EMPTY INFORMATION SPACE

AIM Skopje, 19 June, 1997

Zoran Ivanov, deputy director of the Macedonian national radio and at the same time the editor-commentator in it, was nominated by the Macedonian Government to be the republican advisor for contacts with media in the cabinet of prime minister Branko Crvenkovski. In other words, to be the spokesman of the ruling Social Democratic Alliance of Macedonia (SDSM). This once again confirmed the thesis that Macedonian journalists, regardless of whether they wish to admit it or not, are influenced by the politicians and that they simply cannot get rid of that curse, although the Republic of Macedonia has been paving the road to democracy for seven years already.

Independent journalism, this intoxicating phrase, which the Macedonian public is simply craving for, is unfortunately nothing but a platitude, and at this time of undefined political relations and political options in the state, "objectivity" of journalism can be brought down to transmission of party views and stances which are served to the public via media. As concerning the reality, or more precisely the truth, it is determined by partisan angle of vision, so that is why it is probably logical that nowadays great confusion is prevailing in the Macedonian information system. It is, undoubtededly, the result of lost trust in the media and the "advocates of the truth" who obviously still cannot get rid of the old habits and "acquired knowledge" from the time of the single-party system when means of mass communication were nothing but spokesmen and apologists of the communist regime. Nowadays, no matter if they transmit stances and fulfill wishes of their inheritors, that is the party in power, left-oriented Social Democrats, or those of the opposition, the principle is the same - journalists and media in which they work are closely linked with the existing political forces in Macedonia and in a mutual relationship which cannot be defined otherwise but as a relationship between the master and the servant. But, first things first.

The authorities in Macedonia have the strongest support in the two oldest and certainly most professional media: the newspaper publishing enterprise Nova Makedonija and the Macedonian Radio-Television (MRTV). The spirit of communism, affiliation and loyalty to the present authorities which have resulted from the communist ideology have been operating undisturbed in these mastodons during all these years of pluralization. In the beginning of this process and the time when the door was left ajar to democracy, there have been attempts of some journalists to cast off the influence of the authorities and get rid of the unbecoming role imposed on journalism, but this did not last long because the circumstances worked in favour of the more powerful party - the authorities.

In a situation of uncertain financing and lack of readiness to start in the direction of market economy, Nova Makedonija and MRTV sought the easier, parasitical way to survive: to have their existence provided for by the state, so MRTV remained what it used to be, that is the public (state) enterprise, while Nova Makedonija tried to fool the public by ensuring for itself the status of an undefined social enterprise (which belongs to everybody and to nobody), not owned by the state, but still with certain financial obligations of the state towards it. Of course, in these difficilt times, all publications of Nova Makedonija are financed from the state budget, and when that is not sufficient, the Government of Macedonia intervenes with additional million of German marks or two, because, they say, it is a national media and of national interest.

Since recently Nova Makedonija has become a share-holding company, which means that it was privatized, but one of the owners is the government of Macedonia which owns more than 30 per cent of foundation rights. The result of it is that it has a strong influence on the editorial policy, which of course determines the profile of Nova Makedonija as a regime-controlled media with clear political orientation and executor of the wishes of the party in power which manipulates the public through it and presents its own political views as objective reality and the truth. This resulted in lost confidence in Nova Makedonija the circulation of which has dropped down to the insignificant seven thousand (it used to amount to up to 30 thousand), and the political magazine Puls with the circulation of 1,300 copies, and the journal in Albanian language called Flaka e Vlazerimit with the approximate circulation of about two thousand, and the one in Turkish with the circulation of about 500 copies, and so on and so forth.

The exception is the evening newspaper called Vecer, which is in the past month registering the circulation of over thirty thousand sold copies, but this has happened only because it reduced its price from 30 to 10 denars. At the same rate they are losing the trust of the readers and the circulation, Nova Makedonija and even the MRTV are losing their journalists. Some were directly discharged because of their professional views and exposing the truth which did not suit the ruling SDSM, the others are experiencing the same repression but indirectly, and some are simply leaving of their free will, because they simply cannot stand the shame they feel because of the manner in which they are forced to work by the authorities and their satellites - directors and editors-in-chief in the mentioned media.

As concerning the media in Macedonia which are outside these systems, it can be said that their main characteristics is fragmentation and poor technical equipment and small personnel. However, despite this, their significance is not small and they have great influence on the public. Politics is the centre of their interest, so from the position they take, it can be determined how close or how distant they are from a certain political option. For example, A1 television station, which is privately-owned, although it is declaratively independent, it evidently supports the SDSM, probably because its owner is close to the ruling party. The newly-founded Telma television station, which is owned by Makpetrol, is openly in favour of the opposition, or more precisely the Liberal Democratic Party, because everybody in Macedonia knows that the Director of Makpetrol is one of the leading men among the Liberals. The manager of Sitel television station is the president of the Socialist Party, so it is normal that this television emits only the "Socialist" truth. The greatest opposition and second in size party in the country, VMRO-DPMNE, for the time being has no television of its own, but disseminates its opposition stands via the weekly Delo. The media which made a boom in Macedonia, weekly Fokus, is perhaps the only independent media in Macedonia. According to its significance, the daily Dnevnik, probably with the highest circulation in the country (of 70 thousand sold copies) is certainly also worth mentioning, which has been mercilessly attacking the ruling structure.

When speaking about the situation in the information space of Macedonia, it still cannot be said that independent and objective journalism has started to live its full life. There are two completely opposite extremes: on the one are the regime-controlled media inherited by the present authorities, and on the other are all those which, faced with financial and other problems, were mostly forced to take sides with the opposition. That is why it is becoming evident that an enormous information space in Macedonia has remained empty. Empty for unbiased, uncontrolled, objective and honest information.

AIM, Skopje

MILAN BANOV