Vijf Servische studenten Journalistiek waren de afgelopen weken in Nederland voor een studiereis. Wat viel hen op? Speciaal voor GeR maakten ze een impressie, in woord en beeld. Hieronder de column van Ana Veselinovic.

There were about fifteen computers for the whole redaction, five of them were “normal”, the rest had Windows 95 and no internet. On the “normal computers” editors were sitting, and no one else. If you wanted internet you have to caught the moment they went for a lunch, or on some assignment. And when they came, you simply had to move. I didn’t have computer, I couldn’t search the informations, and I had to write about mushrooms, food, and if you want to know everything about the cemeteries in Belgrade, just ask.

This is the situation in daily newspapers “Danas” (that means- today) where I had an opportunity to work for three months before I came to Netherland on study trip. I came there with a lot of ideas and very enthusiastic about everything there. I’m a good student who has finished a lot of trainings, and I thought: “They are just waiting for me!” But, it wasn’t like that at all.

When we first came to “de Volkskrant” it was very astonishing. They have a lot of space and a lot of computers. Everyone has his space to work, and if he do something outside, he doesn’t have to worry if someone else will sit on his chair, or computer. And I thought: “Oh, it’s possible…And what it’s like on BBC when here is so great!?”

And there was other surprise. The girl who was working there, was my age and she was already working in a foreign desk. She said to us, that the week before she was in Hungary to write about something… At our foreign desks, usually work people who had studied English, so they just translate “Newsweek”, news from the “BBC”, “CNN” and others… For journalists in Serbia there is no enough money to travel.

Furthermore, the newspapers here are facing the future, in Serbia we are still facing the past. A lot of our medias are still under some kind of the pressure. That could be politicians, church, rich people… If you want to know which one exactly, you could be in danger. They can throw the bomb in front your house, or private army of bodyguards can wait you “behind the corner”. Although that influence can be seen in many of the newspapers, if you read “between the lines” of course, but if you want to publish something, that could be a problem.

Here, journalists have to deal with public relations managers, which are not so dangerous as they are probably numbered, boring, and manipulative. In Serbia, they are boring and young and blond, but they don’t have that kind of influence, that they have here maybe.

And at the end, one of the greatest challenges, his majesty- The internet. In Holland most of the newspapers have videos with the text online, journalists have notebooks and good mobile phones, they are all so “multimedial”. In Serbia, only 30% of the citizens are using the web. So we still shouldn’t be “scared” if the internet is going to beat press. We still need that paper! How else should we light the fire for the barbecue, or what will the people read in theirs toilets!?

And what is the same? The people. They are so relaxed, creative. They are all not so well paid, they are all worried about the economic crises and how to pay the bills. We have the same problems and we laugh the same things. It’s enough.

Ana Veselinovic