Budva, Montenegro, March 17th and 24th 2002

Circom's second "South-East Europe Television Journalism Workshop" took place near Budva in Montenegro between March 17th and 24th 2002, and received enthusiastic praise from the young journalists who took part.

Twenty-eight journalists and technicians came from Albania, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary and Romania, as well as from Serbia, Montenegro and Kosovo. The editorial tutors were Rick Thompson, leading his last Circom workshop, Hans Jessen from ARD, Kicki Hultin from SVT, and Russell Peasgood from Irex in Belgrade, who collaborated with Circom for this training course.

The technical operations were lead by the Thomson Foundation's Project Manager, Karol Cioma. This was the first time that the production was all digital, with the shooting on Sony DV cameras, and the editing done on laptop computers using Avid software. It proved difficult to create a reliable digital work-area in a hotel in such a short time. There were difficult compatibility problems to overcome. But all could see the potential of this technology for lower-cost, more flexible TV news in the future.

With the help of the lightweight equipment, the participants produced more TV material than in any previous workshop. They made 4 "TV commercials" to practise telling stories with pictures only, 7 feature packages which were included in a 30-minute news programme, and a film about the workshop which will be transmitted on EbS at the end of April.

The main financial support came from the Council of Europe's media Division. The workshop was superbly arranged by Ljiljana Breberina, who also helped to secure additional financial support from Irex in Belgrade, the OSI in Montenegro, the Secretariat of Information in Montenegro, and the British Embassy in Belgrade.

At the end of an intensive but enjoyable week, many of the trainees had become close friends, and declared that they would keep in touch, expanding the "Circom network" of former trainees, which already has many hundreds across Europe who email each other regularly.

Rick Thompson.
Workshop Leader. 

The Circom Seminar in Novi Sad
Novi Sad, Serbia, March 26th and 27th

Following the Budva Workshop, Rick Thompson conducted a two-day Circom Seminar at the Novi Sad School of Journalism in Serbia. This was part of a collaborative arrangement with Irex/ProMedia in Belgrade, who provide support and tutors for the School. The seminar happened on March 26th and 27th, with 40 post-graduate students attending. The programme was an introduction to TV news for students who had studied print journalism and radio in the first part of their course. They used small cameras to make some basic reports, studied extracts of programmes from around Europe, and discussed the best ways of making TV news which will be respected and attractive to watch.