Some Television Networks Just Have That Edge

Michael Hedges April 1, 2011 Follow on Twitter

Media development in post-conflict zones isn’t for the faint of heart. Each region has their own challenges and no single strategy guarantees success. Strong, persistent actors have an edge.

Qatari-owned television broadcaster Al Jazeera is in the initial stages of developing a regional news network in the Balkans. Test broadcasts are beginning this week (April 1) from new studios in the Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) capital Sarajevo. Al Jazeera Balkans new program director, Croatian journalist Goran Milic, has been sharing his vision for the news channel in a series of regional interviews.

A year ago Al Jazeera bought Sarajevo television channel NTV 99 from the local city council for €1.2 million. The local government had taken over the channel a year earlier when local owners ran out of money and, likely, interest. The city council rejected a motion to turn NTV 99 into a public service television channel. Al Jazeera initially planned to spend about €10 million. Recent reports suggest that amount will balloon to €40 million.

Over the last three decades there has been no shortage of work for international media development agencies. Geo-political and economic shifts caused a rapid build-up of resources and capital dedicated to upgrading information systems as a significant element of democratic reform. Then, too, wars uproot all institutions.

Media development in the Western Balkans – the former Yugoslavia and Albania – received attention and aid, some quite significant, from the outside during the post-conflict decade beginning in the early 1990’s. Governments, government-sponsored agencies, foundations and several private-sector investors saw both need and opportunity to raise the level of broadcasting and the print media.  There have been notable successes. Media development in Bosnia has not been one of them.

”In Bosnia and Herzegovina Al Jazeera will be accepted with open arms,” said Goran Milic to Bulgarian newspaper Capital (March 25).  “The country will have new investments, advanced technologies and 150 young people will find skilled jobs.” The official launch date for Al Jazeera Balkans had been planned for last January. Testing, hiring and training pushed the full program start date to September.

“Al Jazeera English was in preparation for four years,” noted Milic. “We have been working for only a year and a half. Everything happens very quickly.” In February Al Jazeera acquired Cine 5 in Turkey for about €30 million with plans to develop a new channel likely to challenge CNN Turk.

The approach, as best can be discerned, is to offer news, public affairs and some entertainment programming for the broad region in four languages: Bosnian, Serbian, Croatian and Montenegrin.  Other than the Sarajevo free-to-air frequency, the channel will be primarily distributed by satellite and cable.

“Al Jazeera, in principle, has no interest in attracting consumer goods companies and broadcasting ads for frozen chickens,” explained Milic. “We will have ads promoting tourism in the region. And we will attract big banks operating in the Balkans.” He added that a major documentary is planned around a mountain theme.

On all things budgetary, Milic demurred. “Our budget is not as large as that of the largest public broadcasters in the region , the Croatian public television, which broadcasts in Bosnia and Herzegovina has around €200 million budget or Serbia’s RTS, around €80 million.

“Al Jazeera will offer a regional approach that was abandoned in the nineties due to wars and emotions that caused the conflict,” said Milic to Serbian newspaper Novosti (March 29).

Sarajevo was chosen over other Balkans capitals for the channel’s main installation for the simplest of reasons, said Milic to Capital. ”Sarajevo is the geographical center of the Balkans. The standard of living and wages in Bosnia are far lower than those in Croatia, for example. Business decisions are very rational and they would not have invested in a project that is shallow and boring.” Others see a relationship between Bosnia’s large Muslim population and Al Jazeera’s strategy.

There’s no question that Al Jazeera is a significant force in international news broadcasting. Expansion into the Balkans fills more than a single void. Other international broadcasters, notably the BBC and Deutsche Welle, have scaled back presence in the region. Serbia and Croatia have highly developed and professional media services, in broadcasting, print and now the Web. Bosnia has lagged.

Attempts at developing a public broadcasting apparatus in Bosnia based on the European model failed despite generous financial support and other incentives from the European Union. As development funding shifted to other priorities, the fledgling public broadcasting services descended into propaganda instruments for competing political camps. Al Jazeera’s presence will likely provide both professional and political pressure, notable because it was local Bosnian businessmen with strong Gulf States relationships that “invited” them in.  Milic noted that Al Jazeera Balkans editorial policy will be “very close to Al Jazeera English.”

“We hope that our approach to news will be new and fair,” he said in the same Capital interview, “although I can not say that we will be completely neutral. We all remember what happened in the region. We carry a common heritage and we can not disregard that, before, we were a country and now we are seven.”

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