Centre for Civic Education (CCE) today presented the results of the first phase of media monitoring of reporting on LGBTIQ rights in the media before, during and immediately after the Pride Parade held on 21 September 2019, within the framework of NO to Discrimination, YES to Diversity! project.
The CCE Project Assistant, Maja Marinović, emphasized that it refers to media monitoring from 21 August to 22 September 2019, and that another report will be presented one month after the Pride Parade. „Monitoring includes qualitative and quantitative research. More specifically, number of media announcements about the LGBTIQ community (by type of media and by media individually), number of announcements in relation to subjects talking about the topic, planning of announcements, number of announcements of different tone, number of announcements in relation to pre-specified topics, number of announcements with use of inadequate terminology or use of derogatory names, number of announcements by gender of interlocutor, ratio of information about the LGBTIQ community and other information contained within observed announcement (focus) and position of selected announcement (visibility) were observed“, explained Marinović methodology. She specified that the research included reporting of 15 media, i.e. three television stations (RTCG, TV Vijesti and TV Prva), five daily papers (ND Vijesti, Dan, Pobjeda, Dnevne novine and Večernje Novosti) and seven portals (Vijesti, CdM, Analitika , Antena M, RTCG, IN4S and FOS media).
Željka Ćetković, Programme Associate in the CCE, presenting the research results, pointed out that „in the total number of announcements related to the LGBTIQ community, in all three types of monitored media, there were 270 announcements, most of them on portals 67% (on average 6 announcements were published daily on portals) and the least in television content (9%). Looking individually, the most announcements on this topic were on Vijesti portal (36), followed by Antena M (32), Analitika and FOS Media portals – 26, RTCG portal – 25 and CdM portal – 24. The least announcements were on IN4S portal (12). On television, the highest number of announcements was on TV Vijesti – 9, then on RTCG – 8, and the least on TV Prva – 7. In print media, Pobjeda is the first with 18 announcements, then ND Vijesti with 17, Dnevne novine with 14, Dan with 11 announcement, and the least announcements was in Večernje Novosti – 5″.
Assesing the trend of announcements, media reported the most on this topic on 20 and 21 September 2019, exactly on the day before and during the Pride Parade, and the least on the first monitoring day (21 August). This topic also gained significant publicity on 31 August, when the attack on a transgender person in Kolašin occurred.
Within the observed period, the media and other entities had predominantly neutral approach when presenting information related to members of the LGBTIQ community. Out of the total announcements, 40% are affirmative, while 7% are negative about the LGBTIQ community. The highest number of announcements had neutral approach to this topic, with 53%.
Furthermore, Ćetković explained that “the most of the positive announcements were on Antena M and Vijesti portals, whereas the most negative announcements were IN4S portal. Viewed individually per media, the highest percentage of negative in relation to the total number of published announcements was found on IN4S portal (67%), positive at the the public broadcaster RTCG (62%), and neutral in daily paper Vijesti (76.47%). The television content did not include the presence of negative publicity, but all three observed televisions reported mostly positively on this topic”.
The members of the LGBTIQ community were mostly mentioned by non-governmental organizations primarily dealing with the issues of importance for this community (109 announcements), followed by state bodies and institutions (51 announcements), and the individuals (45 announcements).
“In the negative context, the topic was mostly discussed by individuals and members of certain political parties. The position of state bodies and other state institutions, as well as local self-government, is dominated by neutral mentions. In unplanned mentions of the LGBTIQ community, men appeared as interviewees in 74% and women in 24% of announcements”, Ćetković said. She further stated that “when it comes to observing the thematic framework of promotional activities (Pride Parade and other events), as well as specific cases of violence, they represent the most represented topics in the total thematic corpus with 41%, i,e. 27% share. Other important topics for the LGBTIQ community, such as the legal framework, employment and the like, were hardly discussed”.
When the media reports on the LGBTIQ community, those topics then in most cases appear as primary and visible positioned.
“In 7 announcements, the use of inadequate terminology or derogatory names was noted, most of which were on the IN4S portal and in Večernje Novosti,” Ćetković concluded.
The project NO to discrimination, YES to diversity! conducted by the CCE with the support of the Ministry of Human and Minority Rights aims to promote human rights of LGBT people and to combat discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity, reduce homophobia and transphobia in society, promote a culture of tolerance and inclusion of LGBT people and improve all conditions and life quality of LGBT people in Montenegro. Through project activities, it seeks, amongst other, to improve the quality of media coverage of LGBT issues, which would have the effect on enhancing the knowledge on human rights of LGBT people and improving the quality of life of LGBT people. The professional part of the research for the project was done by the company Arhimed.
Miloš Knežević, PR / Programme Associate