TV Documentary - ‘A Lethal Legacy’

As part of its mandate, SEESAC is responsible for the provision of Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALW) management information, exchange and awareness mechanisms in South Eastern and Eastern Europe. SALW communications and awareness is a fundamental component of the SALW Control process, involving the use of professionally developed ‘core messages’ and influential dissemination strategies to shape the perceptions, impart knowledge and change the behavior of the civilian community toward SALW. Therefore as part of the SEESAC communications strategy funding support and technical assistance was provided to a Stability Pact initiated series of documentaries focusing on the human security challenges in SEE. The series of documentaries primarily focused on border management, SALW control, legislation and organized crime.

The documentaries were filmed and produced by the South East Europe TV Exchange (SEETV). This is a non-profit media organization that aims to offer a platform for regional TV collaboration on topics of regional interest, as well as relating to future Euro-Atlantic integration. Various European Governments through the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe fund the organization and it is one of the Regional Capacity Development initiatives.

‘A Lethal Legacy’ is a 25-minute documentary aimed at informing the general public not only on the general dangers of small arms and light weapons, but also on the impact on human security. The documentary focuses on FYR Macedonia, Albania, South Serbia and Kosovo and illustrates the ‘spill over effect’, which occurs when regional conflicts are exacerbated by weapons proliferation across borders. This film is not about the causes of conflict, but rather about the legacy of weapons proliferation during and after periods of conflict.

Since its completion the documentary has already been aired by TV Alsat, a leading news channel in Albania with similar network coverage in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and the Entity of Kosovo. In collaboration with SEETV, the documentary has also been distributed to all affiliate channels of SEETV in South Eastern Europe and all the national TV stations in the region.

The official launch of ‘A Lethal Legacy’ took place in the second week of July in New York during the Second Bi-annual Meeting of States of the UN SALW Programme of Action.

WATCH 'A LETHAL LEGACY' HERE

SEETV

The South East Europe TV Exchanges (SEETV), a Stability Pact supported initiative, was kind enough to make several documentaries covering Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALW), Security Sector Reform and the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe available to SEESAC. You can watch the documentaries here:

SEE Cross Border Crime
SEE Media and Politics
SEE Military downsizing
SEE Organized Crime
Stability Pact 5 Years

SEETV is an initiative of various TV journalists working for South Eastern European media. Their aim is to work in pool in order to jointly provide TV newsrooms in South East Europe, and in the Balkans in particular, with a new source of news footage and feature stories.

The news footage provided by SEETV is mainly focused on the European integration process of South Eastern Europe. SEETV also offers a platform for TV journalists from South Eastern Europe to collaborate on joint feature stories, on subjects of interest to the South Eastern European public at large.