Macedonian relations with the European Union are treated in the media through several large and small topics. The media didn’t restrict itself to just information, but presented their own evaluations and judgment too.In March, the media have adopted the consensus opinion that the EU is not ready for further expansion, while Macedonia is not ready for serious reforms.
Thus the media sidestepped the dilemma of Macedonia’s European integration being related directly to how democratic, fair and free the forthcoming parliamentary elections will be. In this context the media analyzed the behaviour and actions of domestic and international actors. The media paid scant consideration to their own role in that process.
The hesitation of the media to take a position towards CEFTA (Central European Free Trade Agreement) and the eventual Balkan free trade zone has fallen slightly in March. The media scepticism and fear towards the regional trade networking also decreased significantly. The fear (but also the position) of the “resurrection of SFRY” held by some media, and also the fear that “CEFTA is an alternative offered to the Western Balkans instead of EU integration”, was replaced during this period with an optimism that CEFTA membership may, in fact, be an overture to the EU membership. With reduced suspicion (though not totally dismissed) of Balkan networking, the fear of suspension or stopping of EU expansion after the entry of Bulgaria, Romania and Croatia has increased proportionally. In the context of the possible “…Euro-closing for the countries of the Western Balkans”, the media promoted and positively evaluated the actions of Ollie Rehn, European Commissioner and opponent to the European isolationist policies towards the Balkans. Otherwise, Erwan Fouere remains the foreign politician (diplomat) that gets the most positive coverage and, almost without exception, promotion in the Macedonian media.
A great portion of material published on this topic were dedicated to the relations between Macedonia and Kosovo, especially to the issue of demarcation of the border. The majority of media from their reports, leave the impression that, the issue is closed before the status of the province is defined, but they don’t have nor offer an idea of how to achieve this.
These are few of the general conclusions of the 7th issue of the “Media Mirror”, monitoring of Macedonian media, that covers March 2006. “Media Mirror” intents to present a clear picture of the professional standards and information criteria of the media, and the manner in which they cover and interpret the key social and political processes and events.
Read the full Report…(PDF version)
Media Mirror, March 2006 – PDF version (292KB)
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