Survey Background Environment, the media and transition of South Eastern Europe The mass media are crucial as a communication link between government, citizens, non-governmental organisations, businesses and other stakeholders in the environment. The public must be informed about environmental matters and environmental questions if there is to be true public participation in environmental decision-making. Members of the public who are aware of environmental concerns need more information if they are going to participate in decision-making in environmental matters. This is particularly true in the South Eastern European region. For many of the countries in the region, the period since 1989 was a painful transition from totalitarian rule to democracy and market economy. The former Yugoslav federation collapsed in a series of violent ethnic conflicts, causing human death, migration, poverty and economic devastation on a large scale. Among the other negative effects, the wars in the region had serious environmental consequences. Those countries in the region which stayed away from the war, passed through a slow transformation of their social, political and economic systems. In contrast with the late 1980s and the early 1990s, the end of the 1990s saw the environment being given little or no priority in comparison with the economic and politic challenges faced by South Eastern Europe. While the average citizen of a SEE country is likely to be highly concerned about the need to rebuild and develop the infrastructure of the region, many may not know enough about the complex environmental problems that must be addressed as development takes place. One of the best known ways to inform a broad section of the public quickly about developments or government activities that may affect them is through the mass media: newspapers, magazines, television, radio, billboards and the Internet. But in South Eastern Europe the mass media would often not carry sufficient and reliable information about the environment. The media in the region went through a major transformation themselves — from serving purely as tools for political and state propaganda, towards pluralism, objectivity and media independence. Political and economic pressure on the mass media throughout the transition was among the main reasons for the distorted, often manipulative, or even missing coverage of the environment. Problems of nature and health protection were often considered from diverse political, national, military, or economic perspectives, which prevented the public from understanding them properly and acting adequately on them. A clear example of this is the media coverage of the environmental pollution resulting from the bombing of Yugoslavia in the last phase of the war. In Yugoslavia, as a party to the conflict, the mass media would amplify the negative consequences, in support of the regime’s military propaganda. At the same time, in neighbouring countries which had associated with NATO, official state sources were trying to convince the media that there were no serious problems in order to avoid public concern. On both sides objective reporting was difficult and very few media publications achieved this. If they managed to be objective, this was mainly with the help of independent environmental experts. This revealed another factor that hindered quality environmental news reporting — the deficiency of information available to journalists. In order to prepare thoughtful, balanced news stories, journalists need access to reliable and timely information. But this was not easy to obtain due to the financial constraints of the media, the lack of independent sources, and the disabled communication in the region. Last and not least, the rapid expansion of the emerging mass media of South Eastern Europe adsorbed an influx of young and inexperienced journalists. News reporters and editors without proper qualifications would often be recruited. This resulted in a lack of professional skills and significantly deteriorated the quality of journalism in all fields, including the environment. This problem was reinforced by the common lack of interest in environmental issues in many news desks — where environmental events and topics were often allocated to the youngest and least experienced journalists. To address these problems, the REC is involved in the creation of a Regional Environmental Press Centre for South Eastern Europe. The REPC will be a network of country-based resource points to support quality environmental reporting in the mass media. It is based on the understanding that better informed, interconnected and qualified journalists will help to increase the knowledge of the general public. The REPC project will raise public awareness of environmental issues by encouraging journalists to increase their reporting on the environment and to improve the quality of their coverage in the countries of SEE. Objectives of the survey This needs assessment aims to provide the basis for the development of the Regional Environmental Press Centre for South Eastern Europe. The REPC will serve environmental journalists in the countries covered by the Stability Pact’s Regional Environmental Reconstruction Programme (REReP): Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, FYR Macedonia, Romania, Yugoslavia and Kosovo (territory currently under UN interim administration). Although no direct funding is provided, the project will also be open for environmental journalists from Moldova and Turkey. The analysis and results of the survey will serve to define the range of services to be provided to environmental journalists by the REPC in the following areas: raising the capacity of environmental journalists; enhancing information exchange between environmental journalists from the countries of the region; and building up contacts among journalists, NGOs and institutions in South Eastern European countries.

Home The Authors Introduction Background Methodology Technical Implementation Survey Results Conclusion Appendix 1: Questionnaire Appendix 2: Results Tables