BEOGRAD, 20.12.2018. – Sloboda medija u Srbiji je na vrlo niskom niovu i u kontinuiranom je padu poslednjih godina, jedan je od zaključka danas predstavljenog istraživanja Nezavisnog udruženja novinara Srbije (NUNS) u kojem se ocenjuje i da državni zvaničnici ne razumeju ulogu novinara u društvu i da retko i selektivno osudjuju napade na predstavnike medija.

Istraživanje “Indikatori za nivo slobode medija i bezbednosti novinara 2018”, predstavljeno je na skupu u Beogradu kojem je prisustvovao i državni sekretar u Ministarstvu kulture i informisanja Aleksandar Gajović koji je kazao da je bezbednost novinara u Srbiji normativno dobro garantovana Ustavom i medijskim zakonima i da njegovo Ministarstvo osudjuje svaki napad na predstavnike medija.

Autorka istraživanja Marija Vukasović navela je da su od početka godine u NUNS-ovoj bazi zabeležena 93 slučaja napada i pritisaka na novinare, ali da taj broj nije konačan i da rade na još dva slučaja.

Ukazala je i da je od 2016. zabeleženo 70 slučajeva pritisaka i napada na novinare od strane javnih funkcionera i da je najteža situacija na lokalu.

U istraživanju je navedeno da novinari dugo rade u teškim uslovima i da su pod stalnim pritiscima koji više nisu direktni, već da “novinari unapred znaju šta je dozvoljeno pisati, a šta nije”.

Aleksandar Gajović je više puta ponovio da je “prošlo vreme kada se razgovaralo pesnicima” i da se protivi svakoj vrsti upotrebe sile.

On nije odgovorio konkretno na pitanje da li novinari mogu da očekuju više od verbalnih osuda pretnji i napada, a upitan da li će država pomoći novinaru Milanu Jovanoviću kome je nedavno zapaljena kuća u Vrčinu odgovorio je da se u Ministarstvu nije razmišljalo u tom pravcu.

“Nismo razmišljali u tom pravcu, ali to je dobra sugestija, videćemo šta ćemo”, kazao je Gajović.

Prema njegovim rečima, takvi napadi na novinare dokaz su i da su medijski zakoni treba da budu strožiji i da se može razmišljati o njihovim izmenama.

Ocenio je i da svi zajedno treba da se bore za veću bezbednost novinara i dodao da je osnovan vladin Koordinacion tim i Komisija za rešavanje ubistava novinara i da “treba biti strpljiv i da će rezultati doći s verom u istinu”.

Komentarišući podatak da je zabeleženo 70 slučajeva pritisaka i napada na novinare od strane javnih funkcionera, Gajović je kazao da je jednom prilikom od šefice pregovaračkog tima sa EU Tanje Miščević čuo da je zabeleženo 300 napada na novinare, a da je samo sedam ili osam procesuirano.

“I mene je šokirala ta nesrazmera, ali ni policija ni tužilaštvo nisu našli osnov biće kriminala i odbacili su takve prijave. Treba razmišljati i o tome”, kazao je Gajović.

Šef Misije Oebsa u Srbiji Andrea Oricio kazao je da je slučaj paljenja kuće novinara Jovanovića znak za uzbunu i da je to primer na kome se može posmatrati put koji će Srbija da izabere.

On je naveo da novinari u Srbiji “stalno plaćaju visoku cenu”, da nisu rešena ubistva novinara još iz 90-tih godina, a da zločini protiv predstavnika medija “ne smeju da ostanu nekažnjeni”.

“Političari i svi drugi  subjekti ne smeju da zastrašuju novinare i moraju u svakom trenutku da osudjuju nasilje, to je veoma važno za jedan otvoreni dijalog”, rekao je Oricio.

Pohvalio je što se radi na izradi nove medijske strategije i naglasio da je veoma važno da u proces njene izrade budu uključena sva relevatna novinarska udruženja, jer prema njegovim rečima strategija “nije totem, već alat” za bolje medijsko okruženje.

“Čini se da vlast deluje hitrije, postoji napredak, ali ima još dosta posla. Moramo ovaj proces da učinimo nepovratnim i dodjemo do konkretnih rezultata”, rekao je Oricio.

Zamenik predsednika NUNS-a i urednik Kikindskih Željko Bodrožić kazao da je niska sloboda medija posledica uticaja vlasti na medije i uredjivačku politiku”, zbog čega je neophodno unaprediti saradnju sa institucijama vlasti.

Dodao je i da projektno sufinansiranje medija treba unaprediti, kako bi ono bilo jasno, odgovorno i transparentno, kao i da su neophodne izmene Zakona o elektronskim medijima kako bi se povećala odgovornost Regulatornog tela za elektronske medije (REM) i mogućio veći uticaj civilnog društva u njegovom radu.

Celokupno istraživanje NUNS-a biće objavljeno na srpskom i engleskom jeziku na sajtu safejournalists.net.

SKOPJE, 20.12.2018 – Labor rights are not forbidden topic in the Macedonian media, but still, with a short search on the internet portals of Macedonian media we can conclude that this topic has been treated rarely and superficially. Most of the articles connected with the labor rights in Macedonia are reports from press-conferences of state institutions, trade unions or non-governmental organizations. Rarely one can read, listen or watch an in-depth analysis or investigative piece with the labor rights as a main topic, despite the fact that we continuously hear information about breach of labor rights in Macedonia.

Logically, one question pops up: What are the reasons for this? Why journalists and editors are not more interested in this topic which in a state with poor economy and high rates of unemployment should continuously be a subject of analysis and investigation.

One of the possible answers to this question is connected with the fact that in the last decade the media sphere in Macedonia was completely changed in negative direction. Digitalization, internet and social networks changed the way the audience/public perceives journalism. The traditional way of selecting, preparing, processing and publishing the news nowadays is a rarity. The most important things today are the speed, number of posts, clicks, likes, shares and no resources are spared for reaching high numbers, because exactly this brings profit for the media. Analytical, investigative and critical journalism which requires serious resources, both financial and human, does not brings the needed profit for functioning of the media. This means that in the race for profits and increase of the viewership and readership throws behind the basic journalistic principles, decreases the possibility of keeping the professional standards and in the same time puts the truth aside. With the truth aside, the public interest is also neglected, and exactly protecting the public interest is the core of journalism as a profession.

All mentioned above, pushed by the decade long misuse of most of the media through “buying” their loyalty with budget resources and turning them into instruments of the state propaganda contributed for drastic decrease of the quality of the journalism. This on the other hand contributed to decrease of the audience trust in the media.

You can read the whole text HERE.

PODGORICA, 20.12.2018. – On January 15 The High Court in Podgorica will make a judgement on the alleged members of the group charged with the international smuggling of drugs in 2015, including journalist Jovo Martinović, and headed by Duško Martinović. The prosecution and the defense presented the closing arguments at this week’s hearing.

Journalist Jovo Martinovic, who is one of the suspects, who spent 14 months in detention, said in his closing remarks that he had been doing his journalistic work from the first day to the moment of the arrest.

“There is no mention of any drugs or anything related to illegal activities from the intercepted talks, but my desire to finish the French production film first. All my communication with Duško Martinović was done through a regular telephone line because I did not do anything illegal or any politically sensitive story about Montenegro”, said Martinović.

He also stated that the main prosecution was Namik Selmanović, who was granted the status of associate witness at the proposal of the Prosecution. The witness associate gave three statements, one before the prosecutor of 2015, who repeated it from word to word before this Trial Chamber in 2017. When the cross-examination came to light, the witness either did not remember or did not want to answer the questions.

Martinović emphasized that he thinks that the Special State Prosecutor’s Office “calculated and consciously forgave the drug dealer for his criminal offense in exchange for untruthful testimony, not against the organizers of a criminal group against whom they already have plenty of evidence, but against the inexcusable and non-conformist Western journalists.”

“I did not have absolutely no motive to go into any illegal activities, because of my personal beliefs about crime  against which I have been fighting my whole life as a journalist, and because of all the dangers to which I was exposed”, he said is at the end of the appeal.

PRISTINA, 19.12.2018 – In the annual conference, the Association of Journalists of Kosovo published its 2018 report on “Indicators on the level of media freedom and journalists’ safety”.

The report presents the findings about the legislation and challenges in practice, the journalists’ position in newsrooms and journalists’ safety.

The 2018 report stresses that in general Kosovo provides main safeguards for protection of media and freedom of expression but their implementation remains weak. During this year, the legislative body has worked on five draft-laws, some of them have already passed, and some are still in the process. The draft-law on public broadcaster is expected to be approved soon which would allow RTK to have sustainable financing mechanism.

The interviewed journalists for the report stated that journalists’ continue to be in weak economic position, including lack of working contracts, low salaries and in some cases there were violations of labour law by the employers. Report stresses that Kosovo is the only country in the region that lacks a trade union that would represent the interests of all journalists and other media professionals.

During 2018, AJK registered 16 cases including two physical attacks, a property damage and 13 cases of death threats and verbal threats against journalists. During this year, police issued a criminal report against an individual and an indictment also was issued against one individual. Both have threatened journalists.

The methodology of the research included qualitative interviews with 7 journalists, qualitative document analysis such as research studies and analyses produced by other research organizations, academia, NGOs, individual researches, as well as official statistical data requested from public institutions or collected from available websites or from other published sources.

Panellists of conference were Jan Braathu, chief of OSCE mission to Kosovo, Aferdita Bytyci, president of the Basic Court in Pristina and Riza Shillova, director of investigation department from Kosovo police.

Jan Braathu stressed that the report has tackled some of the main issues not related only to journalists but to everyone interested about media freedom. He mentioned also the cases of attacks against journalists that were registered during this year.

“16 cases of different attacks against journalists that happened during 2018, it’s not a big number but it is of concern, therefore a better working environment should be created for journalists. This can be achieved y ensuring better cooperation with institutions of justice and security,” said Braathu.

Aferdita Bytyci said that the Basic Court in Pristina will continue to have the cooperation with all media, including an immediate action to those that obstruct the work of journalist.

Riza Shillova said that Kosovo police is making efforts to deepen the cooperation with media as they should stand as partners.

Author of report, Petrit Collaku stated that justice and security institutions have move forward by creating their own mechanism of protection for journalists but the chain of the three institutions, police, prosecution and courts should function continuously. He stated that AJK will continue to further deepen the cooperation with institutions of justice and security.

This is the third and last report within the three year regional project “Western Balkans Regional Platform for Advocating Media Freedom and Journalists’ Safety”, financed by European Commission.

Nezavisno udruženje novinara Srbije u četvrtak 20. decembra organizuje konferenciju Sloboda medija i bezbednost novinara u 2018. godini na kojoj će biti predstavljeni ključni nalazi godišnjeg istraživanja NUNS-a  Indikatori za nivo slobode medija i bezbednosti novinara u Srbiji – 2018.

Rad na konferenciji će se odvijati na plenarnim sesijama i kroz radne grupe, a teme koje će biti

obrađene u radnim grupama uključuju:

 Regulatorno telo za elektronske medije – moderatorka Maja Divac, novinarka

 Pozicija novinara u redakciji – moderatorka Tanja Jakobi, novinarka

 Zaštita i bezbednost novinara – moderator Miloš Stojković, advokat

 Lokalni i regionalni mediji – moderator Vukašin Obradović, novinar

Cilj radionica je da se doprinese iznalaženju potencijalnih rešenja imajući u vidu izradu, donošenje i

implementaciju Strategije razvoja sistema javnog informisanja u RS do 2023. godine.

KO: Andrea Oricio, šef Misije OEBS u Srbiji

Aleksandar Gajović, državni sekretar za medije u Republici Srbiji

Slaviša Lekić, predsednik Nezavisnog udruženje novinara Srbije

Marija Vukasović, istraživačica i pravnica NUNS-a

ŠTA: Jednodnevna konferencija Sloboda medija i bezbednost novinara – 2018

KADA: Četvrtak, 20. decembar, 10:30h

GDE: Hotel M, Bulevar Oslobođenja 56a, 11000 Beograd

KONTAKT: Dragana Novaković, tel: 066 8822 005, e-mail: [email protected]

Zvanični jezici konferencije su engleski i srpski, obezbeđen je simultani prevod na plenarnim sesijama

PODGORICA, 19.12.2018. – Trade Union of Media of Montenegro (SMCG) presented the first research on working conditions in digital media in Montenegro, which showed that the average salary in these media is 362 euros, which is significantly less than income in traditional media.

The research “New Media – Old Problems”, as Bojana Laković Konatar said, covered 40 media.
“We have established that there are a number of influential portals that are not registered, so they are added to the list of media to be interviewed. Thus, a total of 40 media received identical questionnaires, prepared for the needs of the project”, said Laković Konatar.
Despite the numerous reminders, only 16 media leaders answered the questionnaire. A large number of private media that have portals, which, according to SMCG information, obtained from employees in these media, have a worse economic and professional position of journalists, didn’t answer the questionnaire. Some of the leading media did not provide answers to questions.
“Representatives of the Montenegrin media often point out that they can not obtain official data from institutions and representatives of the authorities, which conceal information of public importance. However, when those same media find themselves in the situation that they need to share the information they have, they behave exactly as they call it”, said the president of SMCG, Marijana Camović. She said that SMCG’s inability to get basic information concerning the working conditions in the portals, talks about the closeness of Montenegrin media to share information that should be available.
“This also speaks about the very problematic approach of the media owners who hide information, and by the establishment of the media they have decided to earn and live from getting and disseminating information. For the SMCG this is a problem because we do not have the ability to look at the overall picture”, she said.
The research showed that there are a total of 92 employees in 16 digital media outlets in Montenegro. The majority of them are journalists, so the survey showed that there are 70 of them in the media. Less than half of the employees in digital media are those younger than 35 (31.5%). This situation can be explained by the fact that the majority of the media that participated in the survey has a different type of media (radio, television or newspaper), and that the same people work for all the editorial offices. Such is the situation in 60% of cases, where the editorial offices of several media are not separated. The research showed that in all digital media in Montenegro, a total of 83 employees, or even 90% of them, have a labor contract.
The survey also showed that the average salary at the digital media level is 362 euros. Salaries of journalists working in portals are slightly higher than the salaries of other employees, so journalists average earnings of about 370 euros a month. However, in comparison with salaries in other media (where the average salary is usually between 400-500 euros), as well as compared to the average salary at the state level (510 euros), it is clear that employees in this media are in a worse economic position.

SMCG Vice President Milena Bubanja Obradović, the editor of Radio Berane, said that there was a decentralization of the media space, so small media can be influential and this success depends exclusively on their professionalism and dedication.

“It’s a completely new field, which, in addition to a different mode of communication, entails different knowledge needed to make this communication successful. It is important to systematically deal with the situation in online media and the position that journalists have in them”, said Bubanja Obradović. She added that in the case of Radio Berane, this topic is especially important at this time when the new set of media laws is planned, and that the survey conducted by the SMCG has shown that the work in the portals is exhausting and insufficiently paid, but also unregulated for more levels.
SMCG also presents examples of good practice and creative approach to the journalist, and discussed with Milena Bubanja Obradović, as well as journalist Darko Bulatović, who is the pioneer of mobile journalism in Montenegro and the young and award-winning journalist of the Fos Media portal, Danilo Ajković.
The report “New Media – Old Problems” presents the findings of the research conducted within the project “Union to Union – Digital media organizing campaign”. The project has been implemented for the fourth consecutive year with the help of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and the Swedish Journalists’ Union.

Вкупно 80 новинари биле убиени годинава, 348 се во затвор, а 60 се заложници, покажа годишниот извештај на Репортери без граници. Тој бележи најголем степен на непријателство кон медиумските работници.

Бројките се зголемени во сите категории. Убиствата, затворањето, заложништвото и насилните исчезнувања се зголемија. Новинарите никогаш порано не биле подложени на насилство како во 2018 година, стои во извештајот.

Бројката на убиени новинари се зголемила за 15 проценти – од 55 во 2017 до 63 година годинава, иако овој број се намалуваше во текот на претходните три години.

Убиството на саудискиот колумнист Џамал Кашоги и младиот словачки новинар Јан Куцијак покажа до каде се подготвени да одат непријателите на слободата на печатот. Повеќе од половина од новинарите се намерно убиени во 2018 година.

„Насилството врз новинарите годинава достигна невидени нивоа и ситуацијата е критична”, вели генералниот секретар на „Репортери без граници“, Кристоф Делоар.

„Изразената омраза кон новинарите, а понекогаш и отворено прокламирана од бескрупулозните политичари, верски лидери и бизнисмени, има трагични последици на терен и се рефлектира во ова вознемирувачко зголемување на насилството врз новинарите“.

„Засилено од социјалните мрежи, кои имаат голема одговорност во овој поглед, овие изрази на омраза го легитимизираат насилството, а со тоа го поткопуваат новинарството и демократијата, по малку, секој ден”, додаде Делоар.

Зголемен бројот на притворени новинари или заложници

Авганистан е најсмртоносната земја во светот за новинарите во 2018 година, каде 15 загинаа. По него следуваа Сирија, со 11 загинати, и Мексико, најсмртоносната земја што е надвор од конфликтна зона, со деветмина новинари убиени во 2018 година. Фаталното убиство на пет вработени во весникот „Капитал Газет” во јуни ги вброи Соединетите Држави во најсмртоносните земји.

Бројот на уапсени новинари низ светот, 348, е зголемен од 326 во ова време лани. Како и во 2017 година, повеќе од половина од затворените новинари се задржани во само пет земји: Кина, Иран, Саудиска Арабија, Египет и Турција. Кина и понатаму останува најголем затвореник во светот на новинари, со 60 моментално кои се наоѓаат зад решетки, од кои три четвртини се непрофесионални новинари.

Бројот на новинари заложници во моментов е 60, или 11 отсто повисока бројка од лани, кога имаше 54. Сите освен еден се задржани во три земји од Блискиот Исток: Сирија, Ирак и Јемен. Бројката вклучува и шест странски новинари.

Малку се знае за судбината на овие луѓе, освен за јапонскиот новинар Џумпеј Јасуда, кој беше ослободен по три години заробеништво во Сирија. Украински новинар сè уште се наоѓа во затвор во самопрогласената „Донецка народна република”, каде властите го обвинуваат за шпионирање. „Репортери без граници“ регистрираше и три нови случаи на исчезнување на новинари во 2018 година, две во Латинска Америка и едно во Русија.