“Census in BiH-Key Problems” is the name of an interactive workshop that began today in Sarajevo, organized by the European Research Center and CSSP Berlin Center for Integrative Mediation in order to improve cooperation between non-profit organizations and experts with one another and with the media.
“There are many problematic aspects related to the preparation for the census in BiH. Due to this, the NGO sector has an objective reason for concern’’, said the Director of the European Research Center Tija Memišević.
The Center said that on the first restrictive form the questions related to the census, the civil society sector had to react for the questions to be more open, but now there are problems because they are working to change the questions to return them to their normal shape.
Workshops of this type for the nonprofit sector should help them to improve their skills in public communication, including appropriate communication and dissemination of information and direct discussions with journalists.
Citing crucial problems concerning the list, Memišević said that the last information states that BiH will lose 7,5 million KM as the EU allocated added funds for the preparation of a census, and there are technical issues, the issue of protecting personal data during the process and later when it comes to archiving inventory holdings.
Placing emphasis on the value of the media, the Center says that in the change of the initiative framework of the questionnaire in accordance with EU standards, the media played a key role by conveying a large amount of information, and hopes that they will fully persist in regularly following the census.
Cooperation between the nonprofit sector and the media was key in transforming societies of Central and Eastern Europe upon entry to the EU, where the Armed Forces acted as an important corrective factor in the process of democratization, and the development of a free society and democratic political culture, said Memišević and justifying cooperation of the nonprofit sector and media in the process of following the census in BiH.
