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SARAJEVO, September 27 (FENA) - The media market in Bosnia and Herzegovina has suffered great damage and will need years to recover, warned General Manager of the Federal News Agency FENA Elmir Huremović at the autumn conference of the European Alliance of News Agencies (EANA) which is being held online this year.
Huremović was one of the speakers at the panel on the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic on small media markets. On that occasion, he presented general information about the media in BiH and the consequences of Covid-19 on the media market in BiH.
He pointed to data showing that the media in BiH, especially commercial media, are facing declining incomes, that many are being forced to reduce the number of workers, and that a number of them are facing complete closure.
"As in the rest of the world, the media in BiH have also adapted their activities to the specific circumstances caused by the pandemic. These circumstances forced us to think faster and do more at FENA. We focused entirely on public interest, not commercial gain. That is why at this time the media in Bosnia and Herzegovina turned to FENA as their primary source of information. We have adapted to the new conditions, respecting all measures to prevent the spread of the virus, technically improving the delivery of news to our subscribers and additionally focusing on social media, all to get relevant news about the virus and prevent the spread of fake news," Huremović said.
We clearly see that new market opportunities can be found in the better use of new technologies, automation of some processes and development of the use of artificial intelligence in our newsrooms. We have launched a special site that publishes news related to the pandemic and this content is available to everyone.
We are working on the promotion of our projects: FENA.BIZ, FENA.NEWS and FENA.LIVE, promoting FENA as the most reliable source of information in BiH.
We have significantly increased the number of videos that FENA produces, which aims to distribute news and multimedia content faster by live streaming of the most important events.
We broadcast live all the important events during the crisis, especially the press conferences of the crisis headquarters and other relevant institutions. In this way, we have provided our users with first-hand information without the need to send their reporters and journalists to events and expose them to the risk of infection.
I believe that FENA’s role in this crisis caused by the pandemic is very important when it comes to the media market because we believe that we have helped the entire media sector in our country by providing them with reliable and accurate news without additional fees.
We do everything to, in this difficult time, help the media, our users and we have proven that their interest as well as the public interest is our priority. That is our mission, said FENA’s General Manager, Elmir Huremović.
Apart from him, the General Director of the Croatian News Agency HINA Branka Gabriela Vojvodić and the Director of the Dutch news agency ANP Martijn Bennis spoke at the panel dedicated to the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic on small media markets. The panel was moderated by Armela Krasniqi, Director of the Albanian ATA agency. Due to the epidemiological situation, the EANA annual conference is being held online this time, and the official host is the Ukrainian agency Ukrinform. The impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the status and work of the media is discussed through six separate panels involving leaders from all Alliance member agencies. The focus is on changes, but also on chances that the new situation brings to news agencies.
The Federal News Agency FENA is scheduled to host next spring’s EANA conference, which was scheduled for April this year but was postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
EANA consists of 32 news agencies promoting and respecting copyright, access to quality information, technological development of media and, last but not least, freedom of press.
(FENA) A. B.
