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RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
RFE/RL Balkan Report Vol. 8, No. 10, 12 March 2004
THE MACEDONIAN MEDIA IN 2003
The Macedonian parliamentary elections
of fall 2002 brought about a change in the government, which calmed the waves in
the country's political life. However, a short flare-up of violence, the
kidnapping of two persons, and a subsequent large-scale police operation in
September 2003 caused a government crisis, which showed that the governing
coalition of the Social Democratic Union (SDSM), the Liberal Democrats (LDP),
and the ethnic Albanian Democratic Union for Integration (BDI) is not as stable
as it initially appeared to be (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 15 September 2003 and 2
February 2004, and "RFE/RL Balkan Report," 5, 12, and 19 September 2003).
The situation of Macedonian journalists
improved in 2003, but some obstacles remain. Politicians are still trying to
influence reporting, for instance by suing journalists for libel. In 2003, a
Skopje court found three journalists guilty of libel in separate cases; two of
the journalists were fined, and one even received a conditional three-months
prison term.
In October 2003, the government
presented draft changes to the Penal Code raising fines for libel. The
Association of Journalists of Macedonia (ZNM) protested the plans, demanding
that the government follow the Council of Europe's recommendation and remove
libel and slander from the Penal Code altogether.
Media outlets are often aligned with
political interests, and journalistic standards are accordingly low. "Macedonia
has no neutral newspapers. All take...sides," Erol Rizaov of "Utrinski vesnik"
said, adding that, "We have independent, but not neutral journalism" (see "RFE/RL
Balkan Report," 5 December 2003).
As was expected, the new government
tried to secure its influence over the state-owned Macedonian Radio and
Television (MRTV). When MRTV Director Ljubomir Jakimovski, who was appointed by
the previous government, resigned on 30 October 2002, the SDSM named Gordana
Stosic as new director (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 31 October 2002 and "RFE/RL
Balkan Report," 22 November 2002).
After her appointment, Stosic "launched
a program to transform MRTV into an effective public broadcaster, and received
widespread support from the international community, particularly the OSCE;
however, the transformation will not become effective unless there are changes
in the broadcasting law," according to the U.S. State Department's annual report
on the human rights situation in Macedonia.
In addition to its Macedonian-language
radio and TV broadcasts, MRTV also broadcasts in the Albanian language and, to a
minor extent, in Turkish, Vlach, Romany, and Serbian. Among the country's
approximately 150 local radio and TV stations, many broadcast in minority
languages.
These private radio and TV stations
often have arrangements with the foreign-languages services of international
broadcasters such as RFE/RL, VOA, BBC, or Deutsche Welle. The Albanian-language
services of RFE/RL and VOA have affiliates in all regions with a strong Albanian
population, including Skopje. VOA's Macedonian service has arrangements with
some local radio and TV stations, while RFE/RL's Macedonian newscasts are
broadcast by the nation-wide Kanal 77.
The biggest change to the media
landscape took place in the print sector.
In August, the German WAZ media group
bought up the country's three major dailies, "Dnevnik," "Utrinski vesnik," and
"Vest" (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 29 July and 1 August 2003 and "RFE/RL Balkan
Report," 15 August 2003). Taken together, the three dailies had a circulation of
120,000 to 150,000 copies, thus accounting for about 90 percent of the
Macedonian newspaper market.
The dailies are now formally owned by
the newly formed Media Print Macedonia (MPM); its director is Srgjan Kerim, a
former foreign minister and ambassador to Germany and the United Nations. Trifun
Kostovski, a wealthy businessman, who is also an independent lawmaker elected on
the ticket of the governing Social Democrats, is a minority shareholder in "Utrinski
vesnik" and "Vest."
After the purchase, MPM tried to dispel
the notion that it has a monopoly on the Macedonian-language newspaper market by
pointing to the fact that WAZ was the first international publishing house to
sign the OSCE declaration on editorial independence. However, MPM's competitors
"Nova Makedonija," "Vecer," and "Makedonija denes" had minimal circulations
before the WAZ deal. And in October 2003, the bankrupt Nova Makedonija
publishing house, which published "Nova Makedonija," "Vecer," as well as "Birlik"
(in Turkish) and "Flaka" (in Albanian), went into liquidation (see "RFE/RL
Balkan Report," 13 December 2002 and 31 October 2003).
Only "Fakti" remains as an independent
Albanian-language newspaper, but its sympathies clearly lie with the more
radical political parties such as the opposition Democratic Party of the
Albanians or the governing BDI. Many observers believe the weekly "Lobi" to be
the most important and most independent Albanian-language publication in
Macedonia.
At present, it is hard to assess the
role of the Internet on the Macedonian media market. Given the economic
situation in Macedonia and the limited accessibility of the Internet, it is
likely that radio and TV will dominate the market for a long time to come.
(Ulrich Buechsenschuetz, ub@itinerarium.de)
source: RFE/RL Prague
published by: Daniela Mathis dma@medienhilfe.ch
date of release on this site 16/03/04
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