transdniestrian journalists. Lack of journalists’ solidarity has m ade attaining their professional goals m ore difficult. In early 2002, the strike of the em ployees of TeleRadio M oldova state com pany for m ore editorial freedom failed to garner enough support because it w as perceived by m any Russian-speaking journalists as an attem pt of their Moldovan colleagues to obtain more rights for themselves. 30 Natalia Angheli, “A Faceless O ther: Im age of Trans-Dniester in Moldovan New s Media”, M edia O nline, 30 March 2001 <w w w.m ediaonline.ba/> 31 “Articles”, Transnistrian Conflict in the News M edia <w w w.iatp.md/transnistria> 32 “The Ethics Code of the Journalists in Moldova”, M ass M edia in M oldova, June 1999. 33 Mikhail Sidorov at the w orkshop on hate speech organized by the Moldovan Youth Helsinki Com m ittee in Chisinau, April 2001. N ATALIA ANGHELI

Still, there is grow ing understanding that effective m echanism s are necessary in order to prom ote responsible, sensitive and tolerant reporting. In 2001, a directorate on m onitoring inter-ethnic relations w as set up under the auspices of the Departm ent for Inter-ethnic Relations. The directorate is charged w ith m onitoring the social and cultural needs of ethnic groups, and the state of relations am ong them . Through regular surveys and analysis of m edia coverage of ethnic issues it is supposed to track dow n changes in people’s perceptions of their national and ethnic identity, their linguistic preferences and the overall level of tolerance in Moldovan society. Results of this w ork are regularly presented to the departm ent board, w hich com prises the leaders of ethnic com m unities and representatives of the governm ent bodies dealing w ith various aspects of inter-ethnic relations. The country’s legal fram ew ork is also undergoing changes. In Novem ber 2002, President Vladim ir Voronin subm itted to parliam ent a draft law on com bating extrem ism . Under the draft law, “extrem ist m aterials” are defined as those inciting actions related to w ar crim es or elim ination of ethnic, religious, racial, etc. groups. O rganizations or officials engaged in such activities face a ban on their activities for up to five years.34 The law has been adopted in the first reading and subm itted for public discussion. Attempts to bring journalists of different ethnic backgrounds together to promote diversity and multiculturalism have been made on the grass-root level. In 2002, four mixed teams of journalists from Transdniestria and other regions carried out long-term joint production projects under the auspices of the Independent Journalism Center, Moldova. In July, the staff of Timpul w eekly from Chisinau launched informal meetings w ith their peers from the Tiraspol-based Adevarul Nistrean. The task of improving the flow of information betw een Transdniestria and 90

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the rest of Moldova is set as a priority in the action plan adopted by the Moldovan national group of the Stability Pact Media Task Force in Septem ber 2002.35 The group unites leading journalists from all m edia types, along w ith representatives of the Governm ent and m edia regulating bodies. Participants in these projects have highlighted the need for regular m onitoring of the m edia to ensure that the rights of all citizens from all ethnic backgrounds are respected. They suggested that different m anuals on issues of diversity and m ulticulturalism be published, and that “codes of best practices” be elaborated by m edia organizations. They also stressed the value of joint projects by journalists of different ethnic backgrounds to prom ote balanced and in-depth reporting on diversity issues. In their opinion, joint w ork on these projects w ill fill the inform ation gap about each other, w ill build up the tolerance level in Moldova, and, in the long run, contribute to peace and stability in the country. There is a grow ing understanding that m edia can becom e an im portant tool in resolving the Transdniestrian dispute. IV. In lie u o f co nclus io n Moldova’s em ancipation from Soviet rule has brought about the developm ent of politically diverse m edia. Scores of new publications and broadcast outlets have appeared in the last eleven years and have reflected a w ide spectrum of opinions on m ajor political and econom ic developm ents in the country. How ever, ensuring linguistic and cultural diversity rem ains a challenge to Moldovan new s m edia. 34 “President Sends Draft Law on Com bating Extrem ism to Parliam ent”, RFE/RL N ewsline, 18 Novem ber 2002. 35 “Working Group Sets Priorities to Develop Media in Moldova”, IJN et, 9 O ctober 2002 <w w w.ijnet.org> N ATALIA ANGHELI

The country’s legal fram ew ork provides for the right of ethnic groups to have access to the m edia in their native languages, and a special governm ent departm ent is charged w ith m onitoring the respect of m inority rights. Nevertheless, the im plem entation of m any legal provisions in this respect is ham pered by financial difficulties, conflicting political interests and low professional standards. Representatives of m ore than ten ethnic groups live in Moldova, but Moldovan and Russian rem ain the predom inant languages of the country’s m edia. Publications in m ost other languages depend on private donations and appear irregularly. Despite the requirem ent of the country’s Law on Broadcasting that 65 per cent of program m es should be in the official language, the Moldovan broadcasting space is dom inated by retransm issions from Russia. The activity of the Broadcasting Council in this respect rem ains largely ineffective. The unresolved Transdniestrian dispute has led to a lasting inform ation hiatus betw een the tw o regions. Mutual suspicions ham per the creation of a rapport betw een the m edia in the breakaw ay region and the rest of the country. The establishm ent of a truly diverse m edia in Moldova is also hindered by lack of professional solidarity am ong journalists belonging to different ethnicities. Still, recent grass-roots initiatives have contributed to a grow ing aw areness about these problem s am ong m edia professionals. Journalists are becom ing m ore vocal in their calls for action aim ed at raising professional standards, im proving self-regulatory m echanism s and the im plem entation of relevant legislation – all of w hich should ensure cultural and language diversity in Moldovan m edia. Most im portantly, they are attributing a greater role to the m edia as a conflict-resolving and confidence-building tool. 92

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Re co m m e ndatio ns The new s m edia play an im portant role in safeguarding the interests of various ethnic groups living in Moldova. How ever, com prehensive and long-term results can be achieved only through concerted actions of various actors: the Governm ent, ethnic associations and interest groups, professional journalists’ organizations, training institutions and new s outlets (both m ainstream and special-interest). Thus, it is recom m ended that: The G overnm ent • Elaborate a com prehensive program m e for the developm ent of the m edia in the languages of the various ethnic groups living in Moldova, and bring the legal fram ew ork into line w ith its provisions; • Take heed of the requests from representatives of ethnic groups and increase the am ount of broadcasting in languages other than Moldovan and Russian on the National Public Broadcaster (TeleRadio M oldova), as w ell as grant m ore air frequencies to non-Moldovan/Russian TV and radio stations; • Provide financial assistance in the form of grants or tax breaks to the print and broadcast outlets featuring program m es on the life of ethnic groups – in this w ay ensuring the m inim um conditions necessary for their existence; • Encourage officials from the Departm ent of Inter-ethnic Relations to design their activities jointly w ith other actors (ethnic associations, professional journalists’ groups, m edia outlets). RECO MMENDATIO NS

Ethnic a ssocia tions a nd interest group s • Engage in joint actions w ith other actors aim ed at ensuring adequate access of all cultural/linguistic/ethnic groups to the m edia; • Inform all relevant bodies (both national and international) about the progress/problem s of access to the m edia or any instances of intolerance tow ards them in the m edia. Professiona l journa lists’ orga niz a tions • Encourage initiatives that w ould im prove self-regulatory m echanism s in Moldovan m edia, and prom ote ethical, diverse and tolerant reporting; • Facilitate public debate w ith a view to creating a Press Council/ the O ffice of Press O m budsm an in Moldova w hich w ould ensure that com plaints against the m edia are looked into. Tra ining institutions (a ca d em ic a nd m id -ca reer) • Introduce courses on diversity reporting and m ulticulturalism in their perm anent curriculum ; • Provide opportunities for journalists belonging to different ethnic/cultural/linguistic groups to engage in confidencebuilding projects (i.e. joint production of m aterials, boot cam ps on diversity reporting, etc.). New s outlets • Carry out regular m onitoring of articles/program m es to ensure that the principles of diversity and tolerance are respected by their organizations; • Encourage m ulticulturalism and diversity in the new sroom (through equal opportunity hiring practices). 94

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Nena Skopljanac Se rbia (Se rbia and M o nte ne gro )

Serbia (Serbia and Montenegro) is one of Europeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s m ost ethnically, culturally and linguistically diversified areas. Around 30 various national/ethnic groups have been living there for centuries, alm ost all of them w ith their ow n language. In spite of the developm ents during the last 15 years, the country has a long and rich tradition of peaceful m ulti-ethnic and m ulticultural coexistence, including m edia in different languages and access to m edia for all citizens. Although the w ars in the 1990s did not take place on its ground, they in m any w ays negatively affected m ulti-ethnic and m ulticultural practices that had existed in the previous period. As a consequence, there are m any latent and m anifest ethnically-based conflicts that threaten to escalate if not appropriately addressed. The first step for countries that plan to solve ethnic conflicts in a peaceful w ay is to draft legislation on individual and collective rights for all. The second step is to im plem ent these rules and m anage the public sector in accordance w ith the accepted principles. Am ong m any issues to be addressed are rights w ith regard to language use, freedom of expression and access to inform ation in the m other tongue. Having m edia in their native languages provides the different ethnic groups w ith their ow n professional com m unication channels to address issues of politics and society. This is an inherent part of com prehensive com m unity-building, developing dem ocratic institutions and long-term conflict prevention. Mutual understanding has to be built on understanding of N ENA SKO PLJANAC

identities, culture, challenges and issues in relation to other com m unities and the titular nation to facilitate participation and integration. This report refers only to Serbia and not Serbia and Montenegro as a w hole. The respective provisions in the Federal Constitution and the law s that regulate the issues that are the subject of this analysis are concretized differently for Serbia and for Montenegro. Since June 1999, the international authorities have instigated and started im plem enting legal regulations in Kosovo, w hich are to a certain extent different from those both in Serbia and Montenegro. This variety of legal fram ew orks m akes it im possible to include Serbia, Montenegro and Kosovo in a report w ith a lim ited scope. Therefore this report is focused on Serbia, basing this decision also on the m uch higher level of ethnic and lingual diversity there com pared to Montenegro and Kosovo (in Serbia there are over 25 ethnic com m unities and over a dozen different languages represented in the m edia). The only reliable data on the ethnic/national structure of Serbian society that are currently available are from the census carried out in 1991.1 O ut of over 25 different ethnic groups only those that represent num erically m ore significant com m unities and practise their language in public com m unication, som e of them in the m edia as w ell, are listed below : Rom a . Rom a are generally believed to be m uch m ore num erous than the 1991 census figure of 143,000 indicates, w ith estim ates varying betw een 600,000 and 800,000. Most Rom a â&#x20AC;&#x201C; estim ated 300,000 to 400,000 or 50 per cent â&#x20AC;&#x201C; are concentrated in the regions of South Morava and Nis, w here they account for up to one third of the population in som e m unicipalities (Surdulica, Bujanovac, Bojnik, Vladicin Han). 98

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Hunga ria ns. This is the largest ethnic group in Vojvodina, com prising 339,491 or 16.9 per cent of its population (344,147 in Serbia). They are concentrated in northern Vojvodina, w here they have an absolute m ajority in seven m unicipalities. O ut of the total num ber of Vojvodinaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Hungarians 58.2 per cent live in these m unicipalities. Bosniacs. The census of 1991 registered 246,411 Muslims. They are concentrated in the region w here the borders of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia and Montenegro converge, know n as Sandzak. They have an absolute majority in the municipalities Novi Pazar (75.4 per cent), Sjenica (76.1 per cent) and Tutin (94.3 per cent). There are large concentrations in the municipalities of Priboj (30.4 per cent) and Prijepolje (43.4 per cent) as w ell. Alba nia ns. The estim ated num ber of Albanians is around 100,000. They are concentrated in three m unicipalities in southern Serbia, in Presevo valley that borders w ith Kosovo and constitute an ethnic m ajority in tw o m unicipalities: Bujanovac (60.1 per cent) and Presevo (89.9 per cent). C roa ts. The census of 1991 registered 111,650 Croats or 74,808 (67 per cent) in Vojvodina alone, accounting for 3.7 per cent of its population. The political and social situation surrounding the 1991 census w as one of the key reasons for the large fall in the num ber of Croats. Many Croats are know n to have left Vojvodina, especially Srem , since 1991, but the figures are unreliable. Slova ks. The census of 1991 put the num ber of Slovaks in Serbia at 66,863. As a population group Slovaks are fairly stable. The Slovaks are concentrated in Vojvodina (95 per cent), and in 1991 m ade up 3.2 per cent of Vojvodinaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s population. Slovaks are characteristically dispersed and m ixed in w ith other com m unities, especially Serbs. 1 The data of the 2002 census are not yet com pletely processed and published.

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Rom a nia ns. The num ber of Rom anians w as 42,364, the m ajority living in Vojvodina (38,809 or 1.9 per cent of the provinceâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s population). There has been a large reduction in the num bers of this group (34.5 per cent) since the first census after World War II. They are m ostly concentrated in southeastern Banat, in the m unicipalities of Vrsac (13.8 per cent) and Alibunar (31.7 per cent), on the border w ith Rom ania. Bulga ria ns. The census established the num ber of Bulgarians at 26,922, concentrated m ostly in the m unicipalities of Dim itrovgrad and Bosilegrad, tow ards the border w ith Bulgaria. Vla chs. There w ere 17,810 Vlachs, concentrated in the Hom olje and Tim ocka Krajina regions of eastern Serbia. O ther sm a ll ethnic group s. There are dozens of other sm all ethnic groups, located in the province of Vojvodina, each accounting for less than 2 per cent of its population. Ruthenes, Ukrainians, Bunjevci, Sokci, Czechs and Germ ans are the m ost significant in num ber. There are other sm all ethnic groups living throughout Serbia, like Montenegrins, Macedonians, Slovenes and Jew s. O ne im portant aspect of the 1991 census w as that the num ber of people w ho declared them selves to be Yugosla vs rose significantly, totalling 323,625 or 3.3 per cent of Serbiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s citizens. The percentage of Yugoslavs has traditionally been highest in Vojvodina. In 1991, they m ade up 8.7 per cent or 174,225 of its population.2 It is very im portant to em phasize that national/ethnic differences that exist in Serbia do not alw ays m ean essential differences in language. Languages that represented different dialects of Serbo-Croatian in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY) are currently officially distinguished in the 100

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new ly created states as Serbian, Croatian and Bosnian. How ever, although these are officially three different languages, people speaking, reading or w riting one of them have no difficulty in understanding and reading the other tw o. Therefore, in this report m edia in Bosnian or Croatian w ill be treated neither as m edia of an ethnic com m unity nor as m ultilingual m edia. This does not m ean that these m edia do not have a very specific audience (Croats and Bosniacs in Serbia) and thus predom inantly deal w ith topics and issues that are of particular interest for these audiences. I. Le gal fram e w o rk fo r the m e dia The 1990 Constitution of the Republic of Serbia guarantees free expression of national identity, culture, religion, and free use of language. Being able to receive inform ation in oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s m other tongue is one of the explicitly listed rights (Articles 8 and 49). The right to establish m edia in languages of national and ethnic com m unities is not specifically regulated in the Constitution. The first regulation that is in full com pliance w ith the European standards w as introduced by the Federal Law on Protection of Rights and Freedoms of N ational M inorities and by the Broadcasting Law of the Republic of Serbia, both adopted in 2002. The Federal Parliam ent has ratified the key international docum ents that regulate the rights of ethnic groups to freedom of expression and inform ation, the Framework Convention for the Protection of N ational M inorities (1998) and the Charter for Regional or M inority Languages (1998). 2 It should be noted, how ever, that by the tim e the 1991 census w as taken nationalistic passions had com e to a clim ax and w ar w as in sight, so som e m em bers of national m inorities declared them selves Yugoslavs to conceal their ethnic affiliation and thus protect them selves. The 1991 census registered a tw ofold or threefold increase in the number of Yugoslavs in some settlements compared w ith 1981.

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In February 2002, the Federal Parliam ent passed the Law on Protection of Rights and Freedoms of N ational M inorities. This w as achieved w ith the assistance of experts provided by the Council of Europe and the O SCE. In Article 17, the law guarantees inform ation through the m edia in languages of national m inorities: “The persons belonging to national m inorities shall be entitled to com plete im partial inform ation in their ow n language, including the right of expression, receipt, sending and exchange of inform ation and ideas via the press and other m ass m edia. The State shall provide inform ation, cultural and educational content in the language of national m inorities in program m es of public service TV and radio, and m ay also establish radio and TV stations to broadcast program m es in the language of national m inorities. The persons belonging to national m inorities shall have the right to establish and m aintain m edia in their ow n language.”

The law provides for establishing the Federal Fund for National Minorities (Article 20). Program m es in languages of ethnic com m unities as w ell as projects of their m edia have already been granted support based on this legal provision. The Serbian parliam ent passed in July 2002 the Broadcasting Law, w hich also regulates inform ation through the broadcast m edia in languages of national m inorities (Article 72), w hile Article 78 obliges the Public Service Broadcaster to: “Produce and broadcast program m es intended for all segm ents of society, w ithout discrim ination, particularly taking into consideration specific societal groups such as children and young people, m inority and ethnic groups, disabled, socially and m edically vulnerable groups and the deaf-m ute (w ith the obligation to sim ultaneously broadcast w ritten text describing the audio segm ents of the action and dialogue) et al; Adhere to linguistic and speech standards not only of the m ajority population but also, proportionately, of national m inorities and ethnic groups in the area w here the program m e is being broadcast; Ensure the satisfaction of the needs of citizens for program m e content expressing cultural identity not only of the nation, but also of national m inorities and ethnic groups, by enabling them to follow certain 102

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program m es or blocks of program m es in the areas w here they live and w ork, in their native languages, both spoken and w ritten.”

Suppression of hate speech is also regulated (Article 21): “The Agency shall ensure that the broadcasters’ program m es do not contain inform ation inciting discrim ination, hatred or violence against an individual or a group of individuals on grounds of their different political affiliation or of their race, religion, nationality, ethnicity, sex or sexual affiliation. Conduct in contravention of the prohibition in para 1 of this Article shall be deem ed grounds for pronouncing the envisaged sanctions by the Agency, independently of the other legal rem edies at the disposal of the aggrieved.”

The law provides for the civil sector to establish broadcasters (Article 95) w hich do not need to pay a broadcasting fee. Bearing in m ind that m ost of the existing m edia in the languages of the different ethnic groups have been founded by various NGO s or citizens’ associations of national m inorities, this provision w ill foster their further operation. How ever, according to the sam e article, such stations can broadcast only locally, w hich is unfavourable for large ethnic groups that are dispersed over a w ide area, as is the case w ith the Rom a and the Hungarian population. II. M e dia lands cape 1 . The situa tion in the Socia list Fed era l Rep ublic of Yugosla via (SFRY) a nd d uring M ilosevic’s rule. The right of national/ethnic groups to obtain inform ation in their ow n language through the m edia w as largely practised in the SFRY, both in the print and broadcasting field. How ever, due to the fact that only state m edia and m edia founded by para-state organizations w ere allow ed, the freedom of m edia w as quite lim ited. Editorial policy had to be in full com pliance w ith the ruling ideology. Nevertheless, a num ber of m edia outlets and extensive publishing activity in different languages did exist. N ENA SKO PLJANAC

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The m ost developed m edia in languages other than Serbian existed in Vojvodina. Each of the m ajor national and ethnic com m unities had its ow n publishing house, funded from the state budget: Forum (Hungarian, established in 1953), Kultura (Slovakian), Libertatea and Tibiskus (Rom anian), Ruske slovo (Ruthenian). Each of these houses published at least one w eekly political m agazine (in Hungarian there w as also the daily M agyar So) and several specialized periodicals (m ostly for children, young people and culture). Radio and TV N ovi Sad (RTV N S) broadcast in several languages: Hungarian, Slovak, Ruthenian, Rom anian and Rom anes. There w as a w hole-day program m e in Hungarian and four hours of program m es in other languages on Radio N ovi Sad as w ell as a few hours of TV program m es on a daily basis. There w ere no m edia in Albanian in southern Serbia. The Albanian com m unity in the Presevo valley w as structurally linked to Kosovo in m any w ays,3 and as a result the m edia in Kosovo served as their prim ary source of inform ation. Radio & TV Prishtina had a w hole-day program m e in Albanian, w hile the publishing house Rilindija issued the daily w ith the sam e nam e as w ell as the youth m agazine Z eri and a couple of specialized periodicals. In other parts of Serbia, the Bulgarian com m unity had the paper Bratstvo, w hile for the Vlach com m unity no m edia outlets w ere available in their m other tongue. It is particularly im portant to note that Serbia (Serbia and Montenegro)4 w as one of the rare countries w hich at that tim e provided inform ation in state m edia in the Rom a language. Both RTV N ovi Sad and RTV Prishtina, as w ell as a few m unicipal stations, had Rom ani broadcasts. Although one of the first Rom ani new spapers in the Balkans â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Romano Lil â&#x20AC;&#x201C; w as established in Belgrade in 1935, there w ere com paratively few 104

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Rom ani publications from the 1950s until the end of the 1980s. The m ain reason for this w as that Rom a w ere not recognized as a national m inority and the State w as not legally bound to pay attention to Rom a access to inform ation in their m other tongue in equal term s as it did for the other ethnic groups listed above. According to the Constitution, Croats, Muslim s (Bosniacs) and Montenegrins w ere not considered to be m inorities, but three out of six nations com prising the form er federation and thus had no m edia in their languages. Bearing in m ind that until 1991 Croats, Muslim s (Bosniacs) and Serbs spoke one language – Serbo-Croatian – all m ainstream m edia w ere actually in languages of these nations, w hich are now adays ethnic com m unities in Serbia. The sam e applied to Slovenians and Macedonians. Although the Constitution adopted in 1990 and several specific law s provided for all basic m inority rights – including the official use of language in public, in dealing w ith state institutions, schooling and in the m edia – during Milosevic’s rule (1990-2000)5 the authorities usurped the right to freely assess w hether the respective provisions w ere being im plem ented or 3 Most students received their secondary education in Kosovo. Prishtina University w as SFRY’s only high school institution w ith schooling provided in Albanian, w hich m eant that not only Kosovo Albanians attended it, but also those from southern Serbia and Macedonia. All in all, Kosovo, and particularly Prishtina, functioned as the cultural, educational and intellectual centre for Albanians in the form er SFRY. 4 This w as not the case only in Serbia, but in other parts of the form er SFRY w here there w as a significant Rom a population. The first radio program m e in Rom ani started on Radio Tetovo (the form er Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia) in 1963. 5 1990 and not 1987 has been used because in that year the new Constitution of Serbia w as passed in parliam ent and Milosevic w as elected president at the first presidential m ulti-party elections. The period from 1987, w hen he gained absolute control over the Com m unist League of Serbia, till March 1990, w hen the new Constitution w as passed, represented the com prehensive preparation process for establishing the new state ideology and his unlim ited control over all of Serbia’s state institutions and all sectors of Serbia’s society.

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not (and if yes, how and to w hat extent). In a num ber of issues the authorities even openly violated both the Constitution and law s. Already in 1990 Albanians w orking at Radio & TV Prishtina w ere forced to leave the broadcaster. The closure of the publishing house Rilindija follow ed. Together w ith the Kosovo Albanians, Albanians in southern Serbia w ere also left in a m edia blackout. Their prim ary source of inform ation becam e the satellite program m e of the Radio & TV of Albania. Due to the fact that the print m edia field w as perceived by the regim e as a m inor challenge to its pow er, a group of intellectuals in Bujanovac m anaged to establish the Albanian-language local m agazine Jehona in 1994. Its distribution w as banned several tim es and a court procedure against the editor-in-chief w as carried out. In spite of that, Jehona m anaged to continue publishing, w ith interruptions, but for financial reasons w as forced to cease operations in the sum m er of 2002.6 In Vojvodin a, quite a differen t policy w as pursued. Th e program m es on RTV N S in th e lan guages of differen t eth n ic groups or local m un icipality station s w ere n ot abolish ed, n or w ere th eir publish in g h ouses closed dow n . How ever, state fun din g w as far too in sufficien t to m ain tain th e rich m edia production th at h ad existed in th e previous period. Added to this econom ic exhauster, all m edia professionals, irrespective of eth n ic backgroun d, w h o refused to fulfil requests for propagan distic an d w arm on gerin g reportin g w ere dism issed. As a con sequen ce, th e staff th at rem ain ed w ere n ot able to m eet th e basic requirem en ts of profession al coverage, let alon e fulfil h igh criteria in providin g quality program m es. O n th e con trary, by spreadin g in toleran ce tow ards th e â&#x20AC;&#x153;oth erâ&#x20AC;?, xenophobia and hate speech, these m edia contributed to kindlin g eth n ic h atred an d violen ce. By doin g so th ey en dan 106

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gered basic prin ciples of th e good tradition of m ulti-eth n ic toleran t coh abitation . Journ alists expelled from state an d m un icipal m edia laun ch ed in itiatives for establish in g private in depen den t m edia an d form ed th eir core staff. A n um ber of m edia operatin g in differen t lan guages, com prisin g both th e press an d local broadcasters, w ere establish ed as w ell. How ever, bein g perm an en tly exposed to various kin ds of pressures from th e regim e, th eir reach w as very lim ited. Am on g th e prin t outlets, th e Hun garian -lan guage w eekly m agazin e Csaladi Kor is th e exception . It h ad a circulation of 23,000 w h ile all oth er Hun garian -lan guage papers did n ot exceed 2,000 copies. Local broadcasters operated w ith out a licen ce, coverin g very sm all areas, an d risked bein g closed dow n at an y m om en t. Th is situation lasted un til M ilosevic w as overth row n . How ever, it w as not just the regim e that kept a tight grip on m edia content provided for citizens in their ow n language, in order to strengthen its pow er by m anipulating and controlling inter-ethnic issues. Political parties representing som e com m unities also pursued the sam e m edia policy, in particular w hen they w ere sharing pow er or ruling on a local level. This w as especially the case w ith the parties of the Hungarian group, w hich controlled alm ost all local broadcasters in m unicipalities of northern Vojvodina, w here Hungarians represent the absolute m ajority of the population. The first Rom a print m edia w ere established by Rominterpress. The sam e house launched in co-operation w ith Radio B92 biw eekly Rom a-language radio broadcasts (also rebroadcast by 6 In 2000 and 2001, Jehona received substantial donorsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; support (IREX, USAID, O SI, Press Now and Medienhilfe). The support dim inished due to the fact that the paperâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s editorial policy w as no longer perceived as politically correct and balanced. The editor-in-chief w as a holder of the list of independent candidates for the local elections held in July 2002 and w as elected the local MP.

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AN EM stations). Finally, on the eve of the 2000 presidential elections, the first Rom a broadcaster in Serbia ever, Radio N isava in Nis, w ent on the air. 7 Sandzak w as considered by the regim e as an area w here there w as a high risk of conflict and it kept full control over inform ation provided by the broadcast m edia there. All private local broadcasters that existed at the tim e had a com m ercial and entertaining character. They had no inform ation program m es produced in-house; som e of them rebroadcasted the inform ation provided by the RTS. O nly one independent m agazine existed â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Has â&#x20AC;&#x201C; but w as forced to cease operation in 2000, due to insufficient financial resources. 2 . The situa tion a fter the fa ll of M ilosevic. While the print m edia scene rem ained alm ost unchanged, the broadcast m edia field has been passing through an intensive and chaotic developm ent process since the fall of Milosevic. Due to the fact that there w as a vacuum in the legal regulation of the broadcast m edia field for alm ost tw o years,8 and in spite of the introduced m oratorium on frequencies,9 the num ber of local private broadcasters, both radio and TV, have m ushroom ed w ith incredible speed. Am ong the broadcasters that have been illegally established since the end of 2000 in languages other than Serbian, the m ost num erous are local Rom a radio stations, w hich num ber around 25. Sim ilarly in Vojvodina, a dozen private radio and TV stations broadcasting in Hungarian, and a few broadcasting in Slovak and Rom anian, have been established. The biggest boom in the broadcasting field happened in Sandzak, w here currently tw o private TV stations and seven private local radio stations that broadcast inform ative and com m ercial program m es exist.10 The first TV station to broadcast 108

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program m es daily for a couple of hours in Bulgarian w as established called TV Caribrod.11 Sim ilarly, radio broadcasts on a couple of local m unicipality stations com prise around six hours of daily program m ing in Bulgarian. In Bujanovac in southern Serbia, several local private broadcasters w ent on air: Radio Toni (Albanian language) and Radio Ema (Serbian language w ith attem pts to establish an Albanian new s desk), and a couple of Rom a stations. With regard to m edia in Sandzak, the level of professionalism is generally rather low and the scope of inform ation on offer is quite lim ited. O nly a few m edia outlets provide coverage that aim s to prom ote tolerance. The new s agency Sanapress and TV Jedinstvo play a leading role in this respect. It is indicative that both co-operate steadily w ith the m edia in the rest of Serbia and m ost of the content aim ed to prom ote interethnic understanding and tolerance is provided through this co-operation. For exam ple, being the AN EM affiliate, m ost of the content that TV Jedinstvo broadcasts is produced by TV B92 and the AN EM production hub. The project of the new s agency BETA to establish a private independent radio station 7

The m ain independent m inority or bi-/m ultilingual m edia outlets in Serbia that w ere established during Milosevicâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s rule are still operational and w ill be referred to in the chapters that follow.

Eager to gain and keep political control over the m edia for as long as possible, the new authorities expressed astonishing unw illingness to adopt m edia regulation that is in com pliance w ith European standards. Finally, the rew orked ninth draft of the Broadcasting Law, prepared by m edia professionals and local experts in co-operation w ith experts provided by the CoE and the O SCE, w as passed in the Serbian parliam ent on 18 July 2002.

This w as introduced in Novem ber 2000 and defined to last six m onths, w hile m eanw hile the plan w as to adopt a new broadcasting law and establish an independent regulatory body that w ould be in charge of issuing licences. Instead of lasting half a year, the m oratorium is still in effect, hindering the developm ent of private broadcasters, especially those w ho proved unw illing to be biased in favour of the new authorities.

10 A few stations that have a purely com m ercial concept are not included. 11 The first TV program m e in Bulgarian w as launched by AN EM m em ber TV Pirot in 2000, but had a m ore lim ited scope (1 hour daily).

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has been in the pipeline for tw o years due to the m oratorium on licences and w ill certainly bring a significant im provem ent in this respect. The quantity of broadcasters does not m ean that there are high quality and diverse program m es. Very few of these new ly established stations have program m es that m eet professional standards. The scope of new s broadcasts is m inim um (usually lasting only a few m inutes on the hour a couple of tim es a day); current affairs program m es are rare and w hen included alm ost exclusively com prise studio interview s; m agazine-type radio show s are a rarity, and finally very few of the new ly established stations have educational and cultural program m es. All this seriously questions their ability to m eet requirem ents to address vital social, econom ic and political problem s of their respective audiences, as w ell as to function as a tool for preserving and prom oting their culture and tradition. Besides, taking into account that the broadcast m edia m arket is overloaded, and on average the advertising potential of these m edia is quite lim ited com pared to m edia targeting the m ajority of the nation, it is to be expected that m any of these m edia w ill not survive long after the Broadcasting Law is im plem ented. 12 O ne should also not overlook the fact that m any of them w ill not be granted frequencies and licences at all, as they w ill not fulfil the requirem ents defined by the law. 13 Even if problem atic journalistic quality predom inates, there are papers, radio and TV broadcasters that perform journalism in com pliance w ith professional standards. Som e stations that currently have low quality coverage are com m itted to develop into good local broadcasters. These tw o groups of m edia play a very im portant role for their respective com m unities and w ill continue to do so in the future. 110

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Today ethnic issues are in general m ore evident in m ainstream m edia coverage than they w ere during Milosevic’s rule. How ever, there are im portant differences in the m anner of reporting. State-ow ned m edia as w ell as private m edia that served as pillars of Milosevic’s rule, spreading nationalist ideology and hate of the “other”, report on ethnic issues alm ost exclusively through events and m easures perform ed by the authorities. An analytical approach is alm ost non-existent and stories about the life and problem s of various ethnic groups appear only in the context of accidental situations (e.g. racist treatm ent or violent attacks on citizens that belong to ethnic groups). O n the other hand, the independent m edia that played the leading role in fighting the form er regim e are currently setting the standards for professional and socially responsible reporting on ethnic issues. They bring to light problem s that ethnic com m unities are faced w ith, give citizens belonging to ethnic groups and civil society groups of various ethnic com m unities the opportunity to address the public at large, m ake the authorities accountable at a local and national level for conducting appropriate policies w ith regard to ethnic issues, carry out m any cam paigns aim ed to raise public aw areness on ethnic issues and conduct cam paigns to prom ote tolerance. The level of hate speech has reduced significantly in the m edia com pared to Milosevic’s tim e. Journalists rarely use rhetoric that w ould incite hate against an ethnic group. How ever, 12 According to the Broadcasting Law, the Independent Regulatory Agency m ust be established w ithin six m onths after the law w ent into force, i.e. by the end of January 2003 at the latest. How ever, the law has been violated, as by March 2003 the parliam ent of Serbia had not elected its representatives for the Agency. Accordingly, the Agency has yet to be established and undertake preparatory w ork for the public tender. 13 Each station has to m eet technical and program m e requirem ents. But the priority is given to the latter. Stations that do not m eet program m e requirem ents w ill not be allocated frequency and a licence, w hile those w ho m eet the program m e but not the technical requirem ents w ill be granted tem porary licences and a period of tw o years to com ply w ith technical standards as w ell.

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a num ber of m edia convey statem ents of politicians and rightw ing groups that contain chauvinist and xenophobic stances. Here again this concerns the m edia that served as m outhpieces of the Milosevic regim e. Independent m edia w hich have struggled against the regim e and its w arm ongering and nationalist policy refer to such statem ents w ith due criticism . Mainstream country-w ide m edia that represent the best exam ples of proactive and diversity reporting on ethnic issues as w ell as com bating hate speech are RTV B92, the daily Danas, the w eekly Vreme, the biw eekly Republika, and the new s agency BETA. In addition all local broadcasters that are AN EM m em bers as w ell as local print m edia gathered in the Local Press Association have a code of conduct that specifically refers to diversity reporting and com bating hate speech. The m ost agile include Radio 021, Radio Boom 93, O K Radio, and the w eeklies N ezavisna svetlost and Vranjske novine. 3 . Typ ology. The m edia outlets vary not only w ith regard to the languages they appear in, but also as to how these languages are em ployed. The press, radio and TV program m es are available in nine different languages: Hungarian, Slovak, Rom a, Albanian, Bulgarian, Vlach, German, Ruthenian, Romanian and Ukrainian. Including Croatian and Bosnian, and the m ajority Serbian language, altogether tw elve languages are represented in Serbiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s m edia. The w ay in w hich these languages are used also varies, in particular in the broadcast m edia. Different options and com binations are represented below, divided into tw o sections for the press and for broadcast m edia. 3 .1 . Print m ed ia . There are no com prehensive data on the total num ber of print outlets in all languages. How ever, data relating to Vojvodina, w here the vast m ajority of print m edia 112

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are published, indicate that there are alm ost 150 registered outlets operating in languages other than Serbian. The schem e for their classification is as follow s:14 Typ e of p a p er

C overa ge

Typ e of la ngua ge use

I. daily II. w eekly III. biw eekly IV. monthly

1. national 2. regional 3. local

A. only in one language B. bilingual (Serbian and one other language) a. each article in both languages b. only main articles in both languages, other articles differ c. one article only in one of the tw o languages

Note: Coverage is defined according to the follow ing criteria: (a) content reference; (b) distribution area and sales, and (c) geographic location of target audience. Papers are classified as: 1. national: throughout Serbia; 2. regional: throughout Vojvodina/ Sandzak / southern Serbia / eastern Serbia / central Serbia / w estern Serbia; 3. local: one municipality (also including neighbouring ones).

As to the type of papers, the press in different languages com prises the w hole range presented in the table. How ever, all papers that appear m ore frequently are issued in Vojvodina, and in the languages of the largest groups. This certainly has to do w ith the fact that these languages have been in official use in Vojvodina till 1990,15 and that the State subsidized publishing houses and the press. There is only one daily â&#x20AC;&#x201C; M agyar

14 Specialized papers for children, young people, w om en, experts and scientists, agriculture and the like are not included. They alm ost all appear in one language. The classification prim arily refers to the m edia w ith general content that target audiences of ethnic com m unities as such. 15 In Serbiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Constitution adopted in March 1990, Vojvodinaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s autonom y w as drastically reduced and consisted of m inor form al com petencies. Am ong other things, the Serbian language w as defined as the only official one on the w hole territory of Vojvodina (other languages w ere partly recognized as official, but only in m unicipalities w here ethnic groups form the m ajority population).

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Szo (Hungarian). The Hungarian group has tw o w eeklies as w ell – Csaladi Kor and 7 N ap. Slovaks, Ruthenes and Rom anians have one w eekly each: Hlas L’udy, Ruske lovo and Libertatea respectively. Apart from Csaladi Kor, the rest is still supported by the state budget today. All other papers, both in Vojvodina and the rest of Serbia, are issued on a biw eekly or m onthly basis. Q uite a few of them are published irregularly due to lim ited financial resources. There is no print outlet in any language other than Serbian that has national coverage. This is m ainly due to the fact that there is no real need for this, as all other ethnic groups, except the Rom a, are concentrated in particular areas. Alm ost all print outlets issue in only one language – the language of the group in question. How ever, there are several exceptions, w hich represent interesting exam ples and deserve to be m entioned. The first exception is print outlets in Rom ani – e.g. Romano Lil and other publications issued by Rominterpress – that are bilingual, w ith each article in both Rom ani and Serbian. The m ain reasons for this are that Rom anes is not a standardized language yet and Rom a speak different dialects; som e Rom a cannot read Rom anes, but can understand Serbian, and the publisher aim s to gain as readership not only Rom a but all others interested in Rom a issues. A few sm all local new spapers in Vojvodina are the second exception, for exam ple the biw eeklies Kikindske N ovine and N ovi Becejac, w hich are both issued in Hungarian and Serbian. 3 .2 . Broa d ca st m ed ia . As in the case of the press, the num ber of electronic m edia broadcasting in different languages is quite high – over 150. Most of them (90 per cent) are radio broadcasts or radio stations. The classification schem e, based on the sam e criteria as the press, is as follow s: 114

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Typ e of broa d ca ster

C overa ge

Typ e of p rogra m m ing a ccord ing to la ngua ge use

I. State broadcaster16 II. Private broadcaster III. Civil sector broadcaster17

1. national

A. w eekly broadcasts a. in one language b. in several languages B. daily broadcasts a. in one language b. in several languages C. full programme in the language of one ethnic group D. full bilingual programme (Serbian and the language of one ethnic group) a. w ith separate time slots for broadcasts in each language b. mixture of languages w ithin the same broadcast E. full multilingual programme a. w ith separate time slots for broadcasts in each language b. mixture of languages w ithin the same broadcaster

2. regional 3. local

N O TE: National coverage refers to at least 2/3 of Serbiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s territory; regional to coverage of Vojvodina / Sandzak / southern Serbia / eastern Serbia / central Serbia/ w estern Serbia; and local to one municipality (also including neighbouring ones).

16 Although the new Broadcasting Law provides for the transform ation of the current state broadcasters (RTS and RTV N S) into PBS, this process has not yet been started, let alone com pleted. Therefore, in this report both are referred to as state broadcasters. 17 A significant num ber of m inority language broadcasters are founded by NGO s, in particular am ong Rom a broadcasters. Bearing in m ind positive discrim ination of such broadcasters provided in the new Broadcasting Law, it is to be expected that m ore m edia outlets w ill opt for this solution w hen applying for frequencies and licences.

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Program m es in languages of different ethnic com m unities are represented in all types of broadcasters. How ever, the state broadcaster w ith national coverage – RTS – provides only a half-hour daily radio program m e in the Rom a language. It consists of tw o parts: a new s show on the m ain events in the country and abroad, and a section that treats the m ain developm ents w ithin the Rom a com m unity. There is no TV broadcast on RTS in any other language than Serbian. The situation is slightly different w ith regard to broadcasters w ith regional coverage. The state RTV N ovi Sad has, in addition to its program m es in Serbian, daily TV broadcasts in Hungarian, Rom anian, Ruthenian and Slovak, as w ell as w eekly broadcasts in Rom a, Croatian and Ukrainian. The radio offers broadcasts daily in the languages of the sam e four ethnic groups as the TV. Broadcasts are produced and edited by separate new s desks and, apart from new s show s, treat issues that are specifically related to the respective ethnic groups, w ith rare links to other groups. There are around 150 local radio and TV stations that broadcast in languages other than Serbian. About a quarter are m unicipal stations, w hile the rest are private m edia and to a lesser extent m edia founded by the civil sector (m ostly Rom a broadcasters as w ell as som e sm all groups in Vojvodina, like Slovaks or Ruthenes). About half of them are in Vojvodina. The m ost highly represented language in non-Serbianlanguage program m es on Vojvodina’s local broadcasters is Hungarian (around 50), follow ed by Rom a (about 10), w hile other languages feature in program m es of up to a m axim um of five stations. The m ain program m e on m ore than half of these stations is in Serbian (m ost of them are m unicipality broadcasters), w hile the other ethnic groups have daily or w eekly tim e slots in their m other tongue. O n the other hand, private 116

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stations that broadcast in languages of som e ethnic groups alm ost exclusively use the language of their respective group. O nly tw o stations – Radio 021/M ultiradio and Radio Kovacica – have a m ultilingual program m e, the form er in five languages (Hungarian, Slovak, Rom anian, Ruthenian and Rom a) as w ell as Serbian and the latter in three languages (Hungarian, Slovak and Rom anian). Radio Kovacica applies the sam e m ode of language use as RTV N S, w hile M ultiradio is the only broadcaster in Serbia that has som e radio show s w here all the languages it broadcasts in are m ixed. Moreover, in one-language show s it often provides inform ation that is not related to that particular language group, but to one or m ore other groups. Inform ation on relevant developm ents in any of the com m unities is broadcast in a program m e that targets the Serb audience. This very unique approach is m et w ith significant approval by the audience and the station’s rating is on the constant rise. With regard to the local broadcasters in the rest of Serbia, the language represented by far the m ost after Serbian is Rom anes. There are around 15 stations w here the m ain program m e is in Serbian and around 20 Rom a stations. There are tw o stations that have program m es in Bulgarian – TV Pirot and TV Caribrod (the latter w ith a couple of hours on a daily basis). O nly Rom a stations really have a bilingual program m e, treating Serbian and Rom anes equally and using them as required. All broadcasts w ith guests w ho only speak Serbian are alw ays broadcast in Serbian. In April 2001 the O SCE Mission launched a pilot project in southern Serbia. The basic concept envisaged the transform ation of the local m unicipal m edia in the cities Bujanovac, Presevo and Medvedja. Radio Bujanovac is being supported to open its desk to new Albanian staff w ith the aim of creating an Albanian new s desk along w ith the existing desk in Serbian. A N ENA SKO PLJANAC

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daily five-m inute new s show w as launched in Septem ber 2002 and is expected to expand into a more comprehensive Albanianlanguage inform ation program m e in 2003. A one-hour w eekly broadcast in Rom anes w as introduced as w ell. Radio Presevo and Radio M edvedja are expected to produce new s in the language of the other ethnic group (Albanian in Medvedja and Serbian in Presevo), w hich im plies inclusion of journalists from the â&#x20AC;&#x153;other com m unitiesâ&#x20AC;?. The aim of the project is to provide program m es for each com m unity by their ow n journalists, in their ow n language. The m ain conclusions regarding non-Serbian-language broadcast m edia are as follow s: 1. Apart from Rom a broadcasters, w hose broadcasts are m ostly bilingual (Rom anes and Serbian), all other m edia broadcast alm ost exclusively in languages of their respective ethnic groups. 2. Program m es in one or m ore additional languages in the m edia w here the prim ary broadcast language is Serbian have a lim ited scope. They are prepared by one or m ore separate new s desks and do not interlink content. 3. There are only very few broadcasters that have program m es in m ore than tw o languages. O f them , only M ultiradio broadcasts w ith a full m ultilingual approach. 4. Although there are a huge num ber of broadcasters w ith program m es in one or m ore different languages, one has to bear in m ind that the vast m ajority of these feature com m ercial, m usic and other entertainm ent program m ing w ith very little inform ation (in the best case only short new s on the full hour). 5. O ne can expect that the num ber of these stations w ill be reduced in the future, as m any of them w ill not m eet the program m e requirem ents needed for obtaining a licence. 118

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3 .3 . O ther m ed ia p rojects. Although the press and broadcast m edia largely dom inate, it is im portant to note a few representations of different languages in other im portant m edia fields, like new s agency services, independent TV productions and the Internet. Serbiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s first private independent new s agency to be established, BETA, has had a new s service in Hungarian for tw o years and recently launched a service in Rom anes. Both are daily services and there are plans to develop the Hungarianlanguage service as a regional project, involving Hungary and the countries in the region w ith Hungarian com m unities (Rom ania, Croatia and Slovenia). There is only one independent TV production that produces program m es in a language other than Serbian: UrbaN S in Novi Sad (Vojvodina). Its broadcast, entitled Multi-Tow n, relates to cultural issues, provides bilingual subtitles (in Serbian and Hungarian), and all persons featured, including those belonging to any other ethnic group, speak in their m other tongue. The program m e is broadcast at a dozen local TV stations in Vojvodina. Considering that there are only a few TV stations that provide program m es in different languages, this project represents an im portant contribution to enriching TV program m es w ith an inter-ethnic and m ulticultural approach. Inform ation in different languages is under-represented on the Internet as w ell. O nly Csaladi Kor, Rominterpress and RTV N isava have their ow n sites. How ever, they do not score a significant num ber of visitors. O ne site of a m ainstream m edia outlet does, how ever, m erit special attention. The site of RTV B92, the Belgrade-based broadcaster that is know n w orldw ide, provides daily inform ation not only in Serbian but also in Hungarian and Albanian. Moreover, the site contains a huge forum section, arranged in a few dozen different topics, N ENA SKO PLJANAC

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w here visitors of various ethnic backgrounds actively participate in virtual com m unication. The site has on average around 90,000 visitors daily. 3 .4 . Sp ecia l ca se – Rom a -la ngua ge m ed ia a nd p rogra m m es in Rom a nes. Rom a represent the largest m inority group in Serbia (Serbia and Montenegro) and m ake up around 10 per cent of the total population. Therefore it is especially im portant to look m ore closely at m edia that provide inform ation in Rom anes. There are only four publications in Rom anes (one children’s paper, one expert m agazine and tw o papers relating to general Rom a issues), all being issued on an irregular basis (w hen donations are provided) and in very lim ited circulation. The situation w ith TV program m es is not m uch better – so far there is only one Rom a station and program m es in Rom anes on tw o stations. We can therefore conclude that radio represents the prim ary source of inform ation for the Rom a com m unity. There are around a dozen Rom a radio stations. There are no results from audience surveys that have focused on investigating the Rom a audience. How ever, based on the exam ples of the radio Voice of Roma and RTV N isava, it is evident that Rom a w ho have access to both Rom a stations and non-Rom a stations w ith program m es in Rom anes are m ore eager to listen to the form er. This certainly has to do w ith a long-lasting and intensive m arginalization and discrim ination of Rom a, w hich caused a huge need for self-em ancipation. Rom a consider Rom a stations as “their” m edia and can identify w ith them . The fact that they have “their” m edia m akes them feel proud and m ore self-confident. Another advantage is that they can listen to program m es relating to issues of their concern at any tim e during the day. 120

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All in all, n on -Rom a m edia h ave lim ited capacities to m eet th e n eeds for in form ation in th e m oth er ton gue of th e Rom a population an d do n ot in ten d to im prove th em in th e foreseeable future. O n th e oth er h an d, th ere are very few Rom a broadcast m edia th at offer a satisfactory program m e from a con ten t poin t of view an d, bearin g in m in d th at th ey w ere establish ed by th e civil sector, th ey can on ly broadcast on a local level. As a possible w ay of raisin g th e reach of program m es in Rom an es, Rom a station s th at do n ot h ave in h ouse program m in g as w ell as local m un icipal or private station s can rebroadcast th e m ost im portan t program m es produced by Rom a broadcasters like RTV N isava an d Voice of Roma as w ell as M ultiradioâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s program m e in Rom an es. So far th is h as already been practised by som e station s an d h as delivered positive results. 18 III. Co nclus io n Serbia (Serbia and Montenegro) has a long tradition of m ultilingualism that is expressed in m edia practice, as w ell as in other areas. How ever, there are som e im portant issues one has to bear in m ind. The only truly m ulti-ethnic and m ulticultural society w ith a tradition of tolerant m ultilingualism existed in Vojvodina. In Serbiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s other m ulti-ethnic areas the citizens w hose origin is different from the titular nation have experienced difficulties w ith regard to the public use of their language, also in the m edia. The m edia infrastructure for contents in different languages is quite developed in Vojvodina, w hile in the rest of Serbia it is very w eak (e.g. for Bulgarian) and in the process of em erging (e.g. for Rom ani, Albanian and Vlach). 18 Several Roma radio stations in southern Serbia rebroadcast Radio Nisava. In addition, som e ANEM stations rebroadcast som e program m es of the radio Voice of Roma.

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Although strong in num ber â&#x20AC;&#x201C; w ith over 150 local broadcasters and the sam e num ber of print outlets in Vojvodina alone â&#x20AC;&#x201C; m edia in various languages are on average quite underdeveloped, poorly equipped, understaffed and the standard of coverage is quite low. If they are to play the role they potentially could play, a great deal of w ork lies before them . Rom a m edia in particular are not sufficiently strong to m eet the huge needs of Rom a citizens for inform ation and education program m es in their m other tongue. Multi-ethnic relations developed w ith strong negative trends during the 1990s. The enorm ous m istrust, fear and even hate that w ere produced at the end of the 1980s and early 1990s currently only feature in exceptional cases in m edia discourse. How ever, there should be no illusions that these problem s have been overcom e com pletely. Som e politicians and right-w ing radical groups are very m uch present in public discourse w ith discrim inatory, chauvinistic and xenophobic statem ents, w hich som e m edia transm it w ithout adopting a critical position tow ards them . A lot of w ork in this respect lies ahead and m edia have an im portant role to play through professional and socially responsible reporting. Still, there are som e m ainstream m edia outlets w hich represent excellent exam ples of diversity reporting, prom oting tolerance, m utual understanding and respect for hum an rights. The leading roles in this respect are played by RTV B92, the daily Danas, the w eekly Vreme and the BETA new s agency. Most m edia in different languages are m ono- or bilingual. There are very few m ultilingual outlets, and these are m ostly broadcast m edia. How ever, m ost of them have separate editorial boards for different languages and separated tim e slots for each language program m e. This could lead to parallel m edia realities em erging based on language and, subsequently, ethnic 122

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differences. In this respect, M ultiradio, Rom a radio stations and UrbaN S productions represent the best practices. O f the m any projects in languages of ethnic com m unities produced by the m ainstream m edia, the m ost successful are BETAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s new s services and B92 Internet new s in languages other than Serbian. New law s in the m edia sphere and the Federal Law on Protection of Rights and Freedoms of N ational M inorities, a tradition of m edia in languages of ethnic com m unities, and one of the m ost developed independent m edia sectors in South-Eastern Europe represent quite a solid basis to build upon. Yet the authorities, the m edia and the NGO sector need to invest further efforts in order to achieve a plural and independent m edia sector, w hich provides a variety of m edia in languages of ethnic com m unities and m eets the needs of Serbiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s m ulti-ethnic society.

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Biblio graphy Basic, Go ran, Z astita prava nacionalnih manjina u SR Jugoslaviji prema standardima O kvirne konvencije za zastitu nacionalnih manjina Saveta Evrope [Protection of Minority Rights in FR Yugoslavia Based on the Standards of the Fram ew ork Convention for the Protection of National Minorities of the Council of Europe] (Belgrade: Center for Antiw ar Action, 2002). Breznik, D usan, Stanovnistvo Jugoslavije [The Population of Yugoslavia] (Belgrade: Chronos, 1991). Broadcasting Law, passed 18 July 2002 by the Serbian Parliam ent. Brunner, Ro land, and Sko pljanac, Nena, Strategy Paper for EU Support to M inority M edia for the Period 2001-2005 (Medienhilfe, 2001, internal paper). Center fo r Antiw ar Actio n, N ational Structure of the Population in Vojvodina <w w w.caa.org.yu> D arbishire, Helen, “Minorities and Media Freedom under International Law ”, Roma Rights, 4 (1999) <http://errc.org/rr_nr4_1999/advo1.shtm l> Galjus, O rhan, “Stateless: Rom a and the Media Today”, Roma Rights, 4 (1999) <http://errc.org/rr_nr4_1999/advo2.shtm l> Humanitarian Law Center, Albanians in Serbia – Preshevo, Bujanovac and M edvedja, 2002 <http://w w w.hlc.org.yu> Law on Protection of Rights and Freedoms of National Minorities, O fficial Gazette of FRY, no. 11, 27 February 2002. Lenko va, Mariana, Black & W hite v/s Diversity (The Image of the Roma in the Balkan M edia) <w w w.greekhelsinki.gr/english/articles/m ontpellier-m arianna.htm l> Pro ject o n Ethnic Relatio ns, The M edia and the Roma in Contemporary Europe: Facts and Fictions (Prague, 1996). Popis stanovnistva, domacinstava, stanova I poljoprivrednih gazdinstava u 1991 [Census of Population, Households, Apartm ents and Farm s in 1991], vol. 3 (Belgrade: Federal Statistical O ffice, 1993). Popis izbeglica i drugih ratom ugrozenih lica u Saveznoj republici Jugoslaviji; Visoki komesarijat Ujedinjenih nacija za izbeglice, Komesarijat za izbeglice Republike Srbije, Komesarijat za raseljena Lica Republike Crne Gore [Census of Refugees and O ther Persons Displaced by War in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, the United Nations High Com m issioner for Refugees, the Com m issioner for Refugees of the Republic of Serbia, the Com m issioner for Displaced Persons of the Republic of Montenegro] (Belgrade, 1996). Valic-Nedeljko vic, D ubravka, M edia in the M ulticultural and M ultilingual Province of Vojvodina, 1999.

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Re co m m e ndatio ns

I. Structural is s ue s and tas ks o f the s tate bo die s G enera l: 1. Direct state funding â&#x20AC;&#x201C; be it on a national, provincial (Vojvodina) or m unicipal level â&#x20AC;&#x201C; leaves room for state control over the m edia and should therefore be abandoned. Public funds should be established, for exam ple foundations that involve ethnic com m unities and m edia, journalist associations, m edia NGO s, private charities, etc. State institutions can be represented in bodies that im plem ent public funds, but should not have a m ajority representation. 2. State bodies on all levels should abandon the practice of allocating funds alm ost exclusively to state-ow ned m edia outlets in languages of ethnic com m unities. Until a public funding m echanism is in place, support m ust be allocated based on objective and transparent criteria and w ithout discrim ination of private m edia. 3. State bodies should not establish new m edia in languages of ethnic com m unities. The role of the State is not to establish m edia, but to create a legal fram ew ork and public funding m echanism s conducive to the founding of m edia, w hich can be run independently from state structures. Print M ed ia : 4. Dem ocratic societies do not recognize state-ow ned press. Accordingly, the state publishing houses or single print m edia outlets in languages of ethnic com m unities should be transform ed and operate independently from any state and political structures. RECO MMENDATIO NS

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5. Current taxes and postage costs are a significant burden for the print m edia, in particular sm all outlets in languages of ethnic com m unities. The Governm ent and parliam ent should decide in favour of the recent proposal from the Ministry of Finance and Econom y to abolish the taxes for the press. Appropriate m easures regarding postage, w hich also represents an im portant m echanism of indirect support to the independent press in m any European dem ocracies, should be adopted as w ell. Broa d ca st m ed ia : 6. State broadcasters â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Radio-Television of Serbia (RTS), RadioTelevision N ovi Sad (RTV N S) as w ell as a num ber of local m unicipal broadcasters â&#x20AC;&#x201C; should not hold a m onopoly or a privileged position to broadcast program m es in languages of ethnic com m unities. Conditions for a plural m edia system regarding program m es in languages of ethnic com m unities should be guaranteed. Public, private and civil sector broadcasters should all receive equal opportunities and conditions for sustainable operation. 7. Possibilities for defining legal provisions that w ould introduce positive discrimination regarding licensing of civil society broadcasters should be explored. This is particularly im portant for broadcasters in languages of ethnic com m unities that are dispersed throughout the country. The Rom a com m unity deserves special attention in this context. 8. Despite the fact that they are lim ited in scope and the issues they address, the program m es in languages of ethnic com m unities on RTS and RTV N S are very expensive. They absorb substantial financial resources that could be allocated to private or com m unity projects. Possibilities to purchase program m ing produced by private independent TV productions should be explored. 126

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II. M e dia in language s o f e thnic co m m unitie s 9. Although strong in num ber, m edia in languages of ethnic com m unities are underdeveloped from an infrastructural point of view. O ften the staff barely m eets professional standards, and program m ing is quite lim ited and in general is unsatisfactory in quality. O utlets that produce inform ation program m es in-house should be given com prehensive support, covering infrastructure, staff training and funds for program m e developm ent. 10. Special attention should be paid to the Rom a, w ho represent Serbiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s largest m inority group. It is particularly im portant to support the developm ent of com m unity-based broadcast m edia in areas w ith a higher concentration of the Rom a population, as w ell as projects for their program m e exchange and netw orking, both w ithin the country and elsew here. 11. Program m e exchange, co-productions and netw orking am ong m edia in languages of ethnic com m unities can enhance quality. Cross-border co-operation should be encouraged too. In this w ay, the m edia can facilitate m utual understanding and tolerance betw een titular nations and people in the regions. 12. Most of the m edia outlets in languages of ethnic com m unities operate on a local level. How ever, only a few of them are truly com m unity m edia. More intensive co-operation betw een such m edia on the one hand and local/ regional civil society on the other is recom m ended. NGO s can play a particularly im portant role â&#x20AC;&#x201C; those established by representatives of the ethnic community as w ell as others â&#x20AC;&#x201C; through partnership projects and active participation in creating program m es. RECO MMENDATIO NS

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III. Bilingual and m ultilingual m e dia 13. Most of the m edia in languages of ethnic com m unities are m onolingual. Som e are bilingual (m ostly Rom a m edia). There are very few m ultilingual m edia, even in Vojvodina, w here over 25 ethnic groups live and a dozen languages are spoken. Add to this the prevailing practice that program m es are prepared separately for each language, and there is a danger that parallel m edia realities em erge based on ethnic differences. Mixed ethnic editorial boards or collaboration betw een boards for program m ing in various languages is needed. In this respect, M ultiradio, Rom a radio stations, UrbaN S productions, as w ell as BETAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s new s services and B92â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s w eb new s in languages other than Serbian, represent the best practices for future developm ent. 14. Bilingual or m ultilingual m edia w ill only be able to deliver positive results if society accepts m ultilingualism as part of the norm al everyday situation. O ptional and free courses in the languages of ethnic com m unities could be provided at prim ary schools in areas w here ethnic com m unities form a m ajority or a significant part of the population.

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RECO MMENDATIO NS

Roger Blum and Andrea O chsner Sw itzerland

I. Intro ductio n Multicultural societies evolve if peoples of different ethnicities, languages and religions live together on the sam e territory. In that respect, Sw itzerland is confronted w ith tw o experiences: one old and one new. The old experience stem s from the fact that for m ore than five centuries, Sw itzerland has been a m ulticultural state in w hich several languages and cultures coexisted. The new experience results from the im m igration of people from Western, Southern and Eastern Europe as w ell as from Asia, Africa and Latin Am erica. This process began in the seventeenth century, continued throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, but becam e even m ore im portant in the tw entieth century. The old m ulticultural experience has furthered a strong protection of ethnic groups, w hich also includes the allocation of m edia. The new m ulticultural experience, being the result of the im m igration of foreign w orkers and refugees, is m arked by integration on the one hand and by segregation on the other hand. To provide im m igrants w ith m edia, therefore, is not an easy m atter. II. Sho rt his to ry o f Sw is s m ultilingualis m In the territory of contem porary Sw itzerland, several languages have alw ays coexisted.1 This has to do w ith the geographical situation. The Alpine m ountain range, w hich stretches across 1

Walter Haas, “Sprachgeschichtliche Grundlagen”, in Robert Schläpfer (ed.), Die viersprachige Schweiz (Zurich: Ex Libris, 1984), 21-70.

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Sw itzerland, divides Europe into south and north, and rivers such as the Aare, Rhine and Rhone have, m ore often than not, dem arcated zones of influence. The original languages in Sw itzerland w ere those of the Celts (in the north and w est), the Rhaetians (in the east) and of the Lepontines (in the south). Betw een 121 and 15 BC, this territory becam e part of the Rom an Em pire. For m ore than 400 years Latin languages and culture dom inated. In this process, the w estern part of Sw itzerland w as rom anized earlier and m ore radically than the rest of the country.2 Germanic tribes gradually intruded on Sw iss territory. First came the Burgunds around 450 AD, in the region of Geneva. Despite their political dominion, the Burgunds very soon adopted the Roman language instead of their ow n. After 500 AD, the Alemanni penetrated into Sw itzerland. Here the process w as reversed. The Germanic language of the Alemanni stayed dominant w hereas the romanized Celts gave up theirs. The language boundary betw een the Alemannic and the Burgundyoriented parts of Sw itzerland first ran along the river Aare, but later shifted more to the w est. The southern part of Sw itzerland (northern Italy) w as first inhabited by the Germanic tribe of the Langobards w ho after some time lost their language and adopted the late Latin language (Italian). In Rhaetia, Rhaeto-Romanic, w hich belongs to the Latin languages, w as maintained. Thus, the four languages of Sw itzerland had already been differentiated more than 1,500 years ago: Alemannic in the north and east, Burgundy-Romanic in the w est, Rhaeto-Romanic in the southeast and Italian in the south. The Treaty of the O ld Sw iss Confederation that began to em erge in the thirteenth century, w as at first a purely Germ anspeaking alliance. In all of the tow ns and counties the political leaders spoke Germ an (w ith the partial exception of Fribourg). 132

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But quite early on affiliated cantons and vassal territories added other languages to the confederation of governing cantons. In 1388, the first French-speaking part (in the Jura) joined the treaty. In 1439, the first Italian-speaking territory follow ed (in the Ticino). In 1496, the first Rhaeto-Rom anic-speaking people joined the treaty (w ithin the Three Treaties of Rhaetia). Therefore, the Sw iss Confederation has had four languages for 500 years. Yet until 1798 none of the non-Germ anspeaking parts acquired the status of a governing canton. They still rem ained subjects or affiliated cantons (w ith lesser rights), just like m any Germ an-speaking territories. It w as only w ith the Helvetic Republic (1798-1803) that French-, Italian- and Rhaeto-Rom anic-speaking confederates acquired equal rights. And it w as not until the nineteenth century that the confederate m odel of linguistic m inority rights actually becam e differentiated and w as w ritten dow n. Therefore, in contem porary Sw itzerland, four language groups exist w ith eight different types of w ritten languages.3 • 64 per cent of the population in central Sw itzerland and in the northern and eastern parts of the country w hich border w ith Germ any and Austria speak Germ an. In the Germ anspeaking part of Sw itzerland, about 25 different dialects are spoken in everyday situations, on the radio but also on television. How ever, these dialects are only rarely w ritten as w ell. High Germ an is used as the w ritten language by the authorities, the press and also by the literary establishm ent.

Andres Furger, “Der unterschiedliche Rom anisierungsgrad zw ischen O st und West in röm ischer Zeit”, in Forum Helveticum (ed.), Z wischen Rhein und Rhone – verbunden und doch getrennt? Entre Rhin et Rhône – liens et ruptures (Lenzburg, 2002), 34-40. Roger Blum , “Sprachenvielfalt und Föderalism us”, Z oom Kommunikation & M edien, no. 12/13 “Der Fernsehboom ” (May 1999), 50-55.

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• 19 per cent of the population in the w estern part of the country, w hich borders w ith France and is called “Suisse Rom ande”, speak French. Dialects are m arginal there, are not w ritten dow n at all, and are neither spoken on the radio nor on television. The language of the m edia is French. • 8 per cent of the population in the south w hich borders w ith Italy, predom inantly in the Ticino (canton of Tessin), but also in som e valleys of the Grisons (canton of Graubünden), speak Italian. Spoken dialects also exist there w hich are som etim es used in the m edia as w ell. • 0.6 per cent of the population in the m ountain valley of the Grisons in the south-east of Sw itzerland speak RhaetoRom anic. There are five different dialects: Putér, Vallader, Sursilvan, Sutsilvan and Surm iran w hich are used in w ritten form as w ell as having their ow n body of literature. 4 III. Le gal fram e w o rk fo r the m e dia 1 . Esta blishm ent of linguistic va riety in the New Fed era l C onstitution. In term s of the constitutional law concerning linguistic variety, there are four relevant articles in the New Federal Constitution: Article 4 – National languages (“Landessprachen”) The national languages are Germ an, French, Italian and Rhaeto-Rom anic. Article 18 – Linguistic freedom Linguistic freedom is granted. Article 70 – Languages 1. The official languages of the Federal Governm ent are Germ an, French and Italian. When com m unicating w ith Rhaeto-Rom anic speakers, Rhaeto-Rom anic is also an official language of the Federal Governm ent. 134

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2. The cantons determ ine w hich official languages they use. In order to grant agreem ent betw een the language com m unities, they respect the native linguistic com position of the territories as w ell as the native language m inorities. 3. The Federal Governm ent and the cantons prom ote com m unication and exchange betw een the language com m unities. 4. The Federal Governm ent supports the m ultilinguistic cantons in accom plishing their special tasks. 5. The Federal Governm ent supports m eans of the Grisons and the Ticino to m aintain and prom ote the RhaetoRom anic and Italian languages. In 1999, the people and the cantons accepted the revision of the Sw iss Federal Constitution. The establishm ent of linguistic variety w as the central issue at stake, and com pared to the old Federal Constitution, the new version contains a far-reaching and differentiated regulation of the Sw iss language law. The reference to the equality of all national languages (“Landessprachen”) (Article 4) under the section “general regulations” is an innovation; in the old Federal Constitution it only appeared under the heading “special regulations” (Article 116). What is also novel is the term “Landessprache” as such. Form erly, one talked about “Nationalsprachen”.5 What is not completely clear, how ever, is w hether new areas of competence for the Federal Government can be deduced from the new article as w ell.6 Furtherm ore, the establishm ent of 4 5 6

Martin Arnold, “Rum antschs vulains restar! Die rom anische Kultur”, Basler M agazin, 40 (5 O ctober 2002), 3-5. In English, the distinction betw een “Landessprache” and “Nationalsprache” cannot be m ade; both term s m ust be translated as “national language”. Luzius Mader, “Der verfassungsrechtliche Rahm en des Sprachenrechts des Bundes”, Babylonia, 4 (2001), 15-22.

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linguistic freedom as a fundam ental right is also new. The Federal Court already accepted this fundam ental right, according to w hich everybody has the right to com m unicate in a language of his or her choice, as an unw ritten constitutional law in 1965. 7 How ever, there are tw o m ore articles in the New Federal Constitution, w hich contain linguistic rights. According to Article 8 (legal equality), nobody m ust be discrim inated against, “on grounds of origin, race, gender, age, language, social position, lifestyle, religious orientation, ideological or political conviction, or on grounds of physical, m ental or psychic disability”. According to Article 31, subsection 2 (im prisonm ent), everybody w ho is being im prisoned has the right “to be inform ed im m ediately, in a language intelligible to them about the reasons for their im prisonm ent as w ell as about their rights”. 2 . La ngua ge legisla tion. In order to im plem ent the provisions m ade by the New Federal Constitution w ith regard to the linguistic m ultitude of the country, a w orking group w as appointed to prepare the new language law. In the sum m er of 2001, a draft of the law w as subm itted to the cantons, parties and interest groups to give them the opportunity to com m ent on it. This process has not yet com e to an end. The law contains m easures to prom ote linguistic com petence in the national languages, to prom ote exchanges betw een teachers and students on all educational levels, to create a centre of com petence (“Kom petenzzentrum ”) for the linguistic m ultitude, and to support m eans of com prehension for third parties. The already existing assistance in favour of the Rhaeto-Rom anic and Italian languages in the Grisons and Ticino as w ell as the support for the m ultilingual cantons by the Federal Governm ent are being incorporated into the new 136

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language law. Support for the publishing sector in RhaetoRom anic- and Italian-speaking Sw itzerland has also been planned, as w ell as a Rhaetian press through the Rhaetian new s agency. 8 How ever, it is im portant to note that m ost of the articles in the planned language law, either explicitly refer to the four national languages (“Landessprachen”), or are form ulated in such a general m anner that it does not becom e clear w hether the m ulticultural linguistic diversity, w hich goes beyond the four national languages, is also taken into account. There is only one exception, nam ely Article 17 subsections b and c of the language law, w hich explicitly refer to people w ho are not com petent in any of the national languages: Article 17 – National languages (“Landessprachen”) and mobility The Federal Governm ent m ay grant subsidies for a. The prom otion of know ledge of the native national language of persons w ho live outside the language area; b. The prom otion of know ledge of a national language of persons w ho do not speak any of the national languages (“Landessprachen”); c. Courses in the native language and culture of persons w hose native language is not one of the national languages (“Landessprachen”). Possible im plem entation of this, how ever, only refers to the Federal Governm ent’s financial support of the cantons, especially w ith regard to the education sector. The rest of the articles do not specify w hether any other languages apart from

Luzius Mader, “Der verfassungsrechtliche Rahm en des Sprachenrechts des Bundes”, Babylonia, 4 (2001), 16.

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the national ones are taken into consideration. Article 21 serves as an exam ple: Article 21 – Institution to promote multilingualism 1. The Federal Governm ent and the cantons jointly run a scientific institution to prom ote m ultilingualism . 2. The institution has the follow ing duties: a. To promote applied research in the field of multilingualism. b. To develop and support new form s of m ultilingual education and the evaluation thereof. c. To run a centre for inform ation and docum entation. d. To contribute to the co-ordination of research in Sw iss m ultilingualism . e. To prom ote understanding of m ultilingualism in the Sw iss population. 3. The Federal Governm ent appoints an advisory council, w hich advises the institution. A federal law for subsidies to m aintain and prom ote the Rhaeto-Rom anic and Italian languages has existed at least since 1983.9 In 1996, a new version w as issued.10 In this law, the Federal Governm ent m akes subsidies for the Grisons and the Ticino conditional on their ow n contribution. The federal contribution does not exceed 75 per cent of total costs, and the cantons have to contribute at least 25 per cent. Article 2, subsection 2, reads: “The Federal Governm ent m ay contribute to the m aintenance and prom otion of the Rhaeto-Rom anic language as w ell as of the Rhaetian press.” In “the regulation of subsidies for the m aintenance and prom otion of the Rhaeto-Rom anic and Italian language and culture”11 , this is form ulated even m ore explicitly. Moreover, the Federal Governm ent supports regularly published new spapers and m agazines in Rhaeto-Rom anic as w ell as a Rhaetian new s agency 138

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(Article 4). The Grisons contribute on an annual basis to the “Ligia Rom ontscha/Lia Rum antscha” and to the “Vereinigung (association) Pro Grigioni Italiano”, thus to the organization w hich supports Rhaeto-Rom anic and Italian language and culture in the cantons. In 1983, the am ount w as last raised to 400,000 Sw iss francs per annum for the Rhaetians and to 350,000 Sw iss francs for the Italian-speaking Sw iss.12 In 1996, an annual sum of a m axim um of 350,000 Sw iss francs w as added for the Rhaetian new s agency (Agentura da N ovitads Rumantscha AN R).13 For the year 2003, the Grisons (canton of Graubünden) w ill grant a sum of 2.6 m illion Sw iss francs; the Federal Governm ent is supposed to grant 4.75 m illion Sw iss francs. Therefore, the Rhaeto-Rom anic and Italian language groups are supposed to be helped by a total of 7.4 m illion Sw iss francs. Since 1981, the Ticino has had the “Regolam ento sull’aiuto finanziario federale per la difesa della cultura e della lingua”, issued by the State Council.14 3 . Aliens’ rights. The legal conditions for foreigners living in Sw itzerland are recorded in the Federal Constitution, Article 121 (“The legislation concerning entering and leaving the country, the sojourn and residence of foreigners, as w ell as the granting of political asylum is a m atter of the Federal Governm ent”)15 and in the “federal legislation concerning the sojourn and residence for foreigners”.16 Article 25a records that the Federal Governm ent grants financial support for the social integration 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

24 June 1983 AS 1983 1444, revised 1991 AS 1991 2108. 6 O ctober 1995, SR 441.1, AS 1996 2280. 26 Septem ber 1996, SR 441.31, AS 1996 2283. Resolution of the cantonal parliam ent of 27 Septem ber 1983, Bündner Rechtsbuch (statute book of the Grisons) no. 494.500. Resolution of 23 May 1996, Bündner Rechtsbuch no. 494.600. 10 Novem ber 1981, Raccolta leggi Ticino 5.5.1.1 (165 c). 18 April 1999, SR 101, AS 1999 2556. 26 March 1931, SR 142.20, BS 1 121.

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of foreigners, on the condition that the cantons, local authorities and third parties contribute as w ell. Based on this article, the Federal Council enacted a decree concerning the integration of foreigners w hich m aintains that subsidies m ay be granted: d. To m aintain the foreigners’ connections w ith their languages and cultures, e. To carry out coherent inform ation policies for and about the foreign population in Sw itzerland, f. To prom ote intercultural dialogue and active participation of the foreign population, (...) h. To train and provide further education for those people w ho w ork in the dom ain of intercultural exchange.” It is the responsibility of The Federal Foreigners’ Com m ission to grant subsidies. 4 . Freed om of the m ed ia . The fact that the Federal Constitution grants the freedom of the m edia is part of the legal conditions. Article 17 reads: “The freedom of the press, radio and television, as w ell as of other form s of public telecom m unication services, is granted. Censorship is prohibited. Press confidentiality is guaranteed.” 17 IV. The linguis tic are as and the ir m e dia pro vis io n 1 . Sm a ll m a rkets w ith a la rge num ber of m ed ia . In Sw itzerland every linguistic area is provided w ith its ow n m edia. The Sw iss Corporation for Radio and Television (Schweizerische Radio- und Fernsehgesellschaft SRG) runs tw o television channels and betw een three and five radio stations each for the Germ an, French and Italian parts of Sw itzerland. For RhaetoRom anic Sw itzerland, they have an alm ost com plete radio program m e and part of a television program m e. It is im portant to note that in the Italian-speaking part of Sw itzerland 140

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only 300,000 people are provided w ith a full program m e. In addition, each region is equipped w ith new s agencies, regional private radio and television channels, daily new spapers, w eekly and Sunday papers as w ell as w ith other papers. The only exception is Rhaeto-Rom anic Sw itzerland w hich does not have any w eekly m edia.18 Yet it becom es evident that the other linguistic groups only receive their rightful provision through cross-subsidies from the German part of Sw itzerland. The proportion of commission and publicity revenues used by SRG is significantly higher than w hat is independently produced by the Italian- and Rhaeto-Romanic-speaking regions of Sw itzerland. The Sw iss New s Agency (Schweizerische Depeschenagentur SDA) offers not only a German, but also a French and an Italian service. The Confederation and the canton of Graubünden (Grisons) finance the Rhaeto-Romanic new s agency ANR.19 Table 1: Media pro visio n in linguistic areas G erman part 2

French part 2

Italian part 1

0.1

6.1

18 ( +46) 5

3 (+26) 4

1 (+2) 3

– 1

22 (+74) 13

Private radio stations

Daily new spapers

Non-daily new spapers

132

Weekly new spapers

–

Media New s agencies SRG TV channels Private TV channels SRG radio stations

RhaetoTotal Romanic part 1 6

Sunday new spapers

–

New s magazines

–

17 18 19

13 Septem ber 2000, SR 142.205, AS 2000 2281. Mirko Marr, Vinzenz Wyss, Roger Blum , and Heinz Bonfadelli, Journalisten in der Schweiz. Eigenschaften, Einstellungen, Einflüsse (Constance: UVK, 2001), 277. For the legal condition see chapter 3.

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The m edia m arkets w hich are relevant to Sw iss m edia production are clearly dem arcated by the language areas w hich m eans that they are relatively sm all. The largest exam ple is the German-speaking part of Sw itzerland w here the language area consists of 5 m illion inhabitants. The sm allest is Rhaeto-Rom anic Sw itzerland, w here the core area is reduced to only 30,000 inhabitants. The result of this is that the biggest new spaper of Germ an-speaking Sw itzerland has still got a circulation of 300,000 copies w hereas the largest new spaper in RhaetoRom anic Sw itzerland only has a circulation of 6,000 copies. Table 2: Largest new spapers acco rding to language areas Language areas

Largest daily newspaper

O ther large newspaper

Largest Sunday or weekly newspaper

German part

Blick (314,179)

French part

24 heures ( 89,619)

La Gruyère (15,034)

Le Matin-Dimanche (220,451)

Italian part

Corriere del Ticino (39,142) ?

Il Lavoro (40,007)*

Il Mattino della Domenica (47,302)

La Q uotidiana (5,822)

Novitats (4,341)

–

RhaetoRomanic part

Bremgartner Anzeiger SonntagsBlick (15,439) (334,693)

* In the Ticino,Il Lavoro – a weekly union paper – has an enormous circulation. O ther Italian-speaking papers, which are not published daily, have a circulation between 1,000 and 6,000 copies. Source: “Katalog der Schweizer Presse” [catalogue of the Swiss press], 2001.

2 . D ensity a nd use of the p ress. Sw itzerland is one of the countries w ith the highest press density. This is m ainly a result of its federalism . In the nineteenth century, each valley and each district w anted to have their ow n new spapers. In the big tow ns, various new spapers w ere published; for each party one paper. Even today, Sw itzerland is characterized by a m ultitude of very sm all papers, i.e. papers w ith a very sm all circulation. More than 100 new spapers have a circulation of less 142

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than 15,000 copies. This applies to all language regions. Each of the three m ost im portant language regions has a so-called “elite” new spaper (Neue Zürcher Zeitung in the German-speaking part, Le Temps in the French-speaking part, and Corriere del Ticino in the Italian-speaking part of Sw itzerland). But only the German- and French-speaking parts of Sw itzerland have tabloids as w ell. Moreover, Germ an-speaking Sw itzerland is the only part w hich has been able to produce a large, quality paper w ith an independent-leftish political affiliation (Tages-Anzeiger). There is no such paper in the Ticino, and in the French-speaking part Le Temps is both an elite paper and an independent-leftish quality paper. The Germ an-speaking part of Sw itzerland has m ore “Kopfblattsystem e” (papers w ith a num ber of regional editions) and free new spapers than the other language regions. Table 3: Number o f papers and jo urnalistic units Language areas

Daily newspapers

Non-daily newspapers

Total

Num ber Journalistic Num ber Journalistic Num ber Journalistic units units units

German part

126

French part

102 50

Italian part

RhaetoRomanic part

To tal

132

130

195

169

C HART : Roger Blum; source: “Katalog der Schweizer Presse” [Catalogue of the Swiss Press], 2001.

The press is highly used in all of the language regions. The circulation of new spapers and m agazines is higher than in the neighbouring countries and covers tw o thirds of the population over the age of 15 (w ith the exception of the Frenchspeaking part of Sw itzerland w here little m ore than half of the population read a paper on a daily basis). The reading duration, how ever, is under half an hour. RO GER BLUM

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Table 4: Reach and time spent reading the press Newspapers

Magazines Daily reach

Press (total)

Daily reach

Time spent daily

Daily reach

Time spent daily

German part

62.7 %

24 min.

7.6 %

3 min.

70.3 %

27 min.

French part

57.4 %

21 min

5.7 %

2 min.

63.1 %

23 min.

Italian part

70.2 %

24 min.

4.8 %

2 min.

75.0 %

27 min.

Annual report 2000 of the “SRG-Forschungsdienst” (Research Service), Bern, 2001.

3 . Ra d io use. The radio is used in a sim ilar w ay in all of the different language regions – during the day (w ith a peak period in the early m orning and at noon). The sam e applies to the reach. How ever, Sw iss-Germ ans listen to the radio on average for three hours per day w hereas Sw iss-French and Sw iss-Italians only listen for slightly over tw o hours. Table 5: Reach and time spent listening to the radio Daily reach

Time spent daily

German part

74.7 %

193 min.

French part

70.0 %

142 min.

Italian part

71.2 %

148 min.

Annual report 2000 of the “SRG-Forschungsdienst”, Bern, 2001.

4 . Television use. With regard to television use, Sw iss-Germ ans are the m ost restrained: they have their TV sets sw itched on for little over tw o hours per day. Sw iss-Italians, how ever, w atch TV for alm ost three hours on average per day. In this respect, their view ing habits are comparable to those of Italians. Table 6: Reach and time spent view ing televisio n Daily reach

Time spent daily

German part

73.4 %

137 min.

French part

73.2 %

159 min.

Italian part

80.5 %

171 min.

Annual report 2000 of the “SRG-Forschungsdienst”, Bern, 2001. 144

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Data on the view ing habits in Sw itzerland, based on the population aged three and over, reveal that Sw iss programmes are only used by a minority in all of the language regions (35 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 40 per cent). In the German-speaking part of Sw itzerland, this minority reaches the highest percentage. On the other hand, Sw iss-Germans only use the public-service channels on a small scale (51 per cent versus 58 per cent in the French- and Italian-speaking parts). This can be explained by the fact that there is a big supply of private channels from Germany. Secondly, the German part of Sw itzerland has considerably more private programmes than, for example, the Frenchspeaking part. It is also remarkable that the Italian Sw iss w atch RAI programmes for almost tw ice as long as Sw iss-Germans w atch programmes provided by ARD, ZDF and ORF altogether. Table 7: Time spent w atching natio nal and fo reign televisio n channels Programmes

G erman part

French part

Italian part

SRG

46 min. (33.6 % )

55 min. (34.6 % )

58 min. (33.9 % )

Sw iss private channels

8 min. (5.8 % )

1 min. (0.6 % )

2 min. (1.2 % )

Sw iss channels (total)

54 min. (39.4 % )

56 min. (35.2 % )

60 min. (35.1 % )

Foreign public service channels

24 min. (17.5 % )

37 min. (23.3 % )

41 min. (24.0 % )

Foreign private channels

59 min. (43.1 % )

66 min. (41.5 % )

69 min. (40.3 % )

Foreign channels (total)

83 min. (60.5 % )

103 min. (64.8 % )

110 min. (64.3 % )

Basis = population from the age of three. Source:â&#x20AC;?SRG-Forschungsdienstâ&#x20AC;?, annual report 2000.

5 . Journalism and language areas. Not only does Sw itzerland have a high density of media, but it also has a high density of journalists, namely 129 per 100,000 inhabitants. Thus, it comes after Finland (154) and before Hungary (90), but significantly RO GER BLUM

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before the neighbouring countries Germ any (66) and France (46). The United States of Am erica has a density of 47, and in Great Britain the figure is 26.20 The principle of high density applies equally to all the m ain language regions in Sw itzerland. There are, how ever, differences concerning the proportion of w om en. O n average, it totals 32 per cent; in the French-speaking part, how ever, it am ounts to 36 per cent. As for w om en under 35, the average is 39 per cent, but in the French-speaking part it com es to 48 per cent w hereas the Italian-speaking part can only show a percentage of 22. In the French- and Italian-speaking parts, 58 per cent of journalists have a university degree, w hereas the percentage of journalists w ith university education in the Germ an-speaking part only am ounts to 39 per cent. The Sw iss-Italian journalists are older, and 49 per cent w ork for the SRG (34 per cent w ork for daily papers), w hereas 47 per cent of the Sw iss-French journalists w ork for daily new spapers (and only 23 per cent for the SRG). In the Germ an-speaking part, the num ber of journalists w ho w ork for m agazines, w eekly or Sunday papers is considerably higher com pared to the other language regions.21 V. Pro ble m s o f the â&#x20AC;&#x153;o ld m ulticulturalis m â&#x20AC;? 1 . No na tiona l m ed ia , but links to foreign countries w ith the sa m e la ngua ge. In Sw itzerland, there are no national m edia w hich are received in the w hole country. There are no significant m ultilingual m edia, at best bilingual local radios and local new spapers in the language boundary regions (like in the city of Bienne: Germ an and French, or in the canton of GraubĂźnden [Grisons]: Germ an and Rhaeto-Rom anic) in addition to bilingual NGO papers or scientific journals.22 The media, including television program m es, are separated according to language areas. Furtherm ore, each language area is confronted w ith the 146

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sam e language m edia of the neighbouring country. Sw itzerland’s three m ain languages correspond to the national languages of large European countries w hich border w ith Sw itzerland: Germ any/Austria, France and Italy. Sw itzerland cannot and does not w ant to cut itself off. Therefore, thousands of foreign journals and m agazines have been sold in Sw itzerland for decades. People listen to radio stations of the neighbouring countries, and since the 1960s especially to French private radio stations. As the Sw iss cable netw ork is very w ell developed, it is possible in alm ost every household to receive dozens of Germ an, French, Italian and Austrian television program m es. Consequently, each language area is linked up w ith the foreign country w here the sam e language is spoken. This m eans that people alm ost exclusively use m edia in their ow n language (if they exceptionally use foreign language m edia this w ould be m ostly in English, for exam ple CN N , M TV or the Internet). O nly about three per cent of Germ an-speaking Sw iss w atch television program m es from other Sw iss language areas, and vice versa. O n the other hand, m ost Sw iss intensively use the m edia of neighbouring countries w here the sam e language is spoken. In other w ords, Sw iss Germ ans do not w atch television program m es of Suisse romande or read Le Temps or Corriere del Ticino, but w atch the Germ an and Austrian channels such as ARD, Z DF, RTL, Sat.1, Pro7 or O RF, or read Spiegel, Bunte, Bravo or Die Z eit. French-speaking Sw iss stick to French television program m es, new spapers and m agazines, and the inhabitants of the Ticino orient them selves tow ards Italy. 20 21 22

Marr et al., Journalisten, 59. Marr et al., Journalisten, 105. Peter Cichon, “Sprachkontakt und Sprachbew usstsein an der französischdeutschen Sprachgrenze in der Schw eiz”, in Forum Helveticum (ed.), Z wischen Rhein und Rhone – verbunden und doch getrennt? Entre Rhin et Rhône – liens et ruptures (Lenzburg, 2002), 142-45.

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Consequently, Sw itzerland is overlapped by three big m edia regions, and the Sw iss, on a large scale, look tow ards the neighbouring country of the sam e language.23 The audience of the Germ an-speaking part of Sw itzerland therefore know s Günter Grass, Marcel Reich-Ranicky, Thom as Gottschalk, Harald Schm idt, Boris Becker, Verona Feldbusch, or Claudia Schiffer m uch better than Sw iss French or Sw iss Italian public figures from the cultural or m edia establishm ent, show business and high society. The media system does not do a lot to enhance the integration of the different parts of Sw itzerland. O n the contrary, there is a segregative and centrifugal effect, and as a result, it is not surprising that m edia enforce rather than dissolve the controversies and anim osities betw een the language groups. VI. M e dia fo r im m igrants 1 . Use of television p rogra m m es. Unfortunately, not m uch is know n about m edia use by im m igrants. In this particular area there is a large gap in research. With regard to radio and television use, this on the one hand has to do w ith the research tools of the SRG research service (“SRG-Forschungsdienst”) (radio and TV controlling). In order to identify the usage of those channels w hich are used not only by the Sw iss, but also by im m igrants, the latter have to be language-assim ilated. O n the other hand, one can assum e that im m igrants predom inantly receive channels from their native countries via satellite. No recent statistics about satellite recipients exist. How ever, according to an estim ate of the Federal O ffice for Com m unication (“Bundesam t für Kom m unikation BAKO M”) about 6 to 8 per cent of households m ay be equipped w ith a direct satellite receiver. That w ould m ean that there could be betw een 180,000 and 240,000 households in Sw itzerland w hich have this technical device.24 148

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There is no further inform ation about how these figures m ay be distributed betw een Sw iss and im m igrant households. The fact that apart from registered foreigners and asylum -seekers there m ight be a considerable num ber of so-called “illegal” im m igrants (“sans papiers”), w ho, of course, are also m edia recipients, should also be taken into consideration. In 1995, the SRG research service (“SRG-Forschungsdienst”) exam ined the m edia usage of foreigners living in Sw itzerland. They focused on the m edia reception (radio, television, new spapers, and m agazines) of the five largest foreign populations: from Italy, Spain, Turkey, Portugal and the form er Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. According to the study, the view ing frequency of the foreign population does not vary from the Sw iss population by a large degree.25 How ever, m ore im m igrants possess a satellite receiver, and video recorders are m ore frequently present in foreign households com pared to Sw iss households.26 Both phenom ena can probably be explained by the fact that foreign households have a greater need for im ported inform ation and entertainm ent. The study also tackles the question of how far the foreign populations use the program m es for foreigners provided by the Sw iss Association for Radio and Television (Schweizerische Radio- und Fernsehgesellschaft SRG). In 1995, it w as possible for Italians living in Sw itzerland to receive Telesettimanale and Giro d’horizonte, both incorporated in the program m e of the Televisione Svizzera di lingua italiana (TSI); Spanish people w ere like23 24 25 26

Roger Blum , “Mediensystem e. Skript zur Vorlesung” (Bern: Institut für Medienw issenschaft, 2001), 41. Estim ate of the Federal O ffice for Com m unication, Departm ent for Radio and Television, National and International Media, Decem ber 2002. Heinrich Anker, Manolya Erm utlu, and Mathias Steinm ann, Die M ediennutzung der AusländerInnen in der Schweiz (Bern: SRG Forschungsdienst, 1995), 6 f. Eighteen per cent of foreign households have a satellite receiver w hich clearly exceeds the Sw iss average of five per cent. See Anker et al., M ediennutzung, 13 f.

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w ise able to receive Telerevista and Swissworld. The view ing sequence of these program m es w as betw een 21 and 34 per cent.27 As for the channels im ported from Germ any and Austria, the view ing sequence w as betw een 11 and 33 per cent.28 2 . Use of ra d io p rogra m m es. According to the study by Anker et al., there is a discrepancy of about 10 per cent betw een native and foreign radio listeners in term s of listening frequency. Am ong the 16 per cent w ho declared they w ould not listen to the radio, 30 per cent claim ed they could not receive those channels to w hich they w ould prefer to listen.29 Another indicator w hich points in the sam e direction, i.e. that there is a huge need for program m es in the native languages, is that m ost of the foreign radio listeners tune in to short-w ave radio program m es (12 per cent). But the fact that the study confines itself to the five largest groups of im m igrants m ust also be considered. Therefore, the proportion of Italian- and Spanish-speaking recipients, w hose linguistic com petence and higher degree of integration enable them to consum e Sw iss program m es as w ell, is relatively high. 3 . Integra tion through loca l ra d io sta tions. Since 1983 a num ber of private radio stations have also existed in Sw itzerland in addition to the SRG radio program m es. A few of these radio stations explicitly try to produce program m es for im m igrants. According to statistics from the “Sw iss Foreigners’ Com m ission” (“Eidgenössische Ausländerkom m ission”), there w ere 20 local radio stations in Sw itzerland w hich included specific “program m es for foreigners”. How ever, only four of these stations (Radio LoRa, Radio RaBe, Radio X and Kanal K) broadcast in the languages of the so-called “new im m igrants” (nam ely Turkish, Kurdish, Serbian, Croatian, Albanian etc.), 150

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w hereas m ost of the stations confine them selves to broadcasts in Italian, Spanish and Portuguese. In addition, they also offer program m es in English. How ever, in view of the w ide acceptance and popularity of the English language, one has to assum e that such English broadcasts are not invariably listened to by English native speakers only. As far as the local radio m ovem ent is concerned, Radio LoRa in Zurich has m ost certainly played a pioneering role. Apart from Sw iss-Germ an and Germ an, Radio LoRa also broadcasts in the follow ing languages: Spanish, Portuguese/ Brazilian, Italian, French, Albanian, Bosnian, Serbian, Croatian, Greek, Turkish, Kurdish, Persian, Afghan, Som ali, Sudanese, Arabic, Tam il and Rom anes. In som e cases there are several program m es in one of the languages m entioned. With the exception of the French-speaking program m e, w hich is broadcast tw ice a w eek, all program m es are broadcast once a w eek.30 Radio LoRa has been broadcasting since Novem ber 1983, and view s itself as a so-called “alternative radio station” w hich refuses advertising, supports m usical program m es, locates itself beyond the com m ercial scene, and w hich strongly focuses on the integration of foreign-language and m ulticultural program m es. Apart from Germ an and Sw iss-Germ an the Bernese local radio station, Radio RaBe, also broadcasts in Serbian, Croatian, Persian, Italian, English, Portuguese, Spanish, Albanian, Turkish, Kurdish, Somali and Bulgarian. Most of the programmes are broadcast on a w eekly basis, som e of them every other w eek.31 27 28 29 30 31

These num bers refer to those recipients w ho can be assigned to the categories “often” and “seldom ”. Anker et al., M ediennutzung, 16-25. Anker et al., M ediennutzung, 26. Statem ent by the editorial staff. According to the program m e announcem ent Radio RaBe, Decem ber 2002.

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Kanal K (canton of Aargau) is a further local radio station, w hich offers a m ultilingual and m ulticultural program m e. The foreign languages include Turkish, Albanian, Serbian, Croatian, Arm aic, Assyrian, Indonesian, Bosnian, Kurdish and Arabic.32 And last but not least, Radio X (canton of Basel City) broadcasts not only in Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese, but also in Turkish, Kurdish and Albanian.33 4 . Use of the p ress. According to a study by the SRG, approxim ately 92 per cent of im m igrants read daily new spapers (55 per cent often, 37 per cent rarely), thus som ew hat less than the Sw iss (96 per cent). Seventy-five per cent of the foreign new spaper readers prefer papers from their respective native countries, m ost of all those from Turkey and from Kosovo. The findings are quite sim ilar w ith regard to the reading of m agazines, w here again those from the hom e countries are preferred. As w ith new spapers, the consum ption rate of Sw iss m agazines rises w ith advancing age and w ith m ore frequent listening to radio program m es.34 VII. Pro ble m s o f the “ne w m ulticulturalis m ” According to a publication by the Federal Foreigners’ Com m ission from Novem ber 1999, Sw itzerland is actually an im m igration country even though this fact is often vigorously dism issed by the authorities.35 This view has been responsible for the som ew hat reluctant change of attitude. In the 1960s, due to econom ic reasons, Sw itzerland m odified its foreign policies regarding the adm ission and residence of foreign nationals, w hich resulted in increasing im m igration from Italy and Spain. In 1960, the proportion of Italian im m igrants w as 59.2 per cent of the w hole foreign population in Sw itzerland. In 1990 the proportion decreased to only 30.8 per cent, and in 152

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the year 2000, the immigrants of Italian origin w ere overtaken by those from the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (19.7 versus 23.9 per cent).36 Italian and Spanish im m igrants have been assim ilated and integrated to a high degree and m any of the Italians and Spanish, w ho belong to the so-called “second generation”, already possess a Sw iss passport. Their process of integration w as facilitated by the fact that these particular groups of im m igrants speak either one of the national languages, or at least a language from the sam e language group. Another fact, w hich probably contributed to the rather quick process of integration, is their religious affiliation: m ost of the Italian and Spanish im m igrants are Rom an Catholics, and thus belong to the sam e church as alm ost half of the Sw iss. 37 Betw een 1970 and 2000, the distribution of im m igrants in term s of religion and language changed considerably. This has had an effect on the assim ilation efforts of all concerned, i.e. the new im m igrants, the “old” im m igrants, as w ell as the Sw iss. The process of integration, on the one hand, can be understood in term s of a specific language-based education – a m eans that has been prom oted in m any places since the integration article in the law for foreigners came into effect in 1999.38 O n the other hand, specific integration policies also entail the prom otion of the native languages and cultures. Migrants can only assim ilate 32 33 34 35 36

<http://w w w.kanalk.ch/htm l/program m /aktuell.asp> Report of the Federal Foreigners’ Com m ission, appendix 10. Anker et al., M ediennutzung, 59. Report by the Federal Foreigners’ Com m ission (Eidgenössische Ausländerkom m ission EKA), Novem ber 1999, 12. Federal O ffice for Statistics, Spatial and Structural Dynam ics of the Population in Sw itzerland 1990-2000 (“Räum liche und strukturelle Bevölkerungsdynam ik der Schw eiz 1990-2000”), February 2002. Cf. the population according to religion in 2000: Protestant: 36.6 per cent, Rom an Catholic: 44.1 per cent, Christian-O rthodox: 1.2 per cent, Muslim : 4.5 per cent, other denom inations: 1.9 per cent, non-denom inational: 11.7 per cent. (Federal O ffice for Statistics, February 1999). Cf. N eue Z ürcher Z eitung, 2 Novem ber 2002, 15.

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if they are being integrated at the same time. In other w ords, the tw o terms “assimilation” and “integration”, despite their relatedness and often analogous usage, actually designate tw o different processes and thus also tw o different norm addressees. Even though both term s can be used reflexively, as w ell as nonreflexively and transitively, it nevertheless seem s probable that in the case of “assim ilation” the norm ative im plication is addressed to the im m igrants them selves, w hereas in the case of “integration”, the norm is addressed to the local authorities. “Integration”, in term s of culture, language, and the m edia, has a w ide and im portant im plication. It does not suffice to offer immigrants courses in German, French or Italian in order to give them the possibility to integrate through the respective national language. Efforts need to be m ade to provide them w ith new s from their hom e countries in their native language as w ell as in a Sw iss national language. This m eans that the press, but also radio and television program m es, m ust try to integrate such im m igrants. The m edia, for exam ple, can contribute to the process of assim ilation in the new country, as w ell as to the m aintenance of the cultural identity of im m igrants. The triad of the different dim ensions of the language and culture problem could be represented as follow s: Assimilation National language/Switzerland Integration

Native tongue/home country

National language/Switzerland

O n the level of integration this entails the maintenance of the culturally specific patterns of the home country as w ell as the integration through Sw itzerland by means of the national language as w ell as in the native tongue. In terms of media politics this means immigrants must also be granted access to the media from their respective native countries in Sw itzerland. At the same time, the local media must integrate multicultural issues into their agenda. 154

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VIII. Co nclus io n Sw itzerland has had a long history of experience w ith various language cultures. For 1,500 years, different language groups have been coexisting in the territory of contemporary Sw itzerland, and for 500 years, the Sw iss State has been multilingual. The four original languages – German, French, Italian and RhaetoRomanic – have developed their ow n media thanks to the compactness of the language regions. The language groups live in geographically distinct areas. This territorial principle determines w hich language is dominant, and therefore, the same language is the media language of the respective region.39 This also applies to Rhaeto-Romanic-speaking Sw itzerland: the Rhaetian villages of the Grisons are clearly marked off, and consequently the RhaetoRomanic-speaking media circulate in the same areas. The territory principle does not apply to the new language groups, w hich m ainly settled in Sw itzerland in the tw entieth century. There m ay be particular neighbourhoods or streets in big tow ns in w hich the spoken language is predom inantly Turkish or Italian, but on the w hole the new im m igrants are scattered all over the country, and it w ould not be possible to create a Turkish, Kurdish, Tam il, Serbian, Croatian, Arm enian or Iranian district or canton. This has consequences in term s of the m edia netw ork: A Kurdish program m e of the local radio station LoRa can only be listened to by Kurds in Zurich. Kurdish people in Geneva, Lucerne, Basel or som ew here in the countryside are excluded. The old language groups find their ow n identity w ithin their ow n m edia. Priorities in topics of the SRG radio stations in the Germ an-speaking part of Sw itzerland vary from those 39

Stephane Tendon, “La frontière des langues à Marly : L’influence de CIBA”, in Forum Helveticum (ed.), Z wischen Rhein und Rhone – verbunden und doch getrennt? Entre Rhin et Rhône – liens et ruptures (Lenzburg, 2002), 170-73.

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of the French-speaking part. The tabloid Blick resem bles m ore the Germ an popular press title Bild; the tabloid Le M atin in the French-speaking part of Sw itzerland draw s rather on the French tradition. In the Italian-speaking part of Sw itzerland, as in Italy, there is no tabloid at all. The local radio stations in the Germ an-speaking part of Sw itzerland create a sense of identity and proxim ity via the use of dialects. But this identity, based on language-regional specialities, has at the sam e tim e a segregating effect. Such language groups live back to back, and in m any respects orient them selves tow ards the neighbouring country of the sam e language. But despite everything, Sw itzerland, as a nation, is sufficiently integrated. A com m on political culture, including the principles of a federalist state structure, m inority rights, direct dem ocracy, and the principles of concordance and m ilitia contribute to this integration. Furtherm ore, national institutions such as parties and associations, but also celebrations (“Feste”) and sports events help to contribute. Moreover, the Sw iss agenda is determ ined by the sam e topics over and over again because plebiscites usually take place four tim es a year. Further com m on topics are prom oted by the principal m edia that then influence the rest of the m edia – through correspondents at the Federal Palace on the one hand, and through those representing the different language-regions on the other. Even though people do not know enough about the other language regions, they nevertheless feel an obligation tow ards each other. The integration of im m igrants, how ever, is m uch m ore difficult. They select from their ow n “exile m edia” and “hom e m edia”: the form er does not exist for all groups, and not everybody has access to the latter. There is little support for the media for im m igrants, but the Federal Foreigners’ Com m ission (“Eidgenössische Ausländerkom m ission”) w ants to change this in 156

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the com ing years. If it is at all possible to increase the linguistic com petence of im m igrants in the national languages Germ an, French or Italian, they w ill have access to m any such m edia – even though, w ith the exception of Italian im m igrants, not to m edia w hich help to m aintain their cultural identity.

Biblio graphy Altermatt, Urs, “Belgisierung der Schw eiz: Schlagw ort oder Wirklichkeit?”, in Forum Helveticum (ed.), Z wischen Rhein und Rhone – verbunden und doch getrennt? Entre Rhin et Rhône – liens et ruptures (Lenzburg, 2002), 132-36. Anker, Heinrich, and Ermutlu, Mano lya, and Steinmann, Mathias, Die M ediennutzung der AusländerInnen in der Schweiz (Bern: SRG Forschungsdienst, 1995). Arno ld, Martin, “Rum antschs vulains restar! Die rom anische Kultur”, Basler M agazin, 40 (5 O ctober 2002), 3-5. Blum, Ro ger, “Sprachenvielfalt und Föderalism us”, Z oom Kommunikation & M edien, no. 12/13 “Der Fernsehboom ” (May 1999), 50-55. Blum, Ro ger, “Mediensystem e. Skript zur Vorlesung” (Bern: Institut für Medienw issenschaft, 2001). Bo llinger, Ernst, La presse suisse. Les faits et les opinions (Lausanne, 1986). Bundesamt für Statistik, Räumliche und strukturelle Bevölkerungsdynamik der Schweiz 1990-2000 (Neuchâtel, 2002). Cicho n, Peter, “Sprachkontakt und Sprachbew usstsein an der französischdeutschen Sprachgrenze in der Schw eiz”, in Forum Helveticum (ed.), Z wischen Rhein und Rhone – verbunden und doch getrennt? Entre Rhin et Rhône – liens et ruptures (Lenzburg, 2002), 142-45. Co rbo ud Fumagalli, Adrienne, “Une Suisse ou trois régions? Les journaus télévisés”, M edienwissenschaft Schweiz, 1 (1996), 11-17. Fo rum Helveticum (ed.), Z wischen Rhein und Rhone – verbunden und doch getrennt? Entre Rhin et Rhône – liens et ruptures (Lenzburg, 2002). Furger, Andres, “Der unterschiedliche Rom anisierungsgrad zw ischen O st und West in röm ischer Zeit”, in Forum Helveticum (ed.), Z wischen Rhein und Rhone – verbunden und doch getrennt? Entre Rhin et Rhône – liens et ruptures (Lenzburg, 2002), 34-40. Haas, Walter, “Sprachgeschichtliche Grundlagen”, in Robert Schläpfer (ed.), Die viersprachige Schweiz (Zurich: Ex Libris, 1984), 21-70. Jarren, O tfried, and Sarcinelli, Ulrich, and Saxer, Ulrich (ed.), Politische Kommunikation in der demokratischen Gesellschaft. Ein Handbuch (Wiesbaden: Westdeutscher Verlag, 1998). RO GER BLUM

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Mader, Luzius, “Der verfassungsrechtliche Rahm en des Sprachenrechts des Bundes”, Babylonia, 4 (2001), 15-22. Marr, Mirko , and Wyss, Vinzenz, and Blum, Ro ger, and Bo nfadelli, Heinz, Journalisten in der Schweiz. Eigenschaften, Einstellungen, Einflüsse (Constance: UVK, 2001). Meier, Werner, and Bo nfadelli, Heinz, and Schanne, Michael, M edienlandschaft Schweiz im Umbruch. Vom öffentlichen Kulturgut zur elektronischen Kioskware (= Nationales Forschungsprogram m 21: Kulturelle Vielfalt und nationale Identität) (Basel: Helbing & Lichtenhahn, 1993). Sanguin, André-Lo uis, La Suisse. Essai de géographie politique (Gap: Editions O phrys, 1983). Schläpfer, Ro bert (ed.), Die viersprachige Schweiz (Zurich: Ex Libris, 1984). Steiner, Jürg (ed.), Das politische System der Schweiz, w ith the collaboration of Erw in Bucher, Daniel Frei and Leo Schürm ann (Munich: Piper, 1971). Tendo n, Stephane, “La frontière des langues à Marly : L’influence de CIBA”, in Forum Helveticum (ed.), Z wischen Rhein und Rhone – verbunden und doch getrennt? Entre Rhin et Rhône – liens et ruptures (Lenzburg, 2002), 170-73. Widmer, Jean, “Langues et cultures des m édias”, M edienwissenschaft Schweiz, 2 (1994), 2-4. Widmer, Jean, “Randbemerkungen zur sprachlich segmentierten Ö ffentlichkeit in der Schw eiz”, M edienwissenschaft Schweiz, 2 (1996) – 1 (1997), 2-6. Wuerth, Andreas, Die SRG und ihr Integrationsauftrag. Wandel – Gründe – Konsequenzen (Bern: Haupt, 1999).

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Re co m m e ndatio ns • Sw iss parliam ent, Governm ent, the Sw iss Broadcasting Com pany (SRG) and the Sw iss New s Agency (SDA) should m aintain the good m edia service for traditional linguistic groups, w ho are better provided w ith m edia that their size dem ands. • Sw iss electronic and print m edia should integrate the different language groups better, e.g. w ith m ore com m on program m es or exchanged articles. • Radio and television in the Germ an part should not segregate language groups by using Germ an dialects, but integrate them by using High Germ an in im portant political and cultural program m es. • Sw iss parliam ent, Governm ent and m edia should integrate m igrants better by creating specific program m es in national broadcast and print products and by prom oting m igrants’ exile and hom e m edia. • Journalists should w ork for a lim ited tim e in another linguistic area or w ith a m igrants’ new spaper or radio.

RECO MMENDATIO NS

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C O NFERENCE PRO GRAMME

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162

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List o f Participants Angelko va, Ljubica Editor-in-Chief TV Tera, Bitola ljubica@tera.com.mk

Hirsch, Mario Journalist LĂŤtzebuerger Land mhirsch@land.lu

Angheli, Natalia Dr. Senior Consultant Independent Journalism Center, Chisinau nangheli@ijc.iatp.md

Ho utsch, Roland Journalist Luxem burger Wort Roland.houtsch@wort.lu

Blum, Roger Prof. Dr. Head of the Institute of Mass Com m unication Studies of the University of Bern roger.blum@imw.unibe.ch Busch, Rom an Head of the O SCE Section Sw iss Federal Departm ent for Foreign Affairs roman.busch@eda.admin.ch Catho mas, Bernard Dr. Director Rom ansh Radio and Television RTR, Chur bernard.cathomas@rtr.ch Chiurcciu, Vitali Journalist Journalism Center, Com rat Kiurkchu@mail.md D uve, Freim ut O SCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Vienna joanna.jinks@osce.org El-Kho uri, Lydia Project Manager Media Diversity Institute, London lydia@media-diversity.org Halas, Enike Editor-in-Chief Radio 021/Multiradio, Novi Sad enike@radio021.co.yu 164

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O F PARTICIPANTS

Karlsreiter, Ana Dr. Project Manager, O ffice of the O SCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Vienna ana.karlsreiter@osce.org Ko hn. Rom ain Director of Media Desk Luxem bourg romain.kohn@mediadesk.etat.lu Kunsemueller, Andrea Spokesw om an Federation of North-Schlesw igers presse@bdn.dk Levando vschi, Tatjana Deputy Chief, Departm ent of Interethnic Relations of the Governm ent of the Republic of Moldova language@moldtelecom.md Marko vic, Jelena Adviser Federal Ministry for Ethnic and National Minorities minority@eunet.yu Mehmeti, Ibrahim Director of Media Program m es Search for Com m on Ground, Skopje ibrahim@sfcg.org.mk Mitro vic, Jelena Co-ordinator for Migration and Gender Q uestions Radio RaBe, Bern jelena@rabe.ch

Mo rresi, Enrico Journalist and President of the Foundation Council of the Sw iss Press Council enrico.morresi@freesurf.ch Musliu, Iliasa Co-ordinator, Media Departm ent of the O SCE Mission in Serbia and Montenegro imusliu@yahoo.com Niko lic, Bo ban Developm ent Consultant RTV Nisava, Nis nisava@eunet.yu O chsner, Andrea Assistant, Institute of Mass Com m unication Studies of the University of Bern andrea.ochsner@imw.unibe.ch

Salvisberg, Roland Program m e Co-ordinator South-East Europe Sw iss Federal Departm ent for Foreign Affairs roland.salvisberg@eda.admin.ch Sko pljanac, Nena Assistant, Institute of Mass Com m unication Studies of the University of Bern Program m e Director, Medienhilfe nena.skopljanac@imw.unibe.ch Spaso vska, Katerina Local Media Co-ordinator IREX, Skopje macpromedia_ks@yahoo.com Stucki, Frederik Director Canal 3, Biel/Bienne fstucki@canal3.ch

Po po ska, Vesna Head of Sector Agency of Inform ation, Skopje poposka@sinf.gov.mk

Trajko ska, Zaneta Executive Director Macedonian Institute for Media, Skopje zanat@mim.org.mk

Po po vic, Tanja Co-ordinator, International Media Fund Project Manager, Medienhilfe tpo@medienhilfe.ch

Vuo kko , Hanna Adviser, O ffice of the O SCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Vienna hanna.vuokko@osce.org

Rakic, Marina Journalist Beta New s Agency, Belgrade mar@beta-press.com Ranft, NoĂŤm i Assistant, Institute of Mass Com m unication Studies of the University of Bern noemi.ranft@imw.unibe.ch Ro sca, Victor Program m e Director Center for Prom otion of Tolerance and Pluralism tolerant@moldtelecom.md

Weiler, Anne AttachĂŠe, Inform ation and Press Service of the Governm ent of Luxem bourg anne.weiler@sip.etat.lu Yaneva, Maria Strategic Developm ent Director Media Developm ent, Sofia myaneva@mediacenterbg.org Zlatev, O gnian President, South East European Netw ork for Professionalization of the Media, Sofia ozlatev@mediacenterbg.org LIST

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The Autho rs Natalia Angheli, PhD – has a background in linguistics and journalism . She received her undergraduate degree in English Language and Literature from Moldova State University, a Masters of Arts in Journalism from the University of Missouri, Colum bia, and a doctorate in Linguistics from the University of Bucharest, Rom ania. She has been a university teacher of English, a reporter for the Associated Press and has contributed to other Western new s outlets. Currently she is w orking as senior consultant at the Independent Journalism Center Moldova, a leading m edia developm ent NGO in the country. Pro f. Ro ger Blum – is a professor of Com m unication Science and director of this departm ent at the University of Bern, Sw itzerland. He holds a PhD in History and Public Law from the University of Basel and w as a m em ber of Basel Canton Parliam ent. As a journalist, he w orked for the daily Luzerner N euste N achrichten and then for the Tages-Anzeiger in Zurich, w here he w as on the board of the editor-inchief. From 1991-2001 he w as chairm an of the Sw iss Press Council. Since 1999, he has been chairm an of the Sw iss Com m unication and Media Science Association. Milo D o r – w as born in Budapest in 1923, the son of a Serbian doctor. He spent his youth in Belgrade, w here in 1942, after the occupation of Belgrade, he w as arrested as a Resistance fighter, tortured and finally deported to Vienna. He stayed on in Vienna after the w ar and becam e active as a w riter, publisher and journalist. His publications include num erous novels, novellas, anthologies (Shots from Sarajevo, The Raikov Saga etc.) and translations of Serbian poetry. Since the disintegration of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Dor has published the collection of essays, Farewell, Yugoslavia (1993) and released the anthology, To Err is Human and Patriotic: Serbian Aphorisms from the War (1994), in w hich he focuses on the cruelties of the civil w ar, and propounds a m essage of peace and hum anity. Milo Dor has been the recipient of num erous literary prizes. In Novem ber 1998, he received the Andreas Gryphius Prize of the City of Jena. Freimut D uve – a Germ an politician, hum an rights activist, w riter and journalist w as elected the O SCE Representative on Freedom of the Media by the O SCE Ministerial Council in Decem ber 1997. He w as born in 1936 in Würzburg and received his education in Modern History, Sociology, Political Science and English Literature at the University 166

T HE AUTHO RS

of Ham burg. He w orked as an editor at the Row ohlt publishing house and w as a Social Dem ocratic m em ber of the Bundestag (Germ an Parliam ent) from 1980 to 1998, representing his city, Ham burg. Ana Karlsreiter, PhD – studied Political Sciences, History of South and Southeast Europe and Slavic Philology at Ludw ig-Maxim iliansUniversity, Munich, Germ any. She is currently assistant research officer at the O ffice of the O SCE Representative on Freedom of the Media. Ro main Ko hn – is the director of MEDIA Desk Luxem bourg, an inform ation bureau of the European Union. He is a journalist by training and w orked for several years for different Luxem bourgish and foreign papers. His publications include a study on the m edia politics in the Grand Duchy and he is currently a radio colum nist on international m edia developm ents for the public station Radio 100,7. He is a publisher of the m onthly m agazine Forum. Andrea O chsner – holds an MA in English Philology, Sociology and Media Studies. Since 2002 she has been w orking as assistant at the Institute of Mass Com m unication Studies, University of Bern, Sw itzerland, and since 2003 as assistant at the English Departm ent, University of Basel, Sw itzerland. Tanja Po po vic – holds an MA in Modern History, European Ethnology, and Com m unication and Media Science. Since 2002 she has been w orking as project co-ordinator in Macedonia for Medienhilfe, a Sw iss non-governm ental organization. In this function she is also co-ordinator for the International Media Fund, an inform al association of seven organizations w orking on m edia assistance and developm ent. Nena Sko pljanac – is a political scientist. She com pleted her postgraduate studies in Political Theory and Social Science Methodology at the University of Belgrade, Serbia. From 1996-2003 she w orked as a research assistant at the Institute of Mass Com m unication Studies at Bern University, Sw itzerland. Since 1996 she has been w orking as a program m e director for Medienhilfe, a Sw iss-based non-governm ental organization, w here she is responsible for m edia analysis. Many of her articles have been published in m agazines and she is also co-editor of the book M edia & War, w hich analyses the m edia situation in Croatia and Serbia in the early 1990s. T HE AUTHO RS

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