Tony Goldman, British journalist of long experience, editor and lecturer, is currently an editor of European Business Conspectus; annual guide to doing business in the European Union, candidate states. Joint consultant/course writer/trainer to Iris Outlook Project, EU funded training programme for trainers of journalists, journalists and editors. Editor/Designer- NUJBMC "George Viner Memorial Fund Trust ". He trained a number of journalists and was consultant to the Black Media Institute on journalist training courses. Established the first Access Courses to professional training for members of the African, Caribbean and Asian communities and started the professional journalism training courses for the same communities.
Tony Goldman met Milena Hristova, Editor of novinite.com and The News.
Q: What do you think are the main achievements of the project?
A: The main achievement is that we have now 57 trainees, who have been through the course, very enthusiastic, very keen to follow the basic rules about fair reporting and coverage of minorities, which in my opinion is a very useful and important development. The other result is the response of the trainees because I have never encountered such a warm response. My job involved interviewing some 17% of all the trainees and I can say you couldn't get a more appreciative group.
Q: How do you view the impact of the project as an idea?
A: It was a marvelous idea. I couldn't think of a better way of addressing and covering the obvious problems that Bulgaria, along with other countries, has.
Q: Don't you think the international community tends to pay more attention to the problems of the minorities in Bulgaria and disregarding the problems of the other people?
A: I think we can put it the other way round and say you can judge how successfully a country is looking after all its people by the way it treats its minorities. Usually speaking in any country that has problems the first people to feel it are the minorities. If you have solved the problem in treating the minorities you have probably solved the problem of all the other people.
Q: What was the most memorable impression from your contacts with Bulgarian colleagues?
A: The most memorable thing was the extreme competence of all the trainees whom I interviewed, because all of them are practical working journalists, I was really impressed by their education, their approach and their knowledge.
Q: One of the most widely discussed topics in Bulgaria is the freedom of the media. Do you believe media can be independent and free?
A: It is a difficult question if I take it as compared with a situation where there is regulation of the media in terms of what they can say and what they can't say. This is something that we have to deal with a lot. Basically in Great Britain there are severe limitations on what you can say but that does not interfere in the overall freedom of the press to tell things as they happen. The issues that affect freedom in the UK are that you can't say anything that is defamatory, because of the laws of libel. Secondly there are rules governing what you can't say with regard to ethnic minorities. Some of these are laws, but of most of them take the form of codes of conduct, which have been produced for example by Trade Unions. Certainly we find these very effective and the way I look at the stories in UK there has been a great improvement in the way stories about ethnic minorities have been reported. If for example a black driver gets a parking ticket and goes to court, the fact that the person is from an ethnic minority would not be reported. Because there is nothing to report! The same approach goes to other things. You don't' mention the ethnicity of the person unless the ethnicity is significant in the event. Twenty years ago it was not something that would always happen.
What I keep saying to people is that it is not that Britain now is what it is because someone waved the magic wand. We had the same kind of problems that you are experiencing now twenty, not a hundred years ago. And the treatment of minorities even now is not perfect by any means, but it is improving. There is no reason why Bulgaria could not improve in exactly the same way. It is not true that British papers will always treat minorities fairly. All you have to do is look at the British media to see our problems.
Q: Can you sum up your impressions of the way Bulgarian media cover minorities' problems?
A: There are some problems with some media, but I cant' say all media. You tend to find that some media outlets have tended in the past to go through a sensational approach, which particularly attracts a certain source of xenophobic response. One of the things it would be nice to see is if media companies realize there is just as much benefit from not adopting this approach. It may sell newspapers and get viewers, but in the long run it may be doing far more harm than good.
Q: The shut-off of electricity, which unleashed riots in Stolipinovo, found much more coverage in the foreign media than most other good news. Do you find this fact disturbing?
A: Basically, but sadly, news outlets tend to be far better at reporting bad events than good events. This course used to be called Positive images for minorities and this is true of countries as well. We do tend to emphasize the bad aspects and not the good aspects. I would defend the coverage of that story on the grounds that it was a remarkable story in many ways. I have never read anything quite like it anywhere. If you count the news as being what is new and novel, that was certainly a novel story.
Q: Which aspects of Bulgaria's reality are covered most often in the British media?
A: I have read many reviews praising Bulgarian wines and holiday resorts, but I am afraid Bulgaria is not so widely reported as it deserves in the British media.
Q: But almost nothing on Bulgaria's politics and business?
A: Not really. We have the same problem. If you try to find what is going on in the United Kingdom in American newspapers, there is almost nothing. This may change because as Bulgaria becomes a member of the European Union and part of the active partnership Bulgaria's life will be covered more thoroughly.
Q: So you think Bulgaria can improve its image abroad?
A: Yes, I have no doubt about it. But I would not say that Bulgaria's image abroad is bad, not wanting to play with words here. As I see it the problem is not that people have a bad view of Bulgaria, the problem is that people don't' have a view of Bulgaria. If you go to bookshops in the United Kingdom there are rows of books on France and other countries and one on Bulgaria. This shows my idea of the invisibility of Bulgaria.
Q: If you were to write an article on the way minorities' problems are reported by Bulgarian media, what title would you choose?
A: Country's media coming to grips with its minorities.
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