Every weekday public broadcasters in the region send and receive, via Eurovision satellite, news, items and pictures for their specific needs. The main objective of the news exchange between 11 public broadcasters is to strengthen re-integration and reconciliation in the SEE via the Public TV. The ERNO news exchange, coordinated in Sarajevo, serves mainly public broadcasters of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Romania.
One of the ERNO's main targets is to reinforce the tradition of cooperation between the public broadcasters in the region, improve the professionalism of TV news staff and develop the journalist approach and quality of the new stories and bulletins.
The strengthening of the already existing news exchange mechanism means, first and foremost, human and technical resource development, as well as improved quality and technical standards of the news stories run by the participating television companies.
Most of the public TV stations in the region are struggling with a lack of modern equipment and other resources and are facing a difficult transition from state run televisions to public broadcasting service. A large part of material in ERNO recycles the TV news footage produced for local use, and the items transmitted via satellite reflect the regional newscasts. ERNO needs extra support, investment and training, to further work for the improvement of quality broadcasting and improve professional skills.
Objectives of project are :
- Standardize technical level of the news exchange, improve quality and introduce common formats and solutions.
- Develop ERNO's capacity: availability of best resources, cost effectiveness, production pool and cross border reporting.
- Diversify news output, emphasizing «soft news» and drawing content of ERNO to human interest stories and everyday life coverage.
- Support participating stations in transitions to digital production by facilitating practical experience of ICTs and digital news gathering. Reinforce the tradition of cooperation of public broadcasters in the region.
- Increase a free flow of information between the countries in the SEE region as well as between the SEE region and other parts of Europe on issues such as reconciliation, reintegration and peaceful coexistence.
- Promote universal values of freedom of speech, democratic citizenship and culture of peace through improved media content on regional news.
Detailed description of activities:
ERNO ( Eurovision Regional News in the SEE ) network was created in November 2000 as a three month long pilot project to establish the news items exchange between the countries in SEE. The financier was the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and implementing agency was YLE ( Finnish Broadcasting Company ).
The task of ERNO is to operate a system, infrastructure and organization helping television stations in the region to shoot, send and receive materials according to their specific regional needs. ERNO has become one of the four so-called regional windows in the EBU (European Broadcasting Union) news exchange system via Eurovision satellite (other three regional news exchanges are Nordic, Mediterranean and East European).
The « South Eastern European Window», ERNO, is open daily (Monday-Friday) 16:25-16:40 CET on the Eurovision satellite for the participating SEE countries to exchange their news items.
The ERNO project was born out of the need for television news desks to receive information and fresh picture material from the neighbouring countries and re-establish cooperation between television companies after political tensions and conflicts. The main target is to reinforce the tradition of cooperation between public broadcasters in the region, improve the professionalism of television news staff and develop the journalist approach and quality of new stories and bulletins. In other words ERNO's main task is to offer local news items from each country in the SEE region.
Its second task is to offer news items from the SEE region to the whole Europe and other EBU members; apart from its regional role, ERNO is a source of news and human interest stories from other television companies providing alternative and informative material from local resources at a time when international attention to the Balkans as a conflict region generating hard news is decreasing.
Thus, ERNO is enforcing a positive image of the region as a base of peaceful co-existence of various ethnic groups. The project was considered successful from the very beginning. ERNO consolidated its position as a main source of regional news exchange even before the pilot project was concluded.
In the period between November 2001 and March 2010, 11 316 news items have been transmitted through the ERNO window. The feed had approximately 90 items per month.
According to the expert estimations member companies use some 70 percent of the material, the percentage being on average higher than with Eurovision main feeds. The ERNO news exchange is run daily by a coordination office which is located in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The staff in the coordination office consists of 3 employees.
One of the most important duties of the ERNO Coordination office is planning. The ERNO Coordinator collects the news, information and announcements from national and international news agencies and organizations from all over the South Eastern Europe and prepares the outlook of events expected during the ongoing week. This outlook is sent to participants every Monday, and is subsequently updated daily with new announcements
In this way, all participants in the ERNO news exchange are not only familiar with the stories which they may receive from the others, but also with the events that are important for others in their own countries.
The second important duty is coordination. Coordinators will receive offers and requests for news items from the Eurovision news coordinators (EVN Desk) in participating countries concerned. The ERNO office is in connection during the whole day not just with all TV stations in the ERNO exchange, but also with EBU News Centre in Geneva, and with other EBU members who are interested in events in this region. Communication is conducted by phone, e-mail and MSN Messenger.
Through this kind of communication, the ERNO Coordinator collects all the request and offers for that day. In addition to planning and coordinating, the coordination office is responsible for the editorial decision-making. News exchange coordinators in the office decide which stories are the most important for that day and they draw up the final list of items. There are usually 4 or 5 items every day, so the 15 minutes ERNO news exchange time in the EBU satellite is almost always maximally used.
Once included in the daily feed, the news items are available for all the EBU members free of charge. The ERNO coordination office will also establish partnerships with other relevant organizations if it is needed to implement the program. Through its Eurovision satellite the EBU has facilitated four so-called regional windows between 16:00- and 17:00 CET. One of the regional windows is «South Eastern Window» and it is open daily between 16:25-16:40 CET. The content of the news items is managed by the ERNO coordination office in Sarajevo.
The web site of ERNO www.erno.tv is located in the BHRT building in Sarajevo. Introducing and training in new tools (DVCameras and digital edits) is hardly possible without the new equipment.
Digital technology (ICT) is the only cost effective platform of TV production.
In short main ERNO activities are:
- The coordination office in Sarajevo collects information, summarizes it and distributes summaries, collects offers and demands, coordinates cooperation in the exchange, feeds data into EVN News Room Network in Geneva and keeps statistics;
- co-production between the regional ERNO member Stations with the coverage of the most relevant issues in the region;
- news pool activity including the coverage of the stories and events most relevant for the SEE region;
- training: teams of continuously coached coordinators, reporters, cameramen and tape editors creating a network of instructors form a model for quality television production. This is partly achieved by training, partly by exchange and working visits of staff;
- maintaining the ERNO server at the MTV in Budapest for file transfer of the feeds from ALRTV which are then downloaded and re-edited by the ERNO office and transmitted from BHRT in the ERNO news exchange;
- Provide visibility of the SEE region in the Eurovision main news exchange for the whole Europe;
- Maintaining the Internet-network between the participating countries; MSN, Net Meeting video conferences, video file transfer, home page www.erno.tv
- Development of social networks between the media professionals in the SEE region through daily contacts, staff exchange, workshops and biannual meetings.
Last update May 2010