Anniversary Gala: 30 Years Since the First CIRCOM Regional & TVR Seminar for Eastern Europe

The first CIRCOM training: with TVR in Iaşi 1994 

In May 1994 CIRCOM Regional held its first workshop for professionals from regional televisions. It took place in the Romanian city of Iaşi, alongside the 12th Annual Conference of the organisation. 30 years later vocational training is one of the two key activities of CIRCOM Regional.

The idea to organise a training workshop was put forward while preparations for the Annual Conference were underway. The European Commission and the Council of Europe liked it and provided financial support. Peter Zimmermann, CIRCOM’s Secretary General, wrote later: “Having secured the money for a training seminar in Romania, CIRCOM Regional still had to find an organiser for that new task. Rick Thompson, head of BBC Midlands in Birmingham, volunteered for the job. He had already had relevant experiences in Poland and established valuable relations with the Thomson Foundation.”.
(from Peter Zimmermann's 25 Years CIRCOM Regional, p.44.)

Rick Thompson

 “Peter Zimmerman phoned me in my office in Birmingham - I think in March 1994 - and said he’d got the money from an EU grant and the Council of Europe. Could I organise a training course for young journalists in Iaşi?”, recalled Rick. “The local coordinator, Vanda Condurache, agreed that some TVR camera operators and picture editors would be among the ’trainees’ and that we could use them! As for the trainers, we had no plan. I said ‘Just turn up, and we’ll work it out'.

The first trainers

Professionals from 4 countries were invited to work with about 40 trainees. “The trainers were: Ian Masters, Thomson Foundation; Rick Thompson, BBC (UK); Graham Ironside, Yorkshire ITV (UK); Didier Desormeaux, France Télévisions; Hans Jessen, ARD (Germany); Karol Cioma, BBC Wales; Gérard Le Couedic, FranceTélévisions; Duncan Herbert, BBC (UK)”, remembered David Lowen, then President of CIRCOM Regional.
“Today some of those pioneers have reflected on what was to become a regular and important part of CIRCOM’s activities to support and encourage high quality television journalism in the regions of Europe”, he added.

Rick Thompson and Didier Desormeaux during the training

“It’s where it all CIRCOM training started. From those days in Iaşi, CIRCOM training became an important asset to regional stations across Europe, from being leaders and pioneers in video and mobile journalism training, to management training and especially providing training for trainers so that training became embedded into regional stations throughout the membership. I remember also travelling nervously from Vienna, I think sitting on the luggage in a rather uncertain aircraft.  We also visited a vineyard on a coach with a police escort”, remembered Karol Cioma.

Didier Desormeaux

Didier Desormeaux, one of the trainers, summed up the zeitgeist: “The spirit of Iaşi” cannot be forgotten! Romania is dear to the hearts of the French and the idea of training in Eastern Europe with young journalists from all neighbouring countries while the conflict in the former Yugoslavia was raging motivated us. In this dramatic situation, working together English, Germans and French seemed highly symbolic to us and spread an idea of hope for possible peace between yesterday's enemies”.

Tasked with the training planning Rick Thompson noted: “There weren’t many days available for training, so it was a crash course on making a ‘package’.It was agreed that Ian and I would kick-off day one in the big conference theatre talking about working for the audience and no-one else, the power of pictures, and the key importance of planning. It was a large group: about 40 young people as I recall, including some from Russia”.

The week-long seminar brought together about 40 people: “Twenty of them came from Romania, 18 from the neighbouring countries of Bulgaria, Hungary, Moldova, Poland and Ukraine, 12 from France, Germany, Slovenia and the United Kingdom”, Peter Zimmermann wrote.
“They split up into groups each led by a trainer with a picture editor and they immediately went out to make packages - concentrating on human examples to illustrate the story, with good shots with natural sound, well set-up interviews, stand-ups every time, and a visual structure”, Rick Thompson remembered.

Graham Ironside

“The cadre of young people assembled there were avid to learn. They were well educated, intelligent and highly motivated and a pleasure to work with”, Graham Ironside shared his memories. “The energy and great goodwill of Ian and Rick fired up the whole operation so that being unsuccessful was not an option. The combination of backgrounds, experience and languages could not have been more mixed but the little teams somehow just worked well together”.

Practicing interviews with Ian Masters

Teach the story of “A compelling story”

As in every new beginning, the trainers had quite a few challenges - some were rooted in the media practices the trainees were used to, others were related to communicating the power of visual storytelling.

“We knew that the Balkan media had diverted their information mission to become relays of nationalist propaganda. We were surprised to see how little the television management of that era was interested in the richness of the image” remembered Didier Desormeaux. “Our image sensitivity also came from the fact that in France image reporters already had the status of journalists. It was a real discussion between all of us. And the fact that the camcorder gives great freedom of production to the cameraman freed them from the pressure of editors who were often poorly trained and had little interest in image quality”.

Hans Jessen

Hans Jessen shared similar view: “We trainers unanimously refused the practice of writing (and often recording) the commentary first and then throw pictures over the soundtrack, which was the standard in most East European stations (partly, as Didier pointed out, to give chief editors a tool of "control" (or censorship) of the content, which they (wrongly) identified only in the commentary). On the other hand, some stations suffered from a lack of production facilities, giving very limited time in the edit box for each package”.

“From the trainer's point of view, the main trick was to avoid inhibiting the team's ideas while instilling sound basic practices”, warned Graham Ironside.

“Part of the challenge, in my memory, was to prove, that, with good preparation and having an idea of the story to be told, one wouldn`t need much more time for "writing to the pictures" parallel to picture editing”, told Hans Jessen. “We all know the sentence: "a picture is worth a thousand words" which emphasizes the role of storytelling by pictures. But there is another sentence no less relevant: "every picture raises a question - and the answer has to be given either by the next picture, or sound, or commentary." The productive tension of these two principles is key to journalistic audio-visual production”.

Shooting out in the Iasi market ... and in the rain

Mission accomplished…

“The CIRCOM seminar proved that it was possible to get journalists from more than ten different countries to work together, just emerging from Soviet domination or dictatorship. The seminar also showed that television had a major role in promoting professional and responsible journalism, an obligatory part of democracy”, summed up Didier Desormeaux.

For Rick Thompson “the results were extremely impressive and most of the packages were used on air by TV Iaşi. The Iaşi trainees were brilliant. CIRCOM Training had been launched and week-long courses were run before the annual conferences from then on”.

April 10, 1995, with the Hungarian team present in Iaşi 1994.
This photo with Didier Desormeaux, Peter Zimmermann, Erika Kocsor and Eva Zombori among others,
is interesting because it was this MTV team who, with the director at the time of the Szeged station,
decided to continue to bring the "spirit of Iaşi" to life.

... And mission continues ...

Going back to those days of 1994, Ian Masters paid tribute to Vanda Condurache who was instrumental in TVR hosting both the Annual Conference and the first training in Iaşi. Ian wrote: “Please forgive me: I am approaching my 85th birthday and the years have not been kind to the old memory cells. However, I do remember the shock of hearing the news of Vanda Condurache’s tragic death. We had become pals and I missed her bright, professional mind. Of the dozens of broadcasters I had trained,I think she was one of the best with a first class future before her that was so cruelly taken away”.

Vanda Condurache

This first seminar laid the basis of a valuable practice. It gradually turned into a viable, meaningful part of CIRCOM Regional activities. “Thirty years on, TV journalists still have to measure up the eternal question: "What Is News?", reflected Graham Ironside. “While that, I maintain, hasn't changed, the technology and the tools of the trade have been transformed. Every teenager is probably better equipped than we were or are to make best use of them. The CIRCOM vision of providing training for young TV journalists, and the efforts and friendships of the trainers converted me from being a “Mr Grumpy” to being an enthusiast so that I had the pleasure of continuing to contribute for several years”, concluded Graham on a personal note.

Today, Fernando Ojea, the Secretary General of CIRCOM Regional, pointed out that for those 30 years after the first seminar in Iaşi, CIRCOM has provided “over 250 professional training sessions for more than 3000 trainees”.

The CIRCOM Regional annual training programme now goes far beyond strictly vocational training for news reporters. Yes, it continues to offer workshops on journalism practices – now on new ones as MoJo and the usage of artificial intelligence, thus responding to latest technology developments and most recent trends in media. Equally, it helps journalists and media managers to perfect their skills and broaden their views in times of ongoing digital transformation with “Leading Through Change” training.

Workshops such as “Stepping Up – Workshop for Women Leaders” bring about equality and diversity in media. And “Harassment Prevention” sessions are focused on protecting media professionals from being subjected to violence while serving the society.

Topical seminars such as “Climate Issues and Solutions”and “Fact-checking and Verification”reflect the changes in the agenda of the societies and the need this new agenda to get adequate, relevant coverage.

And yet, the tradition is here to stay – the flagship seminar of our association is held every year in May, alongside the Annual Conference of CIRCOM Regional. For several years in a row its topic is “The Future and Storytelling”.