Training seminar for private media in Croatia

ZAGREB, 4 December 2000 - A training seminar designed to provide managers of private radio and television stations in Croatia with concrete managerial skills, organized by the OSCE, ended today in Lovran. Up to 27 managers and editors from mainly local and regional private broadcasters attended the two-day training session, which was led by a broadcasting management specialist from the Thomson Foundation, an internationally-known media training, non-profit organization.

The topics of the training ranged from editorial independence and editorial ethics and practices, to programming and audience research, to designing, equipping and operating an efficient station. The leader of the seminar, John Prescott Thomas, used his long managerial experience in both the BBC and regional commercial television as a point of departure for imparting concrete skills.

He stressed the importance of independent media in a democracy and pointed out that "democracy is not about agreement but how to manage disagreement; in this sense, the media has a great role to play in reflecting the widest range of opinions in society" said Prescott Thomas.

Commenting on the seminar most media representatives thought they would bring back to their radio or television stations at least one concrete skill. Some of the participants, while pointing out the difference in the situation of media in Croatia compared to western countries, thought that the training of local and regional media should be a priority in advance of the upcoming local elections.

The OSCE mission to Croatia organized the event in the framework of its long-standing objective to promote and assist in the development of the private broadcasting sector in Croatia.

For more information, please contact OSCE Spokesperson, Alessandro Fracassetti, OSCE Mission to Croatia, tel.: +385 1 3096 620, fax: + 385 1 3096 297, e-mail: alessandro.fracassetti@oscecro.org ; www.osce.org/croatia