Dear Colleagues,

Wishing to improve our mutual communication and make as many of you as possible included in the CIRCOM Regional activities, the intention of the CIRCOM Secretariat and myself is to inform you through the CR Newsletter about the activities and the future projects of CIRCOM Regional.

Executive Committee meeting was held in Budapest on 22 February 2003. We do thank Judit Klein and MTV/Hungarian Television for the hospitality and perfect organisation of the meeting.

Main conclusions of the Meeting:

1. 21st Annual Conference, Isola di Grado, 22 - 24 May 2003
Annual Conference will, at the kind invitation of RAI, be held in Grado, Italy, from 22nd until 24th May 2003. Meetings of Executive Committee and European Board will be on 21/05/03. All information about the Conference, as well as the Accreditation Form, can be found on CR web site http://www.circom-regional.org. The theme of the Conference is: «Connecting the Regions of Europe», and main highlights are: Benchmarking of Regional TV Models in Europe, Why Should your Regional TV Be Better than Mine, Coproduction: Mission Possible or Impossible, Connecting with Democracy, EU Enlargement, When the Bit Story Happens, Connecting Digital...

In 2003 CR will be compiling the CR Database, comprising detailed up-to-date information on regional broadcasting across Europe. At present, there is no comprehensive picture of television at the regional level. Each CR National Coordinator is asked to fill in the Questionnaire for Survey of Regional TV in Europe . Would you please return the Questionnaire to CR Secretariat by 15 March, 2003. This is particularly important for future CR projects.

2. PRIX CIRCOM
Entries must be in by mid-March. By now only two entries have arrived (Poland and Germany). Do not miss to send your entries! Check the categories and the prizes and who is awarding.
1. Documentary - Grand Prix Circom Regional trophy 10000 euros, trophy, free visit to Grado Conference
2. Regional News - Grand Prix Circom Regional trophy 7000 euros, trophy, free visit to Grado Conference
3. Current Affairs - European Parliament award 6500 euros, trophy, free visit to Grado Conference
4. Cross-Border - Committee of the Regions award 4000 euros, trophy, free visit to Grado Conference
5. Special - Prix Spécial de France 3 3000 euros, trophy, free visit to Grado Conference
6. Most Original - TVP award 3000 euros, trophy, free visit to Grado Conference

3. Training
Since most of the activities related to Training are in the first half of the year, do profit from this opportunity and send your representatives.
- The TV Middle Management Course (March 12 - 15), thanks to the generosity of the hosts, HRT Croatia, will be held in Zagreb. We can still accept 4-5 attendants more.
- The Ethnic Minorities Course (April 28 - May 2), the Course for participants from European countries (ATTENTION - no restriction on Stability pact countries as initialy announced), will be held in Budapest with funding from the Council of Europe and organised locally by Judit Klein, MTV.
- The Annual Conference Journalism Training (May 12 - 23) will be held in two locations, Lignana Sabbadoria and then Grado, Italy. Training organiser is Karol Cioma and the Council of Europe will support the activities this year again. The course will use DVCam filming equipment and Avid Xpress DV laptop editing facilities. There will be plenty of opportunity for journalists to gain hands-on experience.

4. Corpoductions
After the meeting with the CoPro Office in Munich, the Sub-Committee for Coproductions continued working on legal, programme and technological issues for developing potentials for coproductions in CR. Further more, we continue preparing two coproductions from the Enlargement project (The New Teenage Europe, The Last Straight Line). In a week's time, we intend to send the whole material, description of the project and all conditions for financing, what would probably contribute to the enlarged list of participants. The respond was good so far and we endeavour to work on this project with utmost professionalism from its very beginning.

5. Finances
The EC, after getting the opinion of Internal Auditors, has accepted the 2002 Annual Report. All the members who still have not settled their membership fees are kindly requested to do so ASAP.

6. Miscellaneous
After 9 years of highly professional, though most dedicated work, because of the new post, Mrs Marie-Paule Urban is leaving us from the post of Deputy Secretary General. Candidate for this post on behalf of FR3 is Mr. Hubert Schilling. We shall bid goodbye to Marie-Paule in Grado, and that will be the occasion to thank her for her work.
In Grado, TVP will present new National Coordinator who is appointed as of 1 March 2003, Mr. Piotr Borys. I sincerely hope that Mrs Barbara Lewandowska will contribute with her experience to the organisation of the 22nd Annual Conference of CIRCOM Regional in Wroclaw, Poland.

In the end, may I remind those of you who still have not filled-in the four Questionnaires (on Membership, Prix Circom, Euromusica and Training) to do so ASAP, as we intend to present the answers during the Grado Conference.

Annual Conference wise, if you have an idea or contribution for a Workshop, please do let us know.

With best regards,

Marija Nemcic
Secretary General
CIRCOM Regional
Phone +385.1.634 3613
Fax +385.1.634 3621
E-mail: circom@circom-regional.org
WEB: http://www.circom-regional.org