ZENICA, 30.08.2018. – Professional, balanced and impartial reporting is the basic postulate for journalists and media to report during the pre-election campaign. Besides, it is important to ensure the proactive role of the Regulatory Agency for Communication and Press Council in this period, was concluded on a workshop on media reporting during the pre-election campaign, held today in Zenica.
„The educational function of the media is important so that citizens can make an informed decision while voting, but also to advocate for higher voter turnout“, emphasized Velida Kulenović, president of the BHJA journalists Club in Zenica.
Kulenović presented the main observations on media monitoring of previous election cycles in BiH, created based on monitoring s and researches that BHJA has been conducting together with other NGOs and representatives of the academic community continuously since 2002.
„The main problem is that public interest is not the main aspiration, but promotion of political subjects. Political debates and coping with candidates were an exception and not a rule, and there was an obvious lack of thematic reporting “, said Kulenović.
Elma Džaferović from the broadcasting sector of RAK reminded of media responsibility and the role of regulators in the pre-election period. She emphasized that no electoral subjects can have a privileged position in relation to another political entity in electoral programs.
„Journalists and hosts should not be allowed to have their own party affiliation in regular and special shows“, said Džaferović.
Journalist of the Centre for Investigative Journalism, Mirjana Popović recalled on databases created by CIN journalists and researchers. „The databases provided by CIN are documented and at all times can serve as a quality supplement to daily journalism“, said Popović, and added that the data base is available to journalists and to wider public through the web page www.cin.ba. This base could serve as a starting point and a credible source of data for creating critical media content that will be published during the pre-election campaign.
Participants of the workshop concluded that it is necessary to ensure a political debate by confronting candidates of different attitudes and opinions. In addition, it is necessary to efficiently resolve the issue of misuse and frequent occurrence of executive holders in pre-election programs. The media has been provided with an innovative approach to creating media content with the use of various communication platforms.
Workshop „Media reporting during the pre – election campaign“ gathered 20 media professionals from the Zenica – Doboj Canton, supported by EU and USAID, and implemented by the consortium of BHJA – Boram and Coalition Pod lupom.