OPATIJA MEETING OF MEDIA REPRESENTATIVES FROM CROATIA, SERBIA ENDS

OPATIJA, Oct 22 (Hina) - A two-day meeting of directors and editors- in-chief of leading media companies from Serbia and Croatia ended in the northern Adriatic resort of Opatija with participants agreeing that the information system must serve citizens and public, and not authorities and political parties. #L# The meeting of media representatives, the second of its kind since 1994, was organised by the South-East European Media Organisation (SEEMO) and the Croatian Journalists Association's international centre for education of journalists, with financial assistance from the Austrian foreign ministry. The participants discussed their experience regarding media and journalism in transition societies, media legislation, and state control of public media. They pointed to new forms of pressure on journalists, especially in private media, by media and capital owners, and advertisers. They were unanimous that professionalism is the best form of protection against any form of pressure. The SEEMO coordinator for Serbia, Veran Matic, described as useful information on voluntary insurance and solidarity funds for journalists in Croatia. He said that one third of reporters in Serbia had neither pension nor health insurance. The SEEMO coordinator for Croatia, Ante Gavranovic, spoke about the importance of the journalistic ethic and responsibility for public speech and the culture of dialogue. Commenting on international organisations often setting transition countries standards which are not respected in developed democracies, a representative of the OSCE Mission to Croatia, Alessandro Fracassetti, said it would be useful for the media in transition countries to follow rules from international conventions, which were based on the best experience. He also stated that the degree of media freedom would gain importance as transition countries drew closer to the European Union. (hina) rml