prijava
NEUM, 12 July (FENA) - The seminar “Strengthening the capacity of the media for professional monitoring and reporting on the election process” was held from 9 to 11 July in Neum, organized by the Council of Europe Office in Sarajevo, within the project “Support for the integral and inclusive election process in BiH ”.
The seminar was attended by the President of the Central Election Commission (CEC) of BiH Željko Bakalar, and members Irena Hadžiabdić, Vanja Bjelica - Prutina and Suad Arnautović, ODIHR expert Giovanna Maiola, as well as journalists from leading media outlets from all over Bosnia and Herzegovina who had the opportunity to get acquainted in detail with the most important aspects of the election process.
The BiH CEC President Željko Bakalar said in an interview with FENA that this was a good opportunity for media representatives and the CEC members to discuss topics of election legislation, the complexity of the election process, the challenges of electoral reform, the need for reform, technical improvements, manipulations in the election process, as well as issues of the use of social networks and the Internet in general in the election process and in the campaigns of political entities.
They also discussed possibilities for technical improvements of the process.
Bakalar believes that this was an excellent opportunity to exchange information, experiences and views of the BiH CEC members and media representatives, who had the opportunity to learn about each segment of the election process about which they had insufficient information or knowledge, in order to report more responsibly and competently on the subject. He says that the right information, which is placed in the public space, enables them to work easier.
"We are facing an abundance of misinformation which, in a way, leads us to additional problems, in addition to complex issues, laws and the implementation of elections, which we normally deal with," he stated.
The program manager in charge of the project dealing with the election process in the Council of Europe Office in Sarajevo, Esad Mavrić, said that the Council of Europe has been implementing various projects for years, in this case especially projects related to further democratization of the election process in BiH.
"The aim of this seminar was additional education and training of representatives of various media outlets from all over BiH on the topic of professional, and I would rather say more competent reporting on the election process," said Mavrić.
According to him, their partner in this activity was the Central Election Commission of BiH, which recognized the importance of this campaign.
"They rated the understanding of their work by the media and cooperation with the media as highly important," said Mavrić.
(FENA) S. R.
