Partisan PR departments are caricatures

Source: Nedeljni telegraf

NT researches who are the masters of Serbian information.

Official information is often misinforming the citizens, for they are issued by unqualified officials. Rodoljub Sabic, Commissioner for Information of Public Importance, says:

Key positions are occupied by people lacking knowledge and experience. In some cabinets they don't even use the Internet. Is information in Serbia today really free and accessible, does one come to obtain them in a simple and clear procedure? Who is creating it, who dictates it and who's putting it in the public arena? Information and PR departments, media offices have, at first glance, become a matter of societal and political prestige of official institutions such as ministries, cabinets, courts, municipalities… and not just them. Sports clubs, companies, NGOs, agencies - almost everyone has hired people who should, allegedly, provide and assist easier and faster access to information.    

In practice, their role is, in fact, completely opposite, for they are often hiding what is most important for the public. Also, they assume the responsibility of their employers and bosses, who are hiding behind most often inapt official statements, so they can later justify themselves by pointing the finger at their subordinates and their “mistakes”.

Regarding official institutions, information are often still interpreted and partisan-like, often “spiced” and “updated”, intended for one side or the other, “working” for this or that cause. In all that, it seems, an important role is played by people in charge of receiving the information, filtrating and processing it, and ultimately releasing it as such to the public; these people are often behaving like “owners and co-authors” of the news they should just have transmitted.

Reading and listening to official statements of the official institutions' PR departments, one often wonders whether their job is to inform, or to blur or even misinform? To the questions we are directing at them, they respond in a bureaucratic and administrative language, so that we can't see the point.

Lying on the job

At the same time, we can see that some PR officers are becoming the authors of e-mail interviews of their bosses and they are often “refining” and editing the interviews sent for authorization. Data from various international research show what the job of a PR officer can evolve into: according to these studies, up to a quarter of PR professionals admit that they are lying on the job.

Nobody can say with precision who are the cabinets' « owners of information », how does one become a PR officer in Serbia's official institutions, what are the criterions for getting the job, etc. Nevertheless, it is notable that these are mostly very young people, of different professional backgrounds, mainly unseasoned in the trades from which they are coming, or least on the very beginning of their professional careers. It's common knowledge that they, just as the ministries and cabinets they are working for, politically loyal and not immune to partisanship. Although mainly highly educated, we learn that they also include veterinarians, agrarian and mechanical engineers, graduate meteorologists…

What real influence those people have, how do they work and what they should really be doing? Rodoljub Sabic, Serbia's Commissioner for Information of Public Importance, says:

“The existence of PR departments today in all authorities is an opportunity for better informing of the public about the business of government. However, the issue here is how those departments are utilized. Substantial funds are allocated for PR and those funds are provided by taxpayers. That money should be spent accordingly to the interests and the needs of those providing it. Nevertheless, many things regarding the manner of functioning of PR departments, the quality of information, the amount of resources involved, the selection of personnel, conflict of interest, etc, can cause us to doubt that they acting accordingly to the above interest.”

Rodoljub Sabic thinks PR departments can contribute to exercising the right to free access to information, but that this right is inherently limited by the nature of the department.

“Information provided by PR services has been, as a rule, processed. The facts offered were “enriched” with value judgments, subjectivized and suggestive. For example, exercising your right to free access to information, you can create your judgment about whether a government authority is rationally and responsibly using its resources by requesting copies of documents about the budget and its utilization. Based on the latter, you can draw certain conclusions. Instead, PR departments will serve you with “analytical” information highlighting those facts which are affirmative. Both those methods of information do exist and are legitimate in contemporary society and are not always conflicting; provided that professional limits are observed and that PR is not used for cheap propaganda, they are also complementary.”

« The main flaw of government PR is that one tends to forget that government authorities belong to all citizens. When a resource, which should be in the service of the state and which is funded by state money, is put in the function of propaganda of one political party, the matter is deprived of any meaning and it's becoming a caricature. The other flaw is insufficient use of the potentials offered by the Internet. While I do realize all the problems that may exist, I think that the level of electronic communication of the government with the public remains troublingly low.

Ignoring is punishable by Law

Wanting to know who is working in PR departments of the most important government institutions, we have addressed all the ministries, the cabinets of the President and the Prime Minister and the National Assembly of Serbia; we asked them, referring to the Law on Free Access to Information of Public Importance, who is, with what qualifications and salary, employed on the positions in charge of informing the public. Alas, invoking the Law didn't help and the National Assembly, the Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations, the Ministry of Mining and Energy, the Ministry of Capital Investments, the Health Ministry, the Ministry of Education and Sports, shunned our query. The Ministry of Economy told us to look on their website.

The attitude towards your request, which is in the function of journalistic research, speaks volumes. In a lawful way, the government authority to which the query has been addressed, can deny it only if the request has been rejected by a Decision containing the legal reasons for rejection, the explanation of those reasons and a legal remedy. The Law does not know informal, rigid memos, let alone ignoring one's request. It's not just improper and rude; it's an infraction which is sanctioned by Law. Information about the structure of government authorities, the number of employees, their qualifications and other conditions for performing certain positions, salaries, the budget and equipment should be available to the public at any moment, event without concrete, individual requests.

Different access to information

It is not by accident that the Law on Free Access to Information, says Sabic, provides for a mechanism that is not based on PR departments, but for a specially appointed person to deal with individual requests for access to information.

“This is because working on requests for access to information differs from PR activities. The notion of information in the context of the PR business is not identical to information in the sense of the Law on Free Access to Information. The Law calls for providing a totally objective, exact, unprocessed information or document. The PR services do not have such a function.

The Defence Ministry

The business of information in the Ministry of Defense (MoD) and the Army of Serbia is conducted by the Information Department and, as of recently, the spokesperson. Those seven employees constitute the Public Relations Office of the Ministry of Defense.

« On the direct tasks of PR, in addition to his regular duties, also works the representative of the Head of the Office, who is temporarily performing the duties of spokesperson… » All employees, the MoD claims, are university graduates and, save the spokesperson, are civilians. They have between two and twenty years of work experience and they are working on the following jobs: informing the public about the activities of the Defense Minister and other MoD officials; drafting systemically important documents about public relations in the Army of Serbia and MoD; collecting valid information from the system about certain important issues; responding on journalist queries; preparing news for the MoD website; preparing press conferences; proposing the reactions to certain situations; organizing the media promotion of certain events…

One PR officer is employed in the cabinet of the Defense Minister.

Average salary: 29,000 dinars.

The Ministry of Finance.

On the job involving relations with the media in this Ministry two officials are employed, while there are a total of five employees in the cabinet of the Minister. Employees in the Public Relations Department are university graduates and are primarily working on contacts with the media, organizing press conferences, preparing the press material, statements, and announcements of the Minister's activities…

They maintain everyday contacts with journalists. The preconditions for employment on these positions are no less than three years of experience in the media.

Average salary: 20,500 - 26,500 dinars.

The Government of Serbia

In the Government's Office for Cooperation with the Media there are currently 30 state officials - “three on a position (Director of the Office and two Assistants) and 27 state servants”, out of whom 15 have more than nine year of experience. Of that number, 24 are university graduates; one has finished a two-year college, while 12 have finished secondary school.

Average salary:

For elected and appointed persons: 76.151,69 din.

For persons with university education: 27.845,69 din.

For persons with secondary education: 15.767,03 din.

Ministry of Justice

In this Ministry they say to have one Public Relations Advisor; in addition to this person, there are four employees in the cabinet of the Minister. The Advisor has a university degree and eight years of experience. He is in charge of organizing press  conferences, preparing public statements, announcing activities, organizing interviews, maintaining regular contacts with the media, preparing and following media performances and activities of the Minister and Ministry representatives in the country and abroad, updating information on the website, proceeding upon requests for free access to information of public importance…

Average salary: 27.172, 36 dinars.

Ministry for Diaspora

In the cabinet of the Minister for Diaspora they told us to employ one Public Relations Advisor with a social sciences degree, the state exam passed and no less than three years of work experience.

Average salary in 2006: 24.378 dinars.

Ministry of Religions and Ministry of Culture

In those two ministries they told us not to have an information department or a dedicated PR position.

Ministry of Science and Environment

The Environment Office of this Ministry employs on PR officers who holds a university degree and four years of work experience.

Average salary: 21.000 dinars

Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA)

In the MFA they told us that their Information Directorate employs 11 persons, of which nine have university education (four have international specializations), while two administrative clerks have secondary education. Their work experience is between 4 and 31 years.

Employees are working on the tasks of communication with domestic and foreign media, organizing media events, preparing clippings from the domestic press and daily newsletters of agency news, as well as analyzing foreign media.

The Internet Department maintains the MFA's website in Serbian and English language and updates data and information on daily basis.

Average salary: 37.981 dinars.

Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Waterworks

In this Ministry they have told us not to have an information department, but in the cabinet of the Minister, on the position for advisory affairs in the area of public relations, one official is performing PR duties. She is a graduated meteorologist with 12 years of experience. There are four more employees in the cabinet.

Average salary: 42.443, 21 dinars.

Ministry of Labor, Employment and Social Policy

In the cabinet of the Ministry there are a total of four employees:

„Two civil servants should be working on information jobs, but there is currently just one of them. He has graduated on a two-year college and has 15 years of work experience…”

November 2006 salary: 26.000 dinars.

Ministry of Internal Affairs (MUP) of Serbia

MUP has sent us a Decision rejecting our request, with the following explanation:

“The requested information about the number of employees and their job description are in the Bylaw on Internal Organization and Systematization of Workplace Positions in MUP STO1 highly confidential no. 4911/06-5 of 10.05.2006, which is, as it can bee seen, is labeled as “highly confidential”. By revealing this official secret, the public would be made available information about the organization, number and structure of workplace positions in the Ministry, which could, in turn, jeopardize the operational work of this government authority…”

Since they directed us at placing a complaint against such decision directly to the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance, Rodoljub Sabic told us:

“Of those who have denied you information, only MUP had the right to do so from the formal standpoint, since it has adopted a Decision on the rejection of your claim, invoking official secrecy reasons. Naturally, such action can be deemed proper just from the formal aspect, but in its essence it is not. The law provides for access to information labeled as official, business or other secret, to be denied, but not for some abstract reasons, but only if its disclosure could harm some other, legally protected interest. It is completely logical that there would be no harm if the public would obtain information about the number of employees in the MUP PR department. This attitude manifested to “confidential” information is a relic from the old times, of the “then” security culture in which literally everything about police, the army or the secret service was a secret. In the democratic world, far more serious information than the one you requested is available to the public. Even in our neighborhood things are changing faster than here. In Montenegro, information about the number of employees in the State Security Agency is public.