Multilingual Voivodina

Re-Establishment of the Lost Inter-Cultural Permeation

In the workshop of Novi Sad journalistic school, the journal called Nase reci (Our Words) was created, which published articles of associates of different ethnic origin in six languages which are spoken and written in Voivodina

AIM Belgrade, 28 February, 1998

Nase reci, created in the inter-cultural and multilingual workshop of the Novi Sad journalistic school organized as part of the Confidence Building Measures project of the Council of Europe, at the same time is and is not a journal. It seems that it is primarily at attempt of 14 young journalists employed in media which are published in Hungarian, Ruthenian, Romanian, Slovak, Romany and Serbian language, to offer a model of multicultural and multilingual journal which would reflect the fact that Voivodina is a multiethnic environemnt with numerous nations, languages, cultures, religions and customs. Along with Nase reci, this group of journalists made two six-language radio programs which were broadcast within the Ruthenian and Serbian program of Novi Sad radio station.

According to the data of the 1991 census, members of 26 nations and ethnic groups lived in Voivodina, most of which were the Serbs (57.3 per cent), Hungarians (16.9), Yugoslavs (8.4), Croats (3.7), Slovaks (3.2), Montenegrins (2.2), Romanians (1.9), Ruthenians (0.9), and Ukranians (0.24 per cent). Today's ethnic composition of Voivodina has greatly been changed after massive migrations because of the wars in Croatia and Bosnia.

Observed from the angle of these figures, the project of Novi Sad journalistic school is an attempt of a specific re-establishment of the silently politically written off mutual permeation of cultures and a suggestion to the young journalists that this permeation is possible, regardless of much negative effort invested into creation of the impression of a parallel life of different nations without much interest of ones for the others, especially in mass media. After political centralization of Serbia, and after autonomy of Voivodina was brought down to a verbal ornament, media of ethnic minorities were reduced to a minimum, and cooperation between editorial teams on different languages, which was a regular practice in electronic media, was gradually completely interrupted.

A poll among participants of the journalistic workshop shows interesting results: different ethnic groups know little about each other, less than a few years ago, they know just the bad sides of the "others"; for joint life it is necessary to have tolerance, understanding and sincerity, stress the pollees; intolerance, division into loyal and disloyal ethnic minorities, use of equality of ethnic minorities as a decor for quasi-political promotion, revealing minorities as something "exotic", are a part of the most frequent replies to the question what is irritating in the general stand towards ethnic minorities. Participants in this public opinion poll consider that the media "can, should, but do not stimulate" joint life and that they must be forced to reflect it. A gloomy description of the reality can also be detected in the allegation from the poll that the situation in the media is just a reflection of the broad social environment.

Two generations of young journalists have completed the Novi Sad journalistic school. According to certain assessments, local editorial teams have a shortage of about 200 journalists. The head of the school Dubravka Valic stresses that the "cultural context is most important for creation of the media space" and warns that in the previous years, editorial teams were deserted because experienced journalists have left them. After the so-called anti-bureaucratic revolution (1988) and the time of preparation of "all the Serbs of the world" to define theirliving space, Novi Sad media were mostly put under control of the state and used as a propagandist support to the regime. Just recently, independent local newspapers and radio stations have started to appear, which are expected to greatly benefit from the project of media training which relies on the principles of tolerance and tearing down of prejudices against the others.

Milena Putnik

(AIM)