The NGO Info-centre, in cooperation with the Macedonian Centre for European Training (MCET), and with financial support from the Foundation Open Society Macedonia (FOSM), implemented, in the period from September 19 to November 20, 2012, a monitoring of media reporting and coverage of European integration processes in the Republic of Macedonia, with special emphasis on the European Commission’s 2012 Progress Report on the Republic of Macedonia.
The monitoring covered seven daily newspapers (“Utrinski vesnik”, “Dnevnik”, “Vest”, “Večer“, “Nova Makedonija”, “Fokus” and “Den”), the central news programmes aired by seven television stations that broadcast nationally or over the satellite (24 Vesti TV , Kanal 5 TV, Sitel TV, Telma TV , MTV1, Alfa TV and AlsatM TV), and six internet news portals (Sky.mk, MKD.mk, Libertas.mk, Plusinfo.mk, Kurir.mk and A1.on).
The monitoring covered the Monday, Wednesday and Friday coverage on TV stations and portals, and Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday editions of the daily newspapers. The monitoring focused on the following journalistic genres: news, statements, reports, commentaries/editorials and interviews.
In the period covered by this report, the European Commission (EC) released its annual Progress Report on Macedonia which, as in previous years, attracted the bulk of media attention. One characteristic of this year’s coverage was the almost total absence of any analysis of the progress Macedonia achieved in a number of areas covered by the Progress Report. The majority of the media actively supported Government’s agenda to attempt and present the Progress Report as the most positive so far, and journalistic reports and stories were dominated by the messages presented by the politicians from the ruling coalition. That manner of reporting illustrates the fact that some media act as mouthpieces for Government policies, making no attempt to bring up topics and questions that would engage in a deeper and more critical analysis of the European integration processes in the country. Having in mind the media reporting over the past several years when there were some efforts to raise some essential subjects and questions and for critical observation of European integrations, there is the unavoidable conclusion that while journalists have sufficient capacities to follow and cover the European integrations, it is likely that editorial policies of a number of media outlets are in direct correlation with Government’s positions and agenda.
As far as individual issues are concerned, the media paid greatest attention to the Report’s remarks on the economic criteria (the topic actually preferred and pushed forward by the Government).
Unlike last year, when the journalists joined the heated debate on the omission of the adjective “Macedonian” by the European Commission, this year the debate was reduced to praising President Ivanov who claimed all credit for the “return of the adjective” for himself. While Macedonian media saw it as “injustice corrected”, Greek media interpreted the return of the adjective as a result of a “blackmail” forcing Brussels to give in to the pressure coming from Skopje.
Albanian representatives in the Government, on the other hand, raised the issue of whether the EC recommended to cover Albanian fighters in the disputed law to regulate the special rights of the war veterans (the proper translation would be “defenders”). The fact that Macedonian and Albanian representatives in the Government had different interpretations of the Progress report also attracted attention. Albanian leaders’ comments were dominated by a moderate emphasis on the negative remarks, while Macedonian leaders emphasized only the positive remarks. The media paid little, if any, attention to that dissonance.
During this period, the media finally raised the issue of the need for the state to appoint a chief negotiator. The debate, on the other hand, didn’t last long, was treated in a handful of articles and died quickly.
It is worth noting that the public, and especially the media who are not considered to be pro-government, engaged in a debate on the framework for parallel processes of negotiations on the name and the accession, proposed by the EC. Those media analyzed that proposal in the context of the Memorandum of understanding presented by the Greek diplomacy, the need to resolve the naming dispute in the early stages of negotiations with the EU, and the intensified activities to resolve the problem. On the other hand, the media that are perceived as pro-government, encouraged the sense of triumphalism in their coverage of that initiative of the EC, and contributed to the high expectations in the public – which are unfounded and could lead to disappointment and another wave of Euro-scepticism and criticism of the European Commission if its initiative doesn’t yield results. Some media characterized the Memorandum as a “Trojan Horse” and a conspiracy.
While the High-Level Accession Dialogue (HLAD) was the most covered topic in the previous two monitoring periods, this time around the HLAD went practically unmentioned by the media, and they didn’t report much on the areas it covers, either. Also, unlike the period of the release of last year’s Progress Report, when European Commissioner Stefan Füle was often targeted by media criticism which saw him as an obstacle for Macedonia, this year the media reported his work and activities in an extremely positive context, describing him as a great supporter of the country. On the other hand, this year it was the Greek media that attacked Füle, viewing his diplomatic initiatives as a “British conspiracy”.
The main characteristic of this period was the fact that the media reported and commented the Macedonian-Bulgarian relations and the possibility for Bulgaria to block Macedonia on the path to European integrations with great intensity. The bulk of media contents presented Bulgaria in a negative view, creating an anti-Bulgarian atmosphere and often leading the public to believe that Greece is not the only neighbour opposed to Macedonia’s integration into the European Union. Some media went even further in the attempt to illustrate Macedonia’s situation with allusions that the current “Greek-Bulgarian coalition” is reminiscent to the Agreement of Bucharest of 1913.
Download the fill report “In the Name of the Date”.
Media Mirror, September – November 2012: In the Name of the Date (494KB)
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