"TV Puls has two Serb Kosovo Assembly members in its home town. Live coverage will allow citizens to see what they say in debates and how they vote. That's real local democracy in action."
Andrew Clayton, IREX Chief of Party
TV Puls, a local Serb language TV station in Kosovo [7] supported by USAID [8] and IREX, went live last week with coverage of the Kosovo National Assembly. The first transmission was the announcement of the end to formal supervision of Kosovo's independence. The unfiltered proceedings were delivered straight to TV Puls' audience in northern Kosovo, and were available to anyone with an ipko cable connection as well.
The broadcasts signaled an important technical and editorial breakthrough for Serbian language media in Kosovo and showed their increasing willingness to engage with the institutions of Kosovo government.
"Decisions of real importance to the Serbian community in Kosovo are taken in the Assembly," said TV Puls' Executive Director Nenad Milenkovic. "Citizens must have a chance to see what is going on live, not in edited packages. They can then make up their own minds."
TV Puls is part of the TV Mreza network of Serbian language stations that cover most minority communities in Kosovo. The network was built with IREX support through its Strengthening Independent Minority Media (SIMM) [9] program, funded by USAID. Support to the network includes equipment purchase, content development and training.
Live transmission from the Assembly is funded by TV Puls from other sources, but with strong technical and editorial support from SIMM.