31. 10. 2012

Press Media Summit: Regional integration necessary

Belgrade, October 31, 2012 (Tanjug) - The 3rd Press Media Summit, held in Belgrade on Wednesday, urged regional integration of printed media and proposed establishment of a Balkan media association.

Adria Media Director General Alexander Teutsch also shares the opinion that there should be no borders in the region in terms of media cooperation.

He said that all regional states should make efforts to erase borders and cooperate without any problems, adding that this is an issue of efficiency.

Teutsch noted that Adria Media does business in Belgrade, but also in Ljubljana and Zagreb, and that this cooperation functions well.

Editor-in-Chief of Belgrade-based weekly Vreme Dragoljub Žarković said that the situation in the press is very bad, and that it is a consequence of the crisis which has hit all, and particularly this type of media in the region.

The idea of the summit is to establish relations in the region, Žarković said.

Speaking about the media in the region, Editor-in-Chief of Belgrade-based daily Večernje Novosti Manojlo Vukotić underlined that the media in the region know very little about one another, and that the region is not much present in the home press, aside from travel features and sports reports.

He underlined that the former Yugoslav republics do not need a new brotherhood and unity, but rather regional integration, which should exist not for Catherine Ashton and Hillary Clinton, but for our own sake.

Vukotić suggested that the Summit should be followed by the establishment of a Balkan media association, and that journalists' associations and associations of the former republics should send their governments an appeal for free sale of press and free information flow.

Editor-in-Chief of Sarajevo-based daily Dnevni Avaz Fadil Mandal said that the market of Bosnia-Herzegovina is open for the media from the region, adding that Serbian and Croatia press can be bought in Sarajevo.

Managing Director of Color Press Group Robert Čoban said that only a big market comprising all former Yugoslav states could provide sustainable and lasting business.