“From 1998-1999” I was in Finnish Broadcasting Company's team reconstructing BiH TV news with some modest money from the Dutch and more money from the Finnish government .
There have been Amsterdam treaty and Prague Declaration and European governments spoke warmly about Public Service Broadcasting, but their donations were almost entirely spent on « supporting the independent media in the crisis area ».
My opinion has been and still is, that if there is an independent media in the region then there is no crisis.
The International Community had already started to waist money on all kinds of private media and networks instead of supporting sound parts and networks of the pre-war media, which thus survived the war better than the peace after it.
JRT (Yugoslav Radio and Television) has had a long tradition of co-operation between broadcasters.
ERNO's challenge was to reinforce the tradition and create collaboration between the media across the borders in the SEE. Today, all the network members have daily news and are sending their own through ERNO exchange window. The challenge we still face is to make ERNO better.
Our goal is to encourage professionalism in TV news, strengthen editorial independence and weaken interference caused by commercial, political or patronizing interests. The corner stone of each civil society is the transition towards Public Service Broadcasting.
( Jouko Blomberg ).
Last update May 2010