A round table on the importance of minority media and media independence took place on Friday in Bosilegrad, southeastern Serbia. The event was organized by the GLAS (Group of Liberal, Ambitious and Solidary) Association - Bosilegrad within the framework of the Glaspress Online Platform project.
The current state of the media of the Bulgarian minority in Serbia and the funding of the media of the Hungarian, Croatian and Albanian minorities in Serbia were the main highlights of the forum, which was also attended by BTA’s coordinator of the Bulgarian media and communities around the world Martina Gancheva.
The round table was opened with a congratulatory address by the Vice President of Bulgaria Iliana Iotova.
Dimitar Vasilev from the Bulgarian Embassy in Belgrade said that Bulgarian media in Serbia receive substantial funding from the local government, adding that Bulgaria also provides support through development aid.
Bulgaria's consul in Nis, Peter Danov, expressed his opinion that concrete solutions could be found to some of the minority media's problems. "Applying for projects of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is a good option, a good tool to deal with financial difficulties," he added.
Stefan Stoykov, chairman of the National Assembly of the Bulgarian minority in Serbia, spoke about insufficient funding. According to him, the financial difficulties occurred after Serbia changed the law in 2014 and the privatization of Radio Televizija Caribrod (RTV Caribrod) began in 2015.
Alexandra Dimitrova from Nova Radio Televizija Bosilegrad expressed the opinion that the attention of all minority media should be focused on the topic of education in the mother tongue.
"RTV Caribrod is dying," said Dragan Jovicic, a journalist with RTV Caribrod and “Viziya” magazine. "We were a team of 13 people. The National Council did not give us money. From the Republic of Bulgaria, since the privatization of the media, and even before that, we have not received a single penny. The only funding we get is from the local government, which has been paying our salaries for 10 months. We draw up projects, but there is no one to implement them in order to receive a subsidy. We hope that after the elections there will be a stable government in Bulgaria and we will be able to look beyond meatballs and fries," he explained.
"The Bulgarian minority in Serbia has the most media per capita," said Ivan Nikolov, chairman of the Cultural and Information Centre "Bosilegrad". "Some are closed, others are in danger of closure, others are barely surviving, others are surviving thanks to compromising their professional experience. Minority media are non-commercial, do not generate profit and need to be funded.” In Nikolov's words, financial sustainability comes at the expense of the language, freedom and security of journalists.
Valeri Radolov from the State Agency for Bulgarians Abroad also took part in the forum.
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