Macedonian media – a muddle serving the interests of power
By Tatjana Popovska and Svetlana Jovanovska
The brutal dismissal at the end of July of five journalists from one private Macedonian TV station has sparked a heated debate about the government's political and economic influence on the media.
The TV station Kanal5 is owned by the son of a prominent politician from the governing coalition, Boris Stojmenov. The station tried to justify the sackings by the economic crisis and the need to save money. But the explanations failed to silence suspicions that the request for the journalists' dismissal originated in the cabinet of Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski, because of their alleged closeness to the socialist opposition.
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A lack of transparency in the media is probably the biggest problem. Cross media ownership of broadcasting stations and newspapers is illegal but it is widely assumed that coalition politicians and close relatives are, at least indirectly, in simultaneous control of print and electronic media anyway.
The political parties are not willing to introduce a tighter regime because that would mean they would have to give up valuable power tools. This had led the industry into open crisis. Most journalists in Macedonia are poorly paid and they do not enjoy social benefits. The three daily publications of the German WAZ Media Group and the bilingual Albanian-Macedonian TV channels Alsat-M and Alfa are exceptions.
In an interview for the Dnevnik daily, Aidan White, Secretary-General of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), said: "The lack of transparency is a scandal for democracy. Politicians may talk about building democracy, publish declarations on human rights and honesty, but not to have full transparency of their interests in the media is unacceptable. The two major problems for the media in Macedonia and other countries in the region are political interference and a lack of good laws that would regulate the media market."
"The media have a responsibility to be even more transparent than other businesses," Mr White said. "If they want credibility, it should be publicly known who they are and where the money comes from."
Macedonian experts agree the problem is first and foremost one of implementation. Communications expert Klime Babunski points out that the Broadcasting Law calls for ownership to be laid open. In theory it is impossible to get a licence without submitting a clear ownership structure. But ambiguities and loopholes in the law leave a wide space for manipulation.
"The government has a political and economic interest to tolerate such a chaos in the media. Since the first Broadcasting Law in 1997 things have worsened instead of improving," Mr Babunski said. Regulative measures promised by the Broadcasting Council last year have failed to materialise.
Zoran Stefanovski, the president of the Broadcasting Council, concedes that a special law on media ownership would be helpful. He also agrees that the IFJ's Mr White is correct in identifying the most pressing problems in the media sector, including political support being bought through government-sponsored advertising and political and enonomic pressures on journalists.
"An additional problem is that for print media there is no regulation at all. We don't have a law for the media as most European and countries in the region have," he said.
According to Zaneta Trajkovska, the director of the Macedonian School of Journalism and Public Relations, legislation without implementation is useless. Journalists themselves were hesitant whether or not to press for a new law, she said: "We need to seriously discuss the advantages and disadvantages. Such a law will set out both the rights and the responsibilities of journalists and media owners. The journalistic scene must not be afraid of pressures - they will not occur if we have a strong association of journalists or self-regulatory body."
In its annual progress reports on Macedonia, the European Commission regularly pays special attention to the media, criticising them for being subject to political interference. So far, these critical remarks from Brussels have not had any substantial impact in Macedonia itself.