Fifteen journalists and publicists from Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia and Serbia tested and expanded their writing skills on practical examples. “Aleksandar Hemon passed on to us the same advice that Rainer Maria Rilke and Danilo Kiš gave to young writers,” said a participant in the workshop.

The goal of the workshop was to define the difference between literary and news articles. The trainer gave a lot of attention to their role and relationship with reality. Together with participants, he analyzed literary articles written by Semezdin Mehmedinović and Faruk Šehić, Rainer Maria Rilke and Danilo Kiš.
“This workshop helped me reinforce what I know about the different forms of journalistic expression. Now I understand better the difference between news and literary texts and I know what kind of stand an individual should take in the public sphere and what kind of responsibility s/he should have in it,” said Naida Kundurović, NTV Hayat program hostess.
Participants could understand the structure of column, its role and goal, through a joint analysis of columns written by Aleksandar Hemon, Marko Vešović, Miljenko Jergović, Fatmir Alispahić, as well as columns by The New York Times and Chicago Daily News’ international columnists Mureen Dowd and Mike Royko. Using their columns as examples, Aleksandar Hemon analyzed the approach to column writing in the United States and BiH.
“Although I’m a television journalist, I’ve always been attracted to column writing. I attend seminars very rarely; what was decisive for my participation in this workshop was the choice of trainer and topic. I’ve realized now what a writer achieves through a column, I’ve learned about the column structure and discovered where a writer’s imagination ends and where expression starts to be based on real facts,” explained Marko Rajković, Television Serbia journalist.
Aleksandar Hemon spoke about his experiences as a journalist/writer and explained the role of journalist/writer in the United States. He talked about how a writer enters the news field in the United States and about their responsibility. Together with participants, he compared that situation to the situation in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
“The participants are extremely smart young people who are aware of what is happening around them; people who aren’t afraid to face important issues; people who are able to engage in dialogue in the public sphere in a way that is very rare today. Despite the individual differences, sensibility and experience, we managed to come up with a common goal. I learned a lot; I think I even learned more than they did,” said Aleksandar Hemon.
Some of the workshop participants analyzed articles they had previously written together with the trainer.
They agreed it was a great experience to learn from a journalist and writer such as Aleksandar Hemon.
“Participants showed a lot of interest in this workshop and that’s why NetNovinar training center plans to organize another workshop with Aleksandar Hemon in the future,” said Maša Hilčišin Dervišević, Project Coordinator with the NetNovinar training center.
Together with the workshop organizers, Aleksandar Hemon signed diplomas on completion of the workshop and awarded them.
The workshop was held on December 13-15, 2006 at Mediacentar Sarajevo.
The workshop was organized by NetNovinar – Center for Investigative Reporting and Media Education (Founders: Mediacentar Sarajevo & Investigative Journalism Center, Zagreb)