FIRST INTER-REGIONAL JOURNALISTS' WORKSHOP IN OSIJEK ENDS

OSIJEK, Dec 2 (Hina) - A ceremony marking the end of the first round of the inter-regional journalistic workshop "Osijek 2000" was held in Osijek on Saturday. Over the past three months, 30 reporters from Bosnia-Herzegovina, Yugoslavia and Croatia participated in the workshop, which was organised by the independent media agency Alternative Information Network (AIM), under the auspices of the Croatian Ministry of European Integration and the Croatian Helsinki Committee for the Protection of Human Rights (HHO). This is a unique project of education of young reporters from south- east Europe, said the president of the Croatian Journalists' Association (HND), Dragutin Lucic, adding peace in the region enabled such meetings. This obliges us to develop a good neighbourly cooperation in which the freedom of the media is very important. It also certainly leads toward Europe, to which we all aspire, he added. Presidential advisor Ivan Dekanic congratulated the participants on behalf of President Stipe Mesic on "opening a process of cherishing multimedia differences." It is important that such meetings are held in war-hit towns such as Osijek and Vukovar, because that, too, is a contribution to Croatia's admission to the European Union and NATO, Dekanic said. The head of the project, Svetozar Sarkanjac, said he was not misled by unrealistic ideas that the participants in the workshop could influence or change overnight many undemocratic developments in their media environments. "We are certain, though, that they will become the core which is necessary for the creation of the critical mass which will initiate positive democratic changes," he said. Osijek Mayor Zlatko Kramaric and his colleague from Tuzla, northern Bosnia-Herzegovina, Selim Beslagic, greeted the participants as well. Lecturers at the workshop included Assistant Foreign Minister Nenad Prelog, Microsoft Croatia director Goran Radman and renown reporters from Zagreb, Novi Sad and Sarajevo. (hina) rml