THE DIVIDED INFORMATION SPACE

Subject : Skopje - Informing in Macedonia

Summary: How the public in Macedonia is informed? Media in Macedonian and Albanian inform the public about the same events as if speaking about two different "planets". It is a public secret that majority of journalists frequently visit the offices of the local political power wielders to pick up their "personal opinions". Some circles even say that the office of the Presedent of the Republic is one of the most fertile grounds for "growing" the truth which is then presented to the public. Why are journalists which cooperate with other but their own media punished.

AIM. Skopje, March 20, 1995

For a long time, Macedonia has not been "whole", when speaking of information. Even those who are not well acquainted with the circumstances here can easily conclude that the information space in this country is divided between the one intended for the Macedonians and the one which is addressed to the Albanians. Perhaps this division best illustrates the present situation in the state which is the only one of the former Yugoslav republics that gained its independence without a war.

A complete information chaos prevails in Macedonia nowadays. Besides to the existing media, channels ahve beenallocated to more than 200 private radio and 50 TV stations have been allocated. These data could be envied even by the wealthiest countries, because it means that practically each and every district of any town in Macedonia has a TV and two radio stations of its own. Faced with such data, a man could draw the conclusion that the public is very well informed around here, and, what is more, from several different sources at the same time. But when blaring of bar music is subtracted from these impressive figures, practically nothing of objective informing remains, but a feeling of nausea. Programs of local radio and TV stations can briefly defined as "folk merrymaking". Of course, among these media there are also those which are serious and which have earned a good reputation and contribute to objective informing, but in the sense of quantities, they are not even by far proportional to the total number of media. When speaking of local (private) radio stations, worth stressing is the positive work of Radio "Libertas" from Skopje, Radio "Super" from Ohrid, "Channel 77" from Stip, "Radio Toska" from Skopje and several others which are investing great efforts into filling their programs with high-quality broadcasts. TV A1, TV Era, TV Tera, TV Art are so far the only ones which have informative telecasts and regular contributions from various fields on their programs.

While the electronic media add a certain impulse to the informative environment here, the press lags far behind. This fact can perhaps best verify the statement that the problem of Macedonia in the sphere of the media is a lack of true journalists. To be more precise still: there has never existed a "Macedonian journalists' school" in Macedonia, like in other ex-Yu republics. This is the result of the small language area, but also of the former coverage of this space with journals from other powerful information centres of former Yugoslavia. Even today, newspapers from neighbouring Serbia are quite popular.

Therefore, when certain quantitative steps forward in the sphere of electronic media are disregarded, present day informing in Macedonia is still where it was before it became independent. But, in some segments it has even moved backwards a little. Especially, when observing it from the aspect of multi-lingual infoming. Two greatest media which have the monopoly, daily "Nova Makedonija" and the Macedonian Radio-Television are still two "fortresses" which cannot be conquered by anyone. Apart from the dailies in Macedonian ("Nova Makedonija" and "Vecer"), the newspaper publishing company "Nova Makedonija" includes journals in Albanian language ("Flaka e vlazerimit" - a daily), and in Turkish ("Birlik" - published every three days). That is how it used to be, and that is how it is now. With the only difference that these two journals used to fill their pages "with scissors" from the texts published in the journals in Macedonian, but nowadays they are so far apart that sometimes ones has the impression that they do not inform about the same events. The best example for that are the events in Tetovo: while establishing of the University in Tetovo was a "purely hostile act of the destructive Albanians" for "Nova Makedonija", "Vecer", "Puls"... (the jornals in Macedonian language), for "Flaka e vlazerimit" (the daily in Albanian) these events were the crucial evidence of "discriminatory attitude of the authorities toward the Albanians" and the University was a great victory.

The situation is equally bad in Macedonian Radio-Television: when you watch the daily news in Macedonian and compare it with what has been said about the same events in Albanian, the logical question which an objective spectator must ask himself is the following: have the journalists followed the same event. That everyone is just "cheering their favourite team" is best illustrated by the fact that even the films made at the same events do not coincide. While, for instance, the daily news in Albanian after the Tetovo developments showed the close-up pictures of the "grafittoes" the police had written and drawn on the walls of the Tetovo University buildings (a cross and the four letters 'S', and the insulting messages for the Albanians), as well as "shots fired in the air" with barrels ofthe guns pointing in fact at the gathered citizens, the daily news in Macedonian showed only sequences with the citizens (the Albanians) throwing stones at the policemen, broken windshields of police cars and injured "peaceful" policemen. It does not take much wisdom to anticipate the results of this manner of informing the public: increased number of alarmed citizens on one, but on the other side too, and a higher level of mistrust, if not even hatred. Claims that even some state structures insist on this way of informing arenot completely without foundation, if speculations are taken as the starting point that there are many who use media in Macedonia to create a feeling of powerlessness in the citizens, and in this way lead to "silent withering away of the state from within". Briefly speaking, to convince the Macedonians that they are not capable to resist the "aggressive Albanians" on their own. This is the only way to effectuate the conception of uniting Macedonia with some of its "protectors" who are watching closely what is happening in this country.

There are rumours lately that some known journalists are frequent guests of President Kiro Gligorov. There are also those who speak of a significant number of local journalists who visit offices of various officials, but also those who speak of the monopolistic media, such as "Nova Makedonija" and the Macedonian Radio-Television as beinbg directly "controlled" by a small group from within the leadership of the state. That it is difficult to remain a journalist who thinks with his/her own head in Macedonian is best verified by the example of what happened to a journalist of the daily "Vecer", Branko Gerovski. He was badly beaten up by the police during the known events in Tetovo, but he had previously been discharged from the post of a commentator and degraded only because he wrote "pro-Albanian" texts. There is also the case of journalists of "Nova Makedonija" who were punished allegedly for cooperation with other journals. It is actually a group of journalists who are associates of foreign journals or other media in Macedonia.

In fact, in Macedonia, those who are in favour of a civic society and those who have realized that any single-ethnic concept could be disastrous for this state are prevented to write. It seems that the few journalists distinguished by their own opinions are gradually getting aware that the manoeuvring space is narrowing down and they are rapidly trying to "sell" themselves to various parties or are simply inclining towards "their own" people.

To cut a long story short, nowadays in Macedonia it is an illusion to talk about independent journalism, and maybe even of objective informing. If for no other reason, then for the fact that the space for dissemination of information has been completely divided according to the languages information are published in. And this is not the only division, there is also the one to the media which unreservedly support the authorities, and those whose only "truth" is what they hear in someone's presidential office. Perhaps it is an illusion to expect independent journalism in the circumstances when no medium can survive without state financing. This can probably best be felt in the weekly political journal "Puls" whose editorials simply reek of administrative offices. The very fact that skirmishing among the journalists about who is who has started raises a tiny ray of hope that everything will not completely be plunged into the "darkness" of administrative offices.

While some known journalists are attacking each other, the politicians are "marking" their "aces". The rumours say that comprehensive regrouping is taking place and that the journalists are sending hints to their masters through these polemics that everything is alright. They also say that the quarrel among the journalists is beneficial for the politicians, because it will enable them to blame everything on the journalists again. In other words, they are using this quarrel to shove off some of the used up journalists. In any case, the journalists are the ones who are losing the battle. But, when things are profoundly assessed, perhaps they do not deserve any better.

KIM MEHMETI