ORGANIZATIONAL BACKGROUND:
E-Novine is a Belgrade-based for profit, nonpartisan organization founded in 2008. Registered as a public media outlet, E-Novine produces an online news daily of the same name (www.e-novine.com) featuring critical and independent coverage of current events and politics. E-Novine aims to present every piece of news with a unique point of view, so that the reader is not only informed, but also encouraged to form his or her own opinion about the issue.
E-Novine’s website currently receives over 150,000 unique visitors per month. It has a readership base throughout the former Yugoslavia as well as in Western Europe, the U.S., and Canada. In addition to its regular news and commentary, E-Novine has also published more than a dozen texts analyzing the role of the media during the wars in the former Yugoslavia, including an interview with the Special War Crimes Prosecutor about journalistic responsibility.
E-Novine employs 9 people on a full-time basis, and its editor-in-chief is respected journalist Petar Lukovic. Previously, Mr. Lukovic was deputy editor-in-chief and columnist at the Belgrade weekly Vreme and a contributing journalist at the Institute for War and Peace Reporting.
ORGANIZATION DESCRIPTION:
What is the purpose (mission) of our organization?
– To become a regional, widely read and influential portal which is a recognizable symbol of independent, free and democratic journalism in the whole region.
– To be a barrier against all sorts of fascism, chauvinism, nationalism, war mongering and hate speech.
– To promote European values through constant mutual dialogue on all biggest topics in the region’s societies.
– To gather together as associates the journalistic, cultural and social elite, as well as readers who shape the editorial policy through its texts and comments.
What is the structure of our organization?
Managing board (Director, Editor in chief, Deputy Editor in chief)
19 people (9 employes, 10 by contract, 12 volunteers).
SITUATION ANALYSIS:
Experience has shown that even after wars and long-lasting conflicts, people do want to live normal lives, overcome the past and begin rebuilding disrupted relations.
A recent survey researching willingness and readiness for reconciliation in the region (amongst Serbs, Croats and Bosniaks) showed that there is individual capacity for reconciliation in all three environments. However, subjective potential, alone, is insufficient to bring reconciliation about. The process of reconciliation is a complex, long and risky one and it depends on overcoming deep suspicions that cannot be dispelled only on the individual plane.
The processes of building lasting peace, life together, co-operation and new relations in the region have not seriously taken root although the Dayton Accords were signed in 1995. The problem is related to the halt in the process of exchange the information between the medias in the region. Our reality lacks all prerequisites for initiating and deepening the process of reconciliation – building trust in the other party’s intentions, restoring the perception of the members of an until recently hostile group as human beings (re-humanisation), willingness to co-operate, readiness to offer/accept apology. Systematic overcoming of the past is lacking as well. There are no important preconditions for reconciliation. Even when peace came the xenophobic governments in the region did non re-establish the broken links because a quality exchange of information is opposite to the nature of the newly established regimes and elites.
It is really difficult to imagine this region guaranteeing stable peace and prosperity in the near future if such a relevant issue is left to spontaneous events alone, if there are no systematic, focussed social and media actions. Restoration of trust and readiness for co-operation can be consolidated only in as much as it is possible to remember ‘that’ past, to unblock collective memory. Recollection of the war past is obviously still bearable only to the degree to which each side can (distortedly) perceive itself as its greatest victim. The notion that these are the same economic, political, cultural and social problems, even similar methods of governing of the apparently different regimes in terms of ideology, contributes to the creation of a front of solidarity, co-operation, expansion of the public opinion which will ask the political elites for a quicker, more efficient and more effective implementation of Euro-Atlantic integrations.
OBJECTIVES:
To establish dialogue in the territory of former Yugoslavia:
Inclusion of the most famous and best journalists from across the region in the concept which provides full and constant information not only through news but also through author’s columns and comments on daily topics. A special focus is on the constant examination of and facing with the recent past (columns, texts and analyses are regularly published in order to introduce younger audience to the events of the recent wars).
As a beginning e-novine established co-operation with the media in the region: H-Alter (Croatia), Monitor.hr (Croatia), Radio Sarajevo (BiH), Novi list (Croatia), BH dani (BiH), Jutarnji list (Croatia), net.hr (Croatia), Novosti.hr (Croatia).
Our intention is to create the stronger cross-border cooperation among journalists, medias and their audience and try to cerate a strong front of solidarity and co-operation among the public in the countries of Region through implementation of the Euro-Atlantic integration process.
ACTIVITIES:
Publication of news, texts, analyses, feature stories and comments by some of the best journalists about unfolding events and other topics in the region. Consistent implementation of a durable political and cultural dialogue in the region; important political or cultural topics, regardless of whether it is a topic in Serbia, Croatia or Bosnia and Herzegovina, are written about by authors and guests from across the region, as it is an area which shares identical problems and challenges.