. . . and all the union and government officials attending were mentioned --
by name.
The report met the leaders' need for publicity; the "cult of personality"
held over from the Communist regime of Enver Hoxha. But the reporter buried, in
the final paragraph, what the listener really wanted to know. The price of bread
was going down.
Sometimes journalists argued vigorously about the conflict between the
listener's need to know and state's desire for secrecy. I had a copy of the
British newspaper "The Observer" and we discussed the paper's report that John
Major's government had been holding secret talks with the IRA. Some journalists
thought the editor should be arrested for betraying state secrets and
endangering the government's activities. The role of a free press was to protect
the democratically elected government. (This was a particularly strong sentiment
among those at Radio Tirane who personally risked a lot to support the
Democratic Party before the fall of Communism.) Others thought that "The
Observer" article was the type of journalism that made democracy in the West
vital, that it served democracy and therefore the listener. (Unfortunately the
one area of agreement we all shared in my office that day was that such a story
could not be reported on Radio Tirane.)
I tried to get reporters to anticipate issues based on listener needs, not on
government press releases. We brain stormed stories on women's health, the role
of religion in a changing society, crime, drugs, and the problems of people
moving from the country to the city. Reporters began to anticipate issues and
advance them.
At times anticipating stories created problems. One reporter was covering an
issue about to be debated in parliament. She interviewed a parliamentary deputy
about the pending issue. Before her story was broadcast the deputy went to the
station to kill the interview. He argued that Radio Tirane should cover the news
and not anticipate it. He believed that the issue was not news until after
parliament voted on it. Before the vote anything said on the issue was just
opinion and the radio should keep away from opinion. A vote is a fact. Radio
should report only facts. I argued that listeners must know what deputies are
thinking before the vote so they could let legislators know their opinions. I
lost. The interview was killed. Ingrained habits die hard, but with some
journalists I made a start. Albania needs an education program for public
officials to show them how to operate with the changing rules of an evolving
democratic state.
Change contributes to fear among journalists, and fear is the hardest
obstacle for reporters to overcome. Reporters are state employees. Some of them
think that they work for the deputies they are covering. The legal structure of
the radio station provides them little insulation from government reprisal if an
official takes issue with a story. While covering a strike a reporter was
interviewing a union leader. The leader was arrested during the interview. The
journalist did not report the arrest. He was afraid that if he reported it
without official confirmation, even though he had the arrest on tape, he would
lose his job. In the three and a half months I was at Radio Tirane at least two
reporters were attacked by government officials for their stories. Both feared
for their jobs. With a 29% unemployment rate and no private radio stations to
work for, this fear is very real. In both cases the reporters kept their jobs
but at least one story was changed to suit the official.
Management at Radio Tirane understands its reporters' fear. Station Director
Bardhyl Pollo and I worked together to develop a set of guidelines and
evaluative criteria for journalists. If journalists follow the rules, they
should be evaluated and promoted accordingly, and be defended by management
against government attacks. The guidelines will give management grounds to
defend its journalists. When I left we had an outline of guidelines ready to be
translated into Albanian and distributed to reporters.
Only time will show if my residency has been successful in improving news
reporting. My fear is that unless there is a change in Albanian broadcast law,
providing statutory insulation for radio from government pressure, journalists
will not feel free to report fearlessly. One of my strongest recommendations to
the German Marshall Fund is that it provide legal assistance to Radio Tirane and
the Albanian Government in drafting a new broadcast law.
PROGRAMMING
In other areas of my work my accomplishments were more concrete. Radio
Tirane's programming was difficult for listeners to follow. At 9:30 one morning
there would be classical music, the next day folk music, the next day western
pop, and the next day poetry. There was no published schedule, and little
on-the-air promotion. This worked when Radio Tirane was the only station on the
dial, but with the BBC and Voice of America both on the FM band, and looking to
future competition, the schedule needed more predictability and promotion. I
worked with Radio Tirane's Assistant Director, Arben Kallamata (who was a
Niemann Fellow at Harvard University last year,) in developing a morning
magazine program that deals with cultural issues, plays music, and has listener
participation through the telephone. We started hourly newscasts. We also began
on-air promotion of upcoming features. Now Radio Tirane is easier for listeners
to use.
When I arrived at Radio Tirane programmers needed better access to
information to be able to produce better programs. Under the Communist
government the station had an excellent library, but only people who produced
political programming, especially for the International Service, could use it.
Regular programmers had access only to an archive of party propaganda that was
next to worthless. During the revolution a mob running through the station
trashed the card catalogue of the "closed" library making most of the material
in periodicals unfindable. Since the revolution the station library has had no
money to update almanacs, music publications and periodicals or to restore the
card file. Programmers were distrustful of libraries because they viewed them as
part of the propaganda machine rather than as valuable resources. One small but
important accomplishment was getting programmers cards for the American Cultural
Center library and having them use the library to find information of interest
to listeners.
EQUIPMENT
The thing that first strikes foreign broadcasters visiting Radio Tirane is
the old equipment. It is mostly from the late 60's and early 70's. Foreign
broadcasters immediately want to give Radio Tirane their old equipment to help
out. This has proven to be a problem. While Radio's equipment is old, the
maintenance department is well run and knows how to fix things when they break.
The gifts from foreigners often use different technologies and different parts
stocks. They are more difficult for the maintenance engineers to keep running.
The Chief engineer said that sometimes he thought he was the "victim of
charity." He realized that Radio Tirane needed a re-equipment plan that included
training for his engineers.
I was able to build on work done by an engineer from WBUR in Boston who
visited the station a month before I arrived. When I left the engineering
department had a reasonable and cost effective plan to re-equip the station that
it could present to management, the government and funding agencies. As part of
my work with the engineers I showed them how to go to competitive bid on
equipment. The preliminary prices we got were well below what Radio Tirane
thought it would have to pay to re-equip the station.
MANAGEMENT
Finally, in strategic management, I re-stressed Radio Tirane's need always to
be listener driven. If Radio Tirane is to be an important voice in Albania,
especially if private broadcasting is introduced, it must anticipate listener
needs. It must know what its listeners expect. The station must have good
listener research. I hope that this is an area in which funding agencies can
direct future aid.
Station Director Pollo, understands the need to focus on listeners. He has
traveled to visit National Public Radio in Washington and public stations like
WBUR. He has learned a great deal from those visits but he had an idea about
what radio could do before he ever got the chance to travel. His great
contribution to Radio Tirane is what he calls "democratizing the microphone,"
opening up Radio Tirane to uncensored listener telephone calls and on-the-street
interviews. This democratization has helped make radio the most credible local
news medium in Albania, according to a recent Gallop poll. Pollo opened up the
microphones before the Communist government lost the 1992 elections. It was an
act of courage. I've gained a lot through my association with him and his staff.
It helped me clarify why I am in Public Radio. Pollo looks to the United States,
where Public Radio has made the transition from serving the institutional needs
of the Universities that sponsor it to serving the needs of listeners. This is
why he requested aid from an American public broadcasters like the staff at WBUR
and me. An ongoing relationship between American and Albanian broadcasters will
benefit both of us.
Reinventing History
A sidebar for Trans Atlantic Perspective
A popular book among Government officials is "Reinventing Government." It
strikes me that in Albania, and in the rest of Easter Europe, people are not
only re-inventing governments, but are engaged in reinventing history, and
perhaps themselves. This is an entry from my Diary of...
November 28, 1993, Independence Day in Albania and the 55th anniversary of
Radio Tirane. At this morning's celebration we watched a struggle for the
control of history.
The celebration started with greetings from (station Director) Bardhyl Pollo,
who talked about the station's role in the democratic revolution, including the
40 day strike in 1991, the opening up of the microphones to listeners against
the will of communist officials, and the station's coverage of the 1992
elections.
A man read a paper on the history of Radio Tirane. He lamented that the
history of 55 years could fit on 30 pages, which he dramatically waved before
the audience. He explained that under Enver Hoxha the date of the start of the
station was fixed on Dec 17, 1944, the date Tirane was liberated from the Nazis.
He spent most of his speech reading newspaper clippings proving the station
started regular broadcasts on Independence Day, 1938. He described, in detail,
the first programs. He spent only a few moments on the period between 1944 and
1991.
Several others made brief remarks . . . then the mic was opened to the
audience. Mr. Pollo believed in "democratization of the microphone," this became
a democratization of history.
A white haired women stood up and said that it was wrong to forget Dec. 17,
1944, because that was a true date of the start of free broadcasting after the
Nazis. Those who celebrate that date should not be branded as "Communists" but
"Patriots." A man rose, his father had been Director General and had hidden
equipment from the Nazis in his home against the day that the broadcasts could
be free of "Fascist Propaganda." He said his father and broadcasters who died in
defense of the station should be remembered in this history. Another man asked
what about the music and literature the station preserved during the Communist
period. Should that all now be thrown away in this new history? The story of 55
years should have included more of those accomplishments.
An animated 78 year woman, who had been an announcer and radio actress and
had spent time in prison spoke. She accused the father of an earlier speaker of
causing her arrest. She used all her abilities as an actress to make the
audience laugh and cry as she told her story, naming names and providing
considerable discomfort along with her entertainment. The earlier speaker walked
out. Some of the officials tried to gently reclaim the microphone. She stood her
ground until she was done.
After a few more comments, Mr. Pollo invited everyone to stay for a concert
of light music. A female vocalist sang Paul McCartney's "Yesterday, all my
troubles seemed so far away." How strange a song for a radio station, a nation,
trying to sort out all the yesterdays. "Oh I believe in yesterday." Yes, but
whose...
