What seemed to be a simple political and business journalism training programme turned out to be a complex mixture of professional, social and intercultural values.
Twelve young journalists from the Balkans spent four weeks on an 'Economic and Political Reporting from Southeast Europe' programme in London, Brussels, Frankfurt and Berlin launched by the Reuters Foundation and Bosch Foundation this year. Participants were mainly business journalists from Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, Kosovo, Albania, Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Macedonia and Montenegro.
The programme of training courses on economics, politics and news writing offered concrete journalism work and contact-making visits in Brussels, London, Frankfurt and Berlin to meet European Union institutions, policymakers, think-tanks, entrepreneurs and central banks, so offering the Balkan journalists a European perspective and concrete British and German social approaches to European enlargement.
While business journalism is challenging worldwide, it remains very much an evolutionary concept in the Balkans, where economies and societies are changing fast; so any additional knowledge and journalism approaches will become a great asset for helping journalists improve the quality of reporting across the region.
"I learned a lot about economics and I received a very high standard of training," said one participating journalist, Cristian Pantazi from HotNews.ro, a Romanian online newspaper. "I'm sure I can use the information gathered in Romania."
Slobodan Pajic, from Bosnia & Herzegovina, appreciated most the training methods and concrete examples. 'I liked best lectures regarding financial markets and stock markets. We are still in time to learn about these institutions as they were established just lately in our region," he said, adding, "The best part is that we learned also hidden tricks on business and economics and how to understand them."
And, since the region is interconnected, the contacts will help with the work immediately. Zornisa Markova, a journalist at 'Dnevnik' business daily newspaper in Sofia, Bulgaria, said the training quickly supported her work.
She and a fellow participant from Romania had already exchanged e-mails about topics of interest to both countries that produced a lot of news. "It was very useful to be in such a mixed group from the Balkans, which is not an 'easy' region and it is important to know each other and to help each other," she said.
Artan Mustafa, from Daily Express, Pristina, in Kosovo, and the youngest journalist of the group, felt somewhat emotional about the whole experience. "If we would have had the chance for such learning in the past, I wonder if all the things would happen in the Balkans," he said. "It was fantastic training."
Sandra Breka, Head of the Berlin Office of the Robert Bosch Foundation, said her organisation knew well the need for financing such help for regional reporters. "Economic journalism is underdeveloped in this region and there is a great need to support its development," she said.
"We do not see this programme as only support for economic journalism regional cooperation, but also for establishment of networks of journalists, establishment of relations between people," she added.
Reuters Foundation and Bosch Foundation are expected to continue supporting the programme for a number of years.
Ilda Koçi
Monitor Business Magazine, Tirana, Albania
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