Participants at the Tirana Workshop witth Eurovision Academy trainer, Jonathan Stoneman (second from left bottom row) and Senior EPP project manager Radka Betcheva (fourth from left) on 4 and 5 April.

The EBU partnership programme has completed the first round of a series of training workshops for public service News journalists in Pristina, Belgrade, Novi Sad and Tirana. The workshops were organized within the framework of a comprehensive EBU-EU project for the assistance of public service media in the EU accession countries.

The project has been carried out in cooperation with Eurovision Academy.  Jonathan Stoneman (formerly from the BBC) discussed the EBU’s editorial principles regarding news production with journalists and editors from radio, TV and online services.

Participants appreciated the opportunity of discussing quality of news in general and the challenges they face in particular, ranging from technical and financial constraints to political and economic pressure. Journalists and editors expressed their interest in promoting and publishing the EBU values, unanimously adopted at the EBU General Assembly last year. Last but not least, rated the session entitled “Meet the audience” was highly rated. During this session,  journalists and editors received  honest and direct feedback from some of their viewers and listeners.

Senior EPP project manager Radka Betcheva commented: “Listening to the discussions we can see that the challenges are similar and there is still a lot of work to be done to enable news to come closer to the viewers and in order to gain the trust and respect of our audiences. It is however very encouraging that journalists are honestly discussing the areas where improvement is needed and this is the first step in tackling the problems.”

Editor–in-chief of RTSH, Eda Merepeza said: “This workshop was very useful for young reporters and editors of Public Radio and Television in Albania. We are extremely interested in codes of ethics, “meeting our audience”, sharing our professional experiences, and learning from EBU trainers. It was a privilege for me to discuss these issues with Jonathan and Radka, and I hope EBU will help us to have more workshops with our colleagues from region”.

Eurovision Academy trainer, Jonathan Stoneman,  said: “Working with colleagues from four different broadcasters over the last few weeks has been a fascinating reminder that Public Service Broadcasting is something which is not taken for granted anywhere – the challenge of converting former state broadcasters into 21^st century Public Services is enormous, but rewarding, and, above all, achievable.”

The next workshops are due to take place in the month of May in Podgorica, Skopje, Sarajevo, and Zagreb.