"A Change of Perspective" by Ljubica Vujadinovic, Television Novi Sad

The South East Europe Television Journalism workshop in Opatija, Croatia was another unforgettable Circom experience.

Although we all come from different countries, which in some cases still see each other as enemies, the way we worked together as journalists and became friends proved that we have so much in common. Dedication to our professions and the will to improve our knowledge and skills has put us all together in the same position. The workshop helped us realise that we cope with the same kind of problems. When we viewed our programmes together and analysed them it was obvious that we make very similar mistakes in our work. Implementation of the things we learnt in Opatija is necessary to make our programs more attractive to viewers. In my opinion, in countries like ours, the role of the media has key importance on further democratisation and Europeanization of our societies. As young television journalists we are the ones who can do a lot to improve those processes by doing our jobs in a proper way and the Circom trainers and technicians were just a great role model of absolute professionals.

From a more personal point of view, two weeks in Opatija gave me chance to meet young people from the region with whom I share so many things and have so much in common although previously our religions and nationalities were not always in great and friendly relations. So from now when I hear "Kosovo Albanians" or "Bosnian Muslins" it won’t be a picture in my mind of some very different people somewhere in Kosovo or Bosnia – there will be a picture of Artan and Skumbi or Mediha who are young people and journalists just as I am, and who have all the same needs and wishes for their future as I have. There has been a great change of perspective in my mind, hasn’t there?