On 28th and 29th September, 2006 in Sarajevo, twenty prestigious journalists and NGO representatives from the region will participate in a roundtable discussion on the ways in which the media handle war crimes and their processing. The roundtable is organized by the Transitions Online in cooperation with the NetNovinar Training Centre.
The roundtable ‘War crimes and the media: Possibilities of reestablishing trust’ will gather journalists from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia, and Montenegro as well as the NGO activists working on the war crimes issues.
The participants will be shown the movie ‘Karneval’, made by the book ‘Kobna sloboda’ written by the journalist Šeki Radončić which is the result of a long-term research of tragic destinies of Bosnian refugees deported back to Bosnia in 1992 by Montenegro. This is the first documentary in the production of the Mediacentar Sarajevo, directed by Alen Drljević, and will be competing in this year’s Sarajevo Film Festival.
This is the last gathering organized by the Transitions Online and the NetNovinar Training Centre in the series dedicated to war crimes and the media. The previous two gatherings were held in February and May this year.
Among other issues discussed, the previous gatherings focused on media reporting of the war crimes trials in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia, and Montenegro, on manipulating victim figures, and the cooperation among civil society institutions and the media in rebuilding trust. The documentary on the destruction of Vukovar entitled ‘Posljednji rez’ by Drago Hedl and Janko Baljko has been screened, as well as the integral version of the video footage of the execution of Srebrenica civilians by the “Škorpioni” unit.
The project is supported by: the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, The Swedish International Development Agency (Sida) and the United States Institute of Peace (USIP).
The project is hosted by the NetNovinar – Centre for investigative journalism and media education (founded by: the Mediacentar Sarajevo and the CIN Zagreb).