Journalists against Journalism

AIM Skopje, 9 January

In the past few weeks on one of the Skopje tv channels it is possible to watch the program of a so far unidentified station which night and day broadcasts live coverage of life in an aquarium, which in view of the competition is not a very bad program. An even the least patient spectator will find it much more interesting to wait and see when one of the gaudy fish will appear from the aquarium flora than to endure the terrorism of trashy folk fauna incessantly attacking his senses from most of the 20 odd "television" and 50 odd "radio" stations which are contaminating the air above the capital of Macedonia. Partly for the sake of dignity of those innocent small fish, partly for the sake of good taste and health of its subjects, and maybe, partly for its own sake, the Macedonian state has in the past few days of the old year hinted that it is willing to put an end to it.

Implementing provisions of the Law on broadcasting passed last year, the Government has published a public competition with the number and cost of (ab)use of channels. The new standards, of course, do not refer to programs of state radio-television, since it is a public enterprise the status of which is regulated by a special legal document. Therefore, apart from Macedonian Radio-Television, the right to braodcast on the entire territory of the state in the next ten years will be given to two commercial radio and two television stations, and the pleasure to do it will cost them slightly more than 80 and 160 thousand German marks a year, respectively. It may be comforting that the price will be payable in national currency. The right to broadcast at a considerbly lower price will, of course, be given to about one hundred local radio and 80 television stations. Apart from adequate technical equipment and personnel, participants in the public competition for channels will have to offer a certain percentage of their own production and more than a half of the domicile contents.

The current authorities obviously have their own calculation. With the price of the channels and the required program structure, they will certainly shut down some of the radio and television stations, at least those whose only daily production was reading congratulation and greeting messages and just occasional political engagement at the time of local elections. Some supporters of interpretation of democracy in its braodest sense might find reason in this for an attack against the authorities. The competition for two channels on the "state" level will also be interesting. In Skopje, at least three privately-owned stations have already announced that they would apply for "the honour and obligation". Two of them, A1 and SITEL, are directly controlled by the parties which form the ruling coalition, and judging by their equipment and structure of the program, they are closer to the most attractive channels than TELMA which is much "younger" and controlled by the opposition. It is not difficult to reach the conclusion that this fact could be politicized. Nevertheless, another fact seems much more advisable at this moment. It does not even occur to anybody that a "Macedonian" (linguistically speaking) television station could appear at the competition. Things are more than clear at this moment, but the concessions are issued for the period of ten years.

Be what may, the Government counts on it that it will introduce order into broadcasting, and make a profit as it goes along. The more powerful among the electronic media are secretly gloating because the state will clear the space for them, and the weaker ones are praying they will survive. In any case, this will put an end to uncontrolled cacophony in the Macedonian air. And as it often happens, one man's loss is another man's gain. The printed media, poor Gutenberg's great-grandchildren, had completely been pushed aside by the invasion of aggressive electronic media unselfishly supported by media enthusiasts gathered around "papa" Soros. The picture is now changing. Thanks primarily and above all to the appearance of the first private daily Dnevnik, on the market of printed media, new rules have been established. Professional and business. Modern journalistic way of thinking and specific dumping of prices at news stands forced state dailies to come out in the open which had gloated behind the palisade of safe (and "verified") sources of information and the unfailing state subsidies. Even the "official" papers were sold at prices two or three times lower prices, and the slight shift in the way of thinking brought the press back into Macedonian homes. The report of the Macedonian Helsinki Committee on the situation in the media for last year carried some very interesting indicators. In 1996, according to this source, only about 30 thousand copies a day were sold in Macedonia. A year later, circulation of the newspapers have increased three times and nowadays exceed the figure of 100 thousand sold copies.

The weeklies are also worth mentioning. The first serious independent weekly Fokus once showed that the Macedonian readers were not completely disinterested for this form of journalism, as the rapid decline of circulation of the weekly Puls which is close to the regime could have been interpreted. Then in the beginning of autumn, a serious news magazine called Denes appeared at news stands, and started observing the Macedonian everyday life from a somewhat different angle. Since the managing and editorial team of Denes consists of a group of defectors from Nova Makedonija which is loyal to the authorities, prompt reaction followed from this editorial team in the form of completely re-designed Puls. The dilapidated weekly appeared in a gaudy news-magazine form and although it still manifests considerable discrepancy between the form and the content, it reappeared at news stands and reached the circulation it did not have even at the time of its greatest fame, some five or six years ago. And finally, as a new year's gift to passionate readers, biweekly Forum appeared at news stands, as a journal of big ambitions intended for exclusive public, if nothing else to round off the offer of local written media.

Regardless of the possible political abuse in connection with implementation of the law on broadcasting, things which have been initiated in this sphere could considerably contribute to the reputation of the journalists in Macedonia, equally as it is done by dynamically, professionally and ideologically liable to competition market of the press. One could say that this is a process of liberation and democratization of the media which cannot be stopped, regardless how hard some circles opposed it. That is why it sounds almost as a paradox that somehow there is the least awareness of it among the journalists. Or at least a part of them who have not yet been driven out into the market, and unfortunately, the largest majority of them still belong to this category since they are employed in "state" enterprises, the RTV which is a public enterprise and Nova Makedonija which, although formally privatized, is mostly owned by the state.

A few days before the New Year's holidays, the professional association of Macedonian journalists came out in public with a collective protest against the state authorities because of their status, social and existential problems of the members of the Association. Briefly, the profession of journalists is very important, responsible and socially needed, they say, so it is somehow self-understood that the state should pay them back awarding the distinguished text writers accordingly. Everything would probably be all right if it had not sounded somehow anachronistic, as if from the times when journalism was "socio-political work" and when its true objectives were designed in "forms of coordination" and awards for devoted work decided by the socialist alliance of the working people. The question of the status and reputation of the profession is resolved in processes which have just begun in Macedonian journalism despite journalists themselves.

AIM SKOPJE

BUDO VUKOBRAT