ZAGREB SUMMIT: BEE-HIVE, FRANTIC ATMOSPHERE IN PRESS CENTRE

ZAGREB, Nov 24 (Hina) - Hundreds of foreign and domestic reporters and cameramen on Friday swarmed the area of the Zagreb Summit press- centre, battling more or less successfully with elements hampering their reporting from the biggest political gathering ever held in the Croatian capital. #L# The bee-hive atmosphere, the bustling crowds, reporters trying to outshout each other while speaking on their cellular phones and the frantic search for summit documents and participants' speeches marked the day which for about a thousand accredited reporters from Croatia and abroad started early this morning with attempts to make their way through the special traffic regime in the city. Until the last minute before the beginning of the Zagreb Summit, a line of edgy reporters was waiting to pass a metal detector at one of the entrances to the press centre. The small working area, the search for the translations of speeches in French, Italian and English, and the unbearable heat in the basement section of the press centre were only some of the challenges the media was faced with. Some were more and some less successful in conquering hundreds of metres of cables on the floors of the corridors in the press centre and the slippery marble stairs. The picture of desks in the central entrance hall is an impressive image of an exhibition of the latest models of lap-tops. To compensate for the lack of working area, the reporters, as usual for all large international gatherings, have occupied the stairs and the floor of the basement section of the press centre. The fact that the fridge of the press-centre's sponsor Coca-Cola was emptied very slowly on Friday and that free seats could be found in the 'Gymnasium' coffee shop, which is on the museum's premises, offer the best proof of the frantic working atmosphere. Most complaints refer to the lack of space, poor phone lines and problems in establishing the schedule of events. Leon Mangasarian from Germany's DPA, a long-time reporter from EU summits, complains also about the coffee shop: "It's difficult to get hold of some food." He said the criticism did not only refer to Croatia but to France as well, as the summit's co-organiser. Dutch reporters are satisfied with the organisation of the summit, but not with the stuffy basement section of the press centre and poor phone lines. However, a reporter for the Novi Sad magazine "Dnevnik", Milan Culibrk, says the press centre is "more than properly organised, with a number of phone lines which function without any problem." He objected only to the insufficient number of copies of the summit materials and the small working area. Unlike the press, TV crews, accommodated in a gymnasium, which is located on the museum's premises, mostly commend the organisers for the technical part of the job. BBC's Penny Richards says everything is 'fantastic'. The links are excellent, she says, and the crew is not complaining about the phone lines either. Germany's ARD complains only about uncomfortable chairs. The only complaint all TV crews Hina interviewed agree about is that the 'Gymnasium' coffee shop is too smoky. (hina) jn rml