Front between Government and media!?

Spokesman of the government accused the daily with the highest circulation in Macedonia and private TV A-1 which broadcasts on the territory of the whole state of spreading propaganda in the style of Goebbels. About that time an unidentified group of men prevented distribution of the daily in Albanian called Bota sot, and the owner of TV Era which broadcasts in Albanian was beaten up “by accident”, while the minister of information is announcing passing of the much criticised law on information.

AIM Skopje, June 30, 2000

"The statement which was issued a few days ago can freely be described as a classical Goebbelsian lie. Daily Dnevnik and TV A-1 have once again, without a shadow of shame and feeling of duty, and care for the reputation of Macedonian state and Macedonian government, in a perfidious but obvious way tried to present our country as a breeding-ground for criminals", declared spokesman of Macedonian government Antonio Milososki at the urgently scheduled press conference on the occasion of publication of the statement of Alexander Butice from EU office for the struggle against smuggling (OLAF) in which Macedonia was mentioned in the context of international cigarette smuggling.

A couple of days before that, Dnevnik and TV A-1 simultaneously published articles of their correspondents from Brussels in which the mentioned Mr. Butice claimed that the Balkan was the main crossroad in cigarette smuggling which deprives European countries of a lot of money which instead into their budgets goes into the pockets of organisers of smuggling. Starting from the fact that large sums of money were in the game, Butice stressed that most probably high state officials were involved and that they were in charge of keeping border crossings open for the passage of truckloads of cigarettes for illegal sale in European countries.

After publication of such a statement of the European official, prime minister Ljubco Georgievski published a statement that he knew nothing about such a stand of EU. Minister of trade Nikola Grujovski informed the public that he had ordered that each truck of cigarettes for export be accompanied by a tax-collector, while minister of justice Xhevdet Nasufi that there is not just smuggling of cigarettes, but of all kinds of things, but that the state was taking measures against it. Due to contradictory statements of government officials an impression was created that “there is something fishy” about it. There was slight panic among the authorities who sharply reacted. The head of EU delegation in Macedonia (Mr. Teseira) was mentioned by the media as a man who induced Brussels to issue a denial and who stood up in defence of the government. At the mentioned press conference of the government, Milosovski distributed a letter of Butice to the journalists in which he denied that he had mentioned Macedonia at all: “This statement which explicitly refers to Macedonia is false!”

Along with the reports from government press conference, the daily with the highest circulation in Macedonia, Dnevnik, and TV A-1, which is licenced to broadcast on the whole territory of the state, published the reply to the question of TV A-1 correspondent about the role of Macedonia in cigarette smuggling. Alexander Butice, it was seen and heard on TV, said the following, word for word: “Unfortunately, together with other countries in the region, Macedonia plays an important role in cigarette smuggling”. And to the additional question “Why?”, he answered: “Due to geographic and economic reasons. Gangs which work with cigarettes have at their disposal enormous sums of money, because the profit is enormous. This means that they have great possibilities to corrupt state officials anywhere, not just in Macedonia”.

After that “the story on cigarette smuggling” has become the topic of pro and con texts in Macedonian media. In a TV dual with the leader of the greatest opposition party (Social Democratic League of Macedonia - SDSM) Branko Crvenkovski, prime minister Ljubco Georgievski repeated that media were not stating the truth and in the media which are considered to be close to the opposition the government service for communication with the public published as a paid advertisement a statement of the delegation of EU in Macedonia which said that “in connection with the problem of cigarette smuggling in the Balkans, contrary to the articles in newspapers, not a single country was specifically mentioned, least of all the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia”.

Even civil administrator in Kosovo Bernard Kouchner said from the platform of the Council of Europe on this occasion that “smuggling is a tradition in the Balkans for centuries”, and he declared to a journalist of TV A-1: “Believe me, when smuggling is concerned I am very sincere, we have discovered trucks from your country with stolen cars, but I do not consider myself responsible for this tradition of smuggling”.

But, on the other hand, smuggling of cigarettes was just the immediate cause for re-opening of the front between the government and the media. About the same time while this haggling about cigarettes was taking place, on June 26, certain so far unidentified persons confiscated all copies of the daily in Albanian Bota sot from all the colporteurs and private newspaper vendors in Skopje, Tetovo and Gostivar. In Skopje Bit pazar, a man who sells newspapers on cardboard boxes in front of a store simply said to the author of this article: “Certain people came, took the newspapers away from me and told me that I was not permitted to sell them any more. When I mentioned the police, I was told that if I wished they would bring them to repeat the same order to me!” Newspaper distributing company which declared that 250 thousand copies were confiscated from it also reacted. Bota sot which has existed for five years already and which is seated in Switzerland, is printed for a couple of months already in Macedonia, in Evropa '92 printing works in 20 thousand copies distributed in Macedonia and in Kosovo. In the following few days Bota sot disappeared from the newsstands of state Nova Makedonija, too.

Rumour appeared in public that Democratic Party of the Albanians (DPA) was in the background of these developments, since it is dissatisfied with the defence of Tetovo university put up by this daily and the attacks on its leading men. An article was mentioned written by a Tetovo high school professor who is a member of DPA and whose son was until recently the president of the junior organisation of this party, in which it was claimed concerning Tetovo university that between the promise given to the people (that TU would be legalised) and the promise given to prime minister Georgievski (that TU would be dissolved) DPA has chosen to carry out the latter.

Former president of Party of Democratic prosperity (PDP) Abdurahman Aliti declared in an interview to Skopje TV Kanal 5: “It is a fact that party phalanx of DPA confiscated the issue of Bota sot”. Aliti also declared that electronic media in Albanian often get phone calls from “certain” people who demand that certain broadcast news not be rebroadcast or that some announced shows be taken off the program. On that same day, the parliamentary group of PDP demanded information from the government about it, but also about threatened journalists of Skopje TV Era which broadcasts in Albanian due to which some of their shows were taken off the program and its owner was beaten up!

To the question about involvement of his party in these developments, minister of information Nehbi Bexheti mentioned that the law on information has been sent to the Council of Europe for expertise. This much questioned project which raised a big hubbub a couple of months ago because it was interpreted as an instrument of power of the regime to be used against media, seems to be back in the game according to this statement of the minister. “In the announced reduction of the number of ministries in Macedonian government there will be no place for the ministry of information which obviously wishes to leave behind, in memory of itself, the law which will discipline media”, majority of editors and journalists of media which are considered to be close to the opposition believe.

That is how the accusation about propaganda “in the stype of Goebbels” is acquiring new dimensions. University professor, writer and columnist of Utrinski vesnik, Venko Andonovski, reminds: “Goebbels has never been in the opposition, he did not try to overthrow the regime, on the contrary – he defended it. Goebbels worked for “pro-regime media”. Director of Denes publishing company wrote in the column in the weekly with the same name: “A high state official informed me in strict confidence that Denes newspaper publishing company (and this means the editorial team of Makedonija denes daily and Denes political weekly) has been under increased police and financial surveillance for some time and that leaders of the ruling VMRO-DPMNE have issued special instructions for tailing employees of this newspaper publishing company”. Former minister of culture and minister-spokesman of the government formed by SDSM, in a column titled “Linc” in Forum biweekly writes about supporters of the regime and those of the opposition in media: “Out of these two groups specialists are recruited for defaming Macedonia, discrediting the truth, for destruction of every faith in public as a necessary segment of civilised democracies”.

Both those in power and their opponents agree about “disciplining” of media and “putting them in (their) service”. This situation seems to be hinting at a pessimistic scenario, according to the saying: “where everything that is dry burns so will what is raw”, it appears that the regime (finally) wishes to put an end to media which are disobedient. In other words, they will either behave as the regime wishes them to, or they will have to disappear. By hook or by crook.

AIM Skopje

ISO RUSI