ROUNDTABLE: ‘CHALLENGES CONFRONTING REGIONAL JOURNALISTS’

Regional journalists need more professional training to serve the needs of their local communities. 

 This was the conclusion of a roundtable discussion, on the fringe of the main conference, attended by working journalists, editors and trainers from East and West. Chairing the session, Wilfried Ruetten, Director of the European Journalism Centre at Maastricht, Netherlands, set the scene by noting that some media studies indicated that standards were slipping in regional journalism.  He identified the main problems as lack of training and local political pressures.

 Peter Sauer of Bavarian Broadcasting said the German experience was that regional television was successful because it covered local issues.  “If we work close to the region we get high ratings,” he said. “If we go international, the ratings go down.”

 Ioana Avadani, Executive Director of Romania’s Center for Independent Journalism,  said that Romanian regional newspapers were more widely read than the nationals, whereas regional television was in decline due to lack of support from the authorities.  “The regional press is thriving, while regional television is dying,” she said.

 Kumar Bekbolotov, media trainer from Kyrgyzstan, said local journalists were more effective than visiting reporters in covering local issues and giving a voice to their communities.  But there were concerns about their professional standards due to lack of adequate training.

 Gulnara Ibrayeva of the National TV and Radio Corporation of Kyrgyzstan said that even when journalists had been trained, it was in the old Soviet tradition.  As a result they did not cover the real news, such as recent protests in her country.  People could only find out what was happening through the Russian media or CNN, she said.

 Natalya Bandrovskaya, Director of Kazakhstan’s Rika TV, said the Kazakh regional media were generally weak and vulnerable to political pressures.  “Regional authorities tend to be more sensitive than national politicians,” she said.  Even though there was censorship in Soviet times, the local press was widely distributed and the readers felt involved.  “Now there is no censorship, but they lack one vital ingredient – professionalism,” she said.

 All the panellists agreed that young journalists, particularly in the regions, needed more professional training.  They also needed to have the confidence to question and stand up to local authorities.

“People will create their own media through blogs if local journalists don’t do their job of reporting with a critical attitude,” Ms Avadani said.  “If they only report favourable news, it’s boring.”