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Media in election process

Workshop in Nis

26 03 2008  Nis – BIRN, together with the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s mission in Serbia organised a one day workshop on the role of the media during elections for journalists from southern Serbia.

Journalists from Dimitrovgrad, Pirot, Nis, Medvedja, Presevo and Bujanovac took part in the event.

Rade Veljanovski from Belgrade’s Faculty of Political Science gave an initial presentation on the legal framework and the role of the media during elections. He gave a general overview of Serbian media law in the context of the election process and opened the debate. The participants said in reality the situation is very confused, adding the position of journalists is low given the privatisation process of the local media.

How to use electoral opinion polls was the subject of the Djordje Vukovic’s presentation. The expert from the Centre of Free Elections and Democracy, which monitors Serbian votes, explained the meaning of the polls and how they are produced. He warned journalists to be careful with the results of the polls and to request the source to find out who ordered the survey.

In the afternoon session, Zoran Stanojevic, editor from the Serbian Broadcasting Company debated with participants on how to achieve accurate electiom coverage, both on television and the printed media. The journalists from local media were interested to hear his experience from various interviews with key politicians in Serbia.

Radovan Kupres, a media expert from advertising agency Luna TBWA, shed light on how electoral campaigns are produced. He discussed what messages one can derive from political campaigns and the connection between political and other market-based campaigns.