"Live from Europe" Programme 2007/2009, "Live from Europe" Programme 2007/2009, www.seetv-exchanges.com

Radomir Krackovic interviews the Montenegrin ambassador to the EU

A first phase of SEETV visiting journalist programme was implemented in 2007, with the support of the Norwegian Government. The testimonies and feedbacks on this first round of exchanges reflect the added-value of a tailored training on EU affairs reporting:

“My internship with SEETV gave me the chance to meet and talk to the people who are creating EU policies and to make contacts which I can use in my future work. It always makes a big difference if you can be on the spot and witness the events from the vicinity, than reporting from a distance”. Maja Divac, editor of Evronet TV magazine on RTS (Serbian public TV)

“We appreciated very much the possibility to send our journalist to Brussels, especially knowing that Montenegro doesn't have a single correspondent from the capital of the EU. By using the footage made during his visit we made a mini series of "EU reports" that were broadcast every evening during one week. It is not something that you see every day on the program of our TV and the feedback from our audience was very good.”
Ljiljana Cagorovic, Editor in chief, TV Montena

“I would like to thank you for the assistance and support that the SEETV team provided to our journalist Milijana Kos during her stay in Brussels. I think I don't need to explain to much how important it was for us to have her reports from the EU during those important days, including the meeting of the Peace Implementation Council.. Many thanks once again.”
Slavica Isaretovic, Head of News, ATV Banja Luka

“I do consider the trip to Brussels very much helpful. I was able to understand the challenges that correspondents face in daily bases-totally different from the one I deal everyday. It was a great
experience in a professional sense as well; checking out how things can be done when you deal with a bureaucracy such as the one exists at the European Union. Actually one of the differences is that when I work in Kosovo most of the interviews can be arranged in the same day when you realize the interview.
This is something I don’t believe that can be done in Brussels because everything seems to be arranged days before. So planning is different almost completely from the place where I work. I will not mention everything I did, but I must say that staying in Brussels, the place that most of the journalists I talked to said it’s the Mecca for journalists was useful to understand how someone can do great work with a very good planning in a place where schedule is almost the most important thing. One of the things I am very much happy of noticing is the very good cooperation between journalists (especially the ones from the
Balkans).”
Artan Haraqija, Journalist at RTK, Kosovo

Maja Divac reporting from the European Commission

A typical programme of activities for the interns consisted of the following:

• visit of the three main EU institutions: Council, Commission and Parliament. In each of the institutions, meeting with the persons in charge of press relations.
• attending the midday press briefing in the Commission
• informal introduction to the audiovisual services of the European Commission, Council and Parliament
• visit to the mission of the journalist’s home country to the EU for a special briefing
• meeting with permanent correspondents from the Western Balkans and other journalist covering the region
• briefings or interviews with Commission officials dealing with Western Balkan countries
• briefings and interviews with Brussels think tank analysts