1. Case-study No. & Title:
245. Provision of a Programme for the Italian Ethnic Community by the Regional Radio and TV Center Koper-Capodistria, Slovenia

Keywords

2. Author information:
2.1 Author’s Name
Simona Zavratnik Zimic, M.Sc.

2.2 Institutional Affiliation and Contact Details:
Institute for Ethnic Studies
Erjavčeva 26
Ljubljana

Tel: ++ 386 1 200 18 70 (or 86)
Fax: ++ 386 1 2510 964
E mail: simona.zavratnik@guest.arnes.si

2.3 Date recorded
15/04/2001

3. Good Practice Information Sheet
3.1 Local Level Good Practice:
The good practice concerns the provision of mass media in the language of the ethnic community, in accordance with the right ensured under Slovenian Constitution for members of indigenous ethnic communities to be informed in their own language.

The Italian minority in Slovenia receives information through Italian radio and tv programmes that are transmitted by the ‘Regional RTV Center Koper-Capodistria’. The RTV Center Koper-Capodistria has two radio programmes that are transmitted on separate radio frequencies, one in Slovenian and one in Italian. The Italian radio programme has been created for the Italian ethnic community that lives in Slovenia and Croatia. Serving this community remains one of its most important roles.

The radio station in Italian was established in 1949, and was at the outset transmitted in Slovenian, Italian and Croatian. After the definition of the Slovenian-Italian state border with the ‘London Memorandum’ in 1954, this radio station was amalgamated with the central Radio Ljubljana. Until 1979 the programme was transmitted mostly in Italian with two short ‘Slovenian blocks’ in the morning and evening. In 1979 the programmes were separated into different radio frequencies. Today they constitute autonomous mass media that aims to enrich the bilingual environment on the Slovenian coast, although the importance of transmitting across the national borders should not be overlooked. In addition to radio programmes, a TV station also became active in 1971. This likewise has two programmes, one in Italian and one in Slovenian.

3.2 Location:
The regional RTV Center Koper-Capodistria is situated in the coastal town of Koper/Capodistria in the Slovenian-Italian bilingual area.

3.3 Minority/Target Groups:
Radio and TV programmes in Italian language are primarily designed for the Italian ethnic community/minority in Slovenia and this group is the main target group of this good practice. However, the transmission of a radio programme for the Italian ethnic community goes beyond ethnic lines, both in the bilingual area where members of the Slovenian majority population are also likely to be listening or watching Italian programmes. and in neighbouring Croatia and Italy.

3.4 Major Actors Involved

3.5 Budget allocated by local government authorities and/or by other actors
Regional RTV Centre Koper-Capodistria is a part of the Radio and Television Slovenia, which is a public institution and therefore primarily financed by means of subscriptions.

3.6 Timeframe
The Italian-language radio station was established in 1949 and the Italian TV station in 1971.

3.7 Local level good practice relation to national level ethnic policy
The Regional RTV Center Koper/Capodistria is part of the national public institution ‘RTV Slovenia’ that is based in the Slovenian capital, Ljubljana, and has two regional programmes, one at Primorska - RTV Center Koper-Capodistria and another in Štajerska – RTV Center Maribor, with the studio for Hungarian programme located in Lendava/Lendva.

In accordance with the Slovenian Law on Radio and Television and the Statute of the Public Institution Radio and Television Slovenia, the regional RTV Center Koper-Capodistria represents a part of the system of public broadcasting. Within RTV Slovenija’s sphere of responsibility is the creation and broadcasting of one hour programmes, for both radio and television, for the Italian and the Hungarian ethnic communities. In practice, these are known by the name ‘minority program’ or ‘ethnic community program’. In addition, the Law on Radio and Television serves to implement the constitutionally guaranteed rights of the Italian and the Hungarian minority, namely the right to be informed in their own language.

According to the Statute of the Public Institution Radio and Television Slovenia the work of Regional RTV Center Koper-Capodistria is primarily defined under the following two articles:

It can be concluded that the national legislation relating to the provision of access to media in the language of the Italian minority encourages activities at the local level, at least in case of the Regional RTV Center Koper-Capodistria.

4. Good Practice Description
After the Second World War the Slovene coastal town Koper/Capodistria became an important information center for the bilingual Slovene-Italian region, and also for the wider territory reaching into the neighbouring Italy and the then Yugoslav Republic of Croatia. Radio Koper/Capodistria was founded shortly after the world war, and broadcast its first programme on 25 May 1949. The name of the radio was Radio of the Yugoslav Zone of Trieste (Radio Trieste, Zona Jugoslava). It was owned by the company D.D. Radiofonia S.A., established by the then Yugoslav army administration of the Zone B of the Free Territory of Trieste (FTT). In 1954, when the FTT was abolished, this radio merged with Radio Ljubljana. Up to that time, i.e. 1954, the radio broadcast in three languages: Slovene, Croatian and Italian. From 1954 to 1979, the radio programme was mostly in Italian with only two short blocs in Slovene in the morning and evening. An important turning point in the history of the radio station was the year 1979 when the two programmes were separated into two different broadcasting stations. Another turning point was in 1992 when the Slovene-language programme was extended to run all day long. The radio station, which has had a continuous presence in the Slovene coast region for over 50 years, prides itself on having an important role as a border and minority station, which, in the history of this region, has played an important role in the communication between different nations, above all in the Cold War period.

The radio programme was later joined by a TV programme, TV Koper/Capodistria, which began broadcasting in 1971. It should be emphasised that TV Koper/Capodistria is known as the first minority TV station in Europe, and has played a pioneering role in TV production. In its 30-year history it has broadcast programmes in Slovene as well as Italian, thus establishing itself as an important medium of public information service; it also had an important role to play in the preservation and promotion of the linguistic and cultural identity of the Italian national community in Slovenia, as well as of the Slovene minority in Italy. Considering its specific territorial position, the medium became an important source of information for trans-border and regional events and activities.

Today TV Koper/Capodistria is a contemporary TV programme, reaching not only Slovene territory, but also the border regions of the neighbouring Italy and Croatia. The Italian programme editors prepare eight hours of Italian-language programming on a daily basis. As far as the programme’s structure is concerned, the highest priority goes to two daily information programmes, i.e. 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. news. Their aim is to provide objective and full information on daily events at the minority, state, international and regional levels. Current events and topics from the fields of culture, politics, economy are given a detailed analysis in a series of weekly programmes, many of which are broadcast as live programmes. Part of the programme following the 7 p.m. news is dedicated to the youngest viewers. The prime time, i.e. from 8.30 to 10 p.m. is reserved for programmes analysing current political events, and also for diverse programmes from the field of culture and education.

Today, the Italian radio and TV programmes are part of the regional RTV Center, the most important functions of which are the broadcasting of radio and TV programmes in Slovene, the broadcasting of radio and TV programmes for the Slovene minority in Italy as well as the preparation of national radio and TV programmes. Within the regional RTV Center there are separate editorial groups for each of the four programmes, i.e. two radio programmes (Radio Koper and Radio Capodistria) and two TV programmes, in Slovene and Italian respectively.

What follows is a more detailed presentation of Radio Capodistria, i.e. the Italian programme of Radio Koper/Capodistria, which is primarily dedicated to the Italian community living in Slovenia and Croatia, but which is apparently also very popular with listeners in Italy.

Radio programme for the Italian national community: Radio Capodistria
The primary task of the radio programme is information dissemination, and special attention is given to topical programmes on European integration processes and the integration of Slovenia into the European Union.

Given the station’s primary function as a minority medium, it is especially important to provide a varied programme, which is of interest to and concerns the Italian national community as a whole. This is why a series of new programmes has been introduced in 2001, These deal with topics such as school, problems and perspectives of the young, the Italian community in Istria, literary traditions as well as more recent achievements by members of the Italian minority, but also with the exchange of opinion on different topical issues of relevance to daily life as perceived by listeners. In this sense, the radio programme is open to listeners and provides for a two-way stream of communication; focuses primarily on the delivery of informative content, but does not neglect entertainment and musical programmes.

In the programme schedule, a substantial amount of time is dedicated to cultural topics. This is also evident from the 2001 Year Plan. It is the belief of the editors that enhancing cultural content will provide a more stimulating media and result in overall better programming, thus they seek to provide daily information on current events within cultural and artistic spheres in Slovenia; and to ensure coverage of cultural, musical and literary events within the two (Slovene and Italian) communities. Particular emphasis is given to cultural and artistic initiatives and events that originate from the Italian community in Istria itself, particularly those that concern the so-called ‘common institutions’. A look at the radio schedule will serve to illustrate the above points.

The 2001 Radio Programme Scheme
Information programmes
Radio news broadcasts: Morning news at 7.15 a.m., Events of the day I at 12.30 p.m., Events of the day II (bringing primarily regional news) at 3.30 p.m. and Evening news at 7.30 p.m. These are 4 information programmes, lasting from 10-15 minutes.

Brief news bulletins: 8 times per day, lasting 2-5 minutes

Apart from weather forecasts and traffic conditions, the following also belong with the information programmes:
Sports news: 3 times per day; and the programme IN PRIMA PAGINA – La resegna stampa (Front page – press survey). This is a survey of the major news stories and commentaries brought by the daily press.
On Sundays and holidays the information programming is reduced to three daily news broadcasts and three brief news bulletins.
Within the information programme sector, mention can be made of a few other key programmes that illustrate the orientation of the radio programme:

Like ‘mainstream’ public radio stations, the Italian radio programme also broadcasts content that falls outside the information and cultural themes, even if this does not pertain to the minority.

Structure of radio programme