By Rudie van Meurs

The course was attended by initially eighteen people – to be precise and to avoid the word ‘etnic’, I hate: eleven Kosovo Albanians, two Kosovo Turks, one from the Kosovo Slavic Muslim Gorash minority in Dragash and four Kosovo Serbs from Orahovac. Because of the growing tension in Orahovac, when in the second week of april houses were burnt and Serbs demonstrated their suspicion against KFOR and the international organisations, two Kosovo Serbian students decided to stay away. So we finished the first part with sixteen students.

The youngest journalist was 18 years old, the eldest 40+. The majority was employed by two radio stations in Prizren(Radio Prizren and Radio Besa), Radio Sharri in Dragash and Radio Zeri in Suva Reka. Radio Sharri, a former Serbian soldiers radio, still tries to find money for a new transmittor that collapsed half a year ago. Radio Zeri expects to receive the coming weeks a licence for public broadcasting. There were three students from Free Media Centre that has close relations with Radio Prizren and Radio Besa and is donated by the international organisations. In general the professional background was rather poor – only three had experience with tape-recorders and another three had some experience in presentation of life-programmesThe first day of the training, when the Serbian students arrived escorted by KFOR-soldiers, there was some reservation and hesitation amongst the company of journalists. So I decided to start the training with the Code of Bordeaux – the declaration of principles on the conduct of journalists. During the whole morning we discussed respect for truth, fair journalistic methods, facts and facts only, ethics, etnic minorities, hate speech and discrimination. And finally everyone accepted the code and promised to respect the declaration. At the end of the first two weeks, Kosovo Albanians and Kosovo Serbs thanked each other for mutual cooperation.All the students showed a remarkable eagerness to learn. We started every day with brainstorm sessions and analysing news, followed by introductions to basic journalism. In the twelve days we were together, we practised writing of news stories; features, interviews and we started to talk about investigative journalism.
We visited – after intense preparation – two (weekly) press conferences of UNMIK/OSCE and indeed, our students raised the best questions. I think the two-week training was useful and (according to the students themselves) successful. After my first mission I really saw sixteen nice students, working close together and starting a network of young and eager journalists who will assist each other in the future.The organisation and facilities in Prizren are faultless. The welcome, assistance (especially in translation and interpreting), transport by OSCE-cars, training-room, coffee, lunches and general support are highly professional. During the last ten years I run a number of trainings all over the former Sowjet Union and the Balkan-countries, but the hospitality I enjoyed in Prizren was really heart-warming. I was fortunate indeed in having the Media Press Officer in Prizren, Arvo Marits, behind me. And behind Arvo Marits stands the OSCE-director in Prizren who understands the importance of the role of journalism in a democracy.I look forward to the follow up in June.Rudie van Meurs
Herwijnen
April 23, 2000