UNESCO Supports Fair Media Coverage of Elections in Kosovo
12-10-2004 (Paris)
As Kosovo is heading towards elections end of October, Radio-Television Kosova (RTK), a public broadcasting company, has started broadcasting special election programmes with UNESCO’s support. The project aims at a fair, accurate, objective, balanced and comprehensive coverage of the election campaign, for all political parties and communities not favouring nor discriminating any political subject, party or citizen.
The one-month long election campaign will consist of special election programmes in regular news bulletins, twenty five debates in studios, seven town hall meetings in various towns of Kosovo, special debates organized by four ethnic community bulletins on RTK and special election web-pages on their Internet websites.
Special emphasis has been put on the community language programmes, which will be broadcast daily on the RTK satellite channel during the campaign in order reach the ethnic communities. In addition to Albanian, RTK broadcasts also in the four community languages Serbian, Bosnjak, Turkish and Roma.
The election-reporting project in Kosovo will be a starting point for a new wave of UNESCO’s support to the Western Balkans. UNESCO invited ideas and project proposals from possible partners in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo, Croatia, and Slovenia in an organized call for proposals in September 2004. As a result, UNESCO received nearly 30 proposals or ideas for future co-operation.
UNESCO will support the development of free and independent media and freedom of expression in Former Yugoslavia with approximately 400.000 USD during the coming years. The support will mainly target issues such as capacity building - both training in the development of professional journalism and media management and institution building, legislation, development professional associations and media institutions, and the promotion of regional networks.
Special emphasis has been put on the community language programmes, which will be broadcast daily on the RTK satellite channel during the campaign in order reach the ethnic communities. In addition to Albanian, RTK broadcasts also in the four community languages Serbian, Bosnjak, Turkish and Roma.
The election-reporting project in Kosovo will be a starting point for a new wave of UNESCO’s support to the Western Balkans. UNESCO invited ideas and project proposals from possible partners in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo, Croatia, and Slovenia in an organized call for proposals in September 2004. As a result, UNESCO received nearly 30 proposals or ideas for future co-operation.
UNESCO will support the development of free and independent media and freedom of expression in Former Yugoslavia with approximately 400.000 USD during the coming years. The support will mainly target issues such as capacity building - both training in the development of professional journalism and media management and institution building, legislation, development professional associations and media institutions, and the promotion of regional networks.
Related themes/countries
· Freedom of Expression: News Archives 2004
· Public Service Broadcasting: News Archives 2004
· Bosnia and Herzegovina: News Archives
· Croatia: News Archives
· Serbia : News Archives 2004
· The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia : News Archives
· Slovenia: News Archives
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