Newsroom

Covering the International Trial of the Century: IREX Support Enables Hague-Based Coverage for Serbian Media

March 2002
By Russell Peasgood, Director of TV Development, IREX/ProMedia, Serbia

It's not just Slobodan Milosevic who's making history in The Hague. The war-crimes trial of the former Yugoslav president has forced Serbian TV stations to completely re-think their coverage of foreign news and overcome the obstacles caused by years of under-investment beneath the Milosevic regime. For the people of Serbia, this story is simply too big to rely on the mug shot of a correspondent on the end of a telephone.

They want to see and hear their former president and his accusers live in the courtroom as if they were there themselves. To accommodate this, newsgathering technology that has been taken for granted in most of Europe and the US for years had to be adopted as a matter of urgency when the start date of the trial was finalized.

IREX Support Enables Independent Media To Cover ICTY

Spearheading the campaign was Serbia's newest TV station, B92, sister of the world-renowned B92 Radio. B92 TV had been born on October 5, 2000, the day that Milosevic had finally fallen. Now it could come into its own. The competition would be fierce. Three other Belgrade stations would have access to the courtroom pictures beamed via satellite, including RTS, the state channel that had been the main engine in Milosevic's formidable propaganda machine, though it has long since lost that tag.

However, as the trial progresses B92 has stayed ahead of the game, partly thanks to financial support from IREX in the form of a fully equipped outside broadcast van. This enables the station not only to broadcast the trial live during the day - as some other stations are doing - but also to provide live in-vision reports from its correspondent in The Hague during the day and in its prime-time news programs. It also enables the news presenters to conduct live in-vision interviews with lawyers, witnesses, and experts attending the trial. The live coverage adds drama to the news program of B92 and some of its partners in the ANEM TV network, of which B92 is a member.

IREX has worked with B92 since 1997 in an effort to help them provide quality objective news and information in Serbia. The support that IREX has offered has enabled Serbia's leading independent broadcaster to produce news packages of professional quality and in-line with international industry standards. To prepare for Hague-based coverage IREX organized courtroom and legal journalism training for B92 as well as other indigenous media outlets covering the ICTY. Additionally, IREX has provided training for B92's technical crew, including training for broadcast engineers, editors, and camera operators.

B92 TV is proving wrong those skeptics who said viewers in Serbia would lose interest after the opening days. According to Gallup - which has recently introduced people meters to conduct audience research in Serbia - B92 has increased its audience share from 7.4 to 11.9 since the live coverage was launched: a huge increase in such a competitive market.

RTV B92 Breaks New Ground

Veran Matic, Editor-in-Chief of B92, said: "By carrying out live TV coverage from The Hague, we have gained a new dimension that has enabled us to become competitive on the market. Although our rivals have had access to the trial through Eurovision, we have had the capabilities to do live two ways with our reporters and interviews direct from the Hague giving us additional information and, as a result, bigger audiences.

B92's Head of News and Current Affairs, Aleksandar Timofejev, said the live broadcast of the Hague trial broke new ground in TV news broadcasting in Serbia: "Before the News, there was controlled nervousness in the studio. Uncertainties about the satellite links, our journalist reporting live for the first time and technicians doing the work they'd never done before. Five minutes before the news started, the face of our reporter Srdjan Predojevic appeared on our Hague monitor. 'Can we hear each other well?' 'Yes, we can...' There was nervous laughter on both sides before a live stand up via satellite - the first in B92's history - went smoothly, like an everyday routine. It was the only live stand up via satellite on all Yugoslav television stations. This would always be remembered as a new step in the development of television and electronic journalism in Yugoslavia.

The ProMedia/Serbia program is funded by USAID and administered by IREX.