The NGO Info-center, in the period from March 1 to April 2, 2021 (on working days, Monday – Friday), monitored the media coverage of the Census 2021. The monitoring included 9 media: 4 information portals (Plusinfo, Frontline, Kurir and 360 Degrees). ) and the central news on 5 national televisions, including the public broadcasting service – MRT1, Telma, Sitel, Alfa and Alast M (news in Macedonian).
The main goal of the monitoring is to monitor the way the media report on the census and how it affects the information of the citizens and their participation in the census process. The monitoring should determine whether the citizens are qualitatively and comprehensively informed about the census and what is the impact from institutions and political entities in the country on the census.
Key findings
- The reporting on the census was dominated by political-party reactions with a high 60.5% of the announcements, while the articles dedicated to the specific census activities were represented with only 22.2%.
- These figures confirm the pronounced politicization of the census in the media, which progressed from week to week, to reach its culmination in the days after the leadership meeting (March 29 – April 2), when the Assembly was expected to vote on amendments to the law and postponed the census for September this year.
- The State Statistical Office (SSO), an institution legally responsible for the preparation and implementation of the census, as a source of information was represented in only 22% of the total number of analyzed media content.
- The low percentage of using the SSO as a source of information is a clear indicator of the editorial approach, which on the one hand, marginalizes the official information about the census, and on the other hand, puts more emphasis on political / party influences and implications on the census process.
Dominant topics and aspects related to the 2021 Census:
- Two key but conflicting narratives have gradually developed: (a) The census is safe for enumerators and citizens, represented by the government and the institutions involved in conducting the census, and (b) The census is a serious health risk, the position of opposition political entities, and some of the civic initiatives to boycott the census.
- The second key topic was the census of the diaspora that started on March 1. In some of the pro-opposition monitored media, the narrative developed that “Albanian politicians are much more actively motivating ethnic Albanians from the diaspora to engage in online census, as opposed to ethnic Macedonians in power.”
- In the part of the media support for the census, there was a noticeable presence of the narrative that “the census is a statistical operation of public interest that should not be politicized.”
Read the full text of the monitoring:
I Monitoring Report Census 2021
About the Author: NVO Infocentar
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