Organizations do not have ideas, the media are not sufficiently interested

The environment is under-represented in the media in Serbia, but they are equally responsible for both the media and organizations that deal with this topic. This is conclusion of the round table “Environment in the media environment”, held at SPENS.

“Civil society organizations want to raise public awareness of the issues to be addressed through the media, to form public opinion sensitive to these issues, and finally to encourage citizens to take action. The problem is that these organizations have lack innovation, so it happens that they fail in sending a press conference or press release that the media will be interesting enough, “said Zorica Korac, an expert from the Regional Centre for Environmental Protection. The aim of the round table “Environment in the media center” was constructive discussion about the current state and future needs for Improved reporting in the field of environmental protection.

“The media is faced with many problems, starting with the low salaries of journalists, unfavorable working conditions, a lot of work – a little money, and it significantly affects the motivation of journalists to deal with in everyday stories, and stories about the environment,” said Dragan Vidojković the organization Ekoplis of Law.

Chief Editor Portal Ekolist in the Czech Republic, Jan Stejskal, said the main interest of the media, when talking about the environment. “In any reporting on environmental policy are inevitable and money and media interest and how the environment affects human health. In the Czech Republic to environmental monitoring reports to the parties, such as the Green Party, but the threads that follow the implementation of the programs offered by the state, such as the co-construction of environmentally friendly housing, “he Stejskal. Discussion was preceded by a two-day training for journalists in the Novi Sad School of Journalism, where the relevant experts in the field of environmental protection and the media to educate journalists on the best way to report on this area.

The round table was organized within the project “Reporting on the Environment in Serbia”, implemented by Transitions (TOL) from the Czech Republic, along with partners the Novi Sad School of Journalism, Ekolist-om and Ecopolis-om, and supported by the European Commission through its “Strengthening dialogue between civil society in Serbia and the EU. ”

The project will last until June 2011. year. One of the products of the project and website will be “Green News” where interested will find all necessary information related to the theme of the project, as well as news, articles, interviews and other journalistic genres, which will prepare the journalists who participated in the training.

More info about the project: www.zelenevesti.org

Delegation of the European Union to the Republic of Serbia under the EU funded ‘Strengthening Serbia-EU Civil Society Dialogue’ project, www.dijalog.org.rs