Interview: Biljana Bejkova, project manager at the NGO Info-center

Successful public relations build positive reputation

 

The motto of the NGO Info-center is “Be visible and influential”. How would you explain the motto and the role of the NGO Info-center within the civil sector?
The NGO Info-center is the only civil society organization in Macedonia that actually has the role of a non-profitable public relations agency. It means that the NGO Info-center enables formal and informal civil initiatives in the country to get an appropriate space in the media, successfully to convey their message to the public, to create public opinion and become a relevant factor in creating policies in the key social spheres. For that purpose, the NGO Info-center has been providing constant and free-of-charge services in the field of public relations to over 200 active civic initiatives on the territory of Macedonia for four years. Thus, these initiatives have at their disposal a completely equipped hall for press conferences, debates, training sessions and other public events in the center of Skopje, and besides the logistic support, they also get a complete expertise (from creating communication plans to concrete communication with journalists). The expert team of the NGO Info-center performs all these activities with a single vision, a democratically developed society with an influential, sustainable and transparent civil sector. Therefore, the role of the NGO Info-center is to be a creator of positive reputation, trust and influence upon the civil sector in the society, with a developed, constant and sustainable expertise in the sphere of public relations and public representation.

 

The impression is that the role of the NGO Info-center has lately been wider in terms of the fact that civil society organizations, whose focus was on environment and human rights, used to hold press conferences in the Center. The circle of civil society organizations that decide to address the public through the Center has been broadened. What does it result from? Your excellent marketing action or something else…?
Civil formal and informal initiatives in Macedonia more and more recognize the need for their constant presence and influence in the public and supported by the NGO Info-center, they are more encouraged and more often organize public events where they present their attitudes, requests, reactions, proposals for overcoming certain problems etc. What makes us happy in the NGO Info-center is the fact that the number of associations that use our services is increasing and the range of problems they deal with is bigger and wider. If, in the beginning, most visible were the ecological associations and those for human rights, now, in the NGO Info-center on daily basis we cooperate with a number of local and national organizations dealing with problems in the sphere of economy, health, education, young people…

These initiatives have realized that in order to affect the public opinion, to mobilize the citizens, to take part in the decision-making processes, to increase their membership, to attract the media’s interest, even donors’ interest, they have to build public relations which would appeal to them. Successful public relations build positive reputation for an organization and the reputation is the basic measure for success. What must not be forgotten is the fact that the NGO Info-center has an experienced and creative expert team for public relations (with certificates from the London Public Relations School), experienced journalists, psychologists, researchers and analysts, and for the past four years it has had more than 200 service users, over 500 organized public events, constant two-way communication with the media, over 500 press-clippings, everyday quality monitoring of the media and more than 80 educations for public relations.

 

One of the constant activities of the Center is the media researches through the Media Mirror. One of the latest researches was the presentation of civil society organizations and their activities in our media. What are your perceptions? Do our media have the feeling for the civil sector, do they still ignore their activities and is the opinion that the civil sector is the fifth column still valid?
The NGO Info-center in May 2005 started a constant quality monitoring of the most relevant media in Macedonia, called “Media Mirror”. This monitoring and analysis of the media has an objective to give a clear picture of the professional standards and criteria of informing in the media, and they way they follow and interpret the key social processes and events. Six daily newspapers and six TV houses are being covered on national level – Vecer, Vreme, Dnevnik, Utrinski vesnik, Fakti, Spic, TV A1, TV Kanal 5, MTV1, MTV2 – the news in Albanian, TV Sitel and TV Telma. Most followed topics are the work of the Government, Euro-integrative processes and for the last few months the media’s relation to the civil sector. The NGO Info-center’s analysis and experience show that the media on daily basis regularly follow the civil society organizations’ activities and press conferences. However, this manifested interest is presented in the media only in short news and information. The problem treatment of the issues that the civil sector raises still lacks in the media. It is noticeable that there are media that continuously, roughly, propagandizing, manipulatively and with no concrete arguments build a negative picture of the civil sector in the country. Taking all this into consideration, I have to point out that despite the traditionally good cooperation of the NGO Info-center with the media, it is still early to establish any awards for the media that have contributed to the civil sector development. 

 

How much are the media interested in the Media Mirror researches? Who is interested in the analysis of the media and is it realistic in Macedonia to exist a monthly, let’s say, that would follow and analyze the work of the media?
The media’s interest in the Media Mirror, as far as we know, is bigger than they openly recognize it. They all read it, and sometimes they react. You know, it is not always pleasant to read the monthly analysis of the work of your media. We sometimes get reactions as the Media Mirror being a “dark mirror”, but our team is not to blame or the methodology, according to which the monitoring is implemented, but its “darkness” or “light” depends solely on the work of the media themselves. The so far experience has shown that constant monitoring of the media is necessary, but it has to be followed both by the process of self-regulation in the media, and bigger engagement and self-criticism of the journalists, like, for example, the Macedonian Journalists’ Association.

 

They say that foreign donors are about to leave Macedonia (many of them have already left). Taking into consideration that a lot of civil society organizations depend on these donations, let’s imagine a hypothetical situation, what would the picture of the civil sector in the country be without any help from the foreign donors, would the civil sector survive self-reliant?
When you have a country that still depends on foreign assistance, that is, it is not self-sustainable, you cannot expect civil society organizations to become sustainable overnight. I do not think it will happen in Macedonia for a long time, but it does not mean that the associations should not prepare and find ways of self-financing. It is true that there is certain withdrawal of donor’s community from Macedonia, but we should not forget the fact that there are still funds at disposal, as well as the EU funds are coming, too. I don’t think the situation is that dark, but it is a fact that the rules of the game are more difficult and the competition is much bigger. Therefore, restructuring and strategic profiling of the associations is of great relevance.

 

The government has prepared a program for cooperation with the civil sector. How much is that cooperation really visible, and how much stays on paper only? Is there any future on relation Government – civil sector?
Every government, more or less, points out the will for building a partner relation with the civil sector. These days, the new government pointed it out by adopting an official document. I would like to believe that the cooperation with the Government will not be declarative only, but that it will take root and the civil sector will eventually be accepted as a serious and relevant factor. However, the so far experience (there have been some exceptions) has shown that the government’s intentions have not always been honest and well-intentioned when it is about the civil sector. It prefers apologists to opponents. Therefore, I would certainly give a chance to the government, but the skepticism is really present…