MEDIA MIRROR
The media is exerting pressure for the name dispute to be resolved
NGO Infocentre and the Macedonian Centre for European Training (MCET) with the support of Foundation Open Society Institute – Macedonia, conducted a media monitoring from October 7 to October 20, 2009, focusing on information regarding the 2009 Progress Report of the European Commission for the Republic of Macedonia.
The basic goal of this media monitoring was to analyze the quality of information published for the Report by the journalists, the Government, political parties and experts.
Articles from six daily newspapers (“Utrinski vesnik”, “Dnevnik”, “Vest”, “Vecher”, “Vreme” and “Nova Makedonija”) were analyzed, as well as the central news programs on seven TV stations with a national and satellite concession (“A1”, “Kanal 5”, “Sitel”, “Telma”, “MTV1”, “Alfa” and “Alsat”).
The media, compared to last year, demonstrated almost twice the interest for the report of the European Commission. The increased quantity of articles was accompanied by an improved quality of information with significantly less errors regarding the euro-integration. This is why we can conclude that this year the citizens were able to get more information about the main findings in the European Commission Progress Report.
|  | | | MEDIA MIRROR – ELECTIONS 2009
Gjorge Ivanov damaged his own image
NGO Infocentre, in the period from the 9th to the 21st of March, conducted the second phase of the media monitoring – „Media mirror“, encompassing the 2009 presidential and local elections. Six daily newspapers were included in the monitoring as well as six TV stations on a national level: “Vecer”, “Vreme”, “Dnevnik”, “Utrinski Vesnik”, “Koha”, “Nova Makedonija”, TV “A1”, TV “Kanal 5”, “MTV 1”, TV “AlSat – M”, TV “Sitel” and TV “Telma”.
The initial analysis showed that the main accent in the information of the media, in the second phase of the election campaign, was put on the statements and behaviour of the presidential candidate of VMRO-DPMNE, Gjorge Ivanov. A great number of journalists and commentators stated that Ivanov damaged his own image and that it is obvious how much he is trying to evade facing his competiors – countercandidates, as well as the journalists and the media public in general. His address to the farmers who were damaged in the “Swedmilk” scandal was described by the media as “throwing a curse” on the farmers and this was assessed as scandalous retorics inappropriate for a presidential candidate. Ivanov was even more criticized after his statement that he incited or suggested to his students to sign the candidacy of the presidential candidate of LDP, Nano Ruzhin.
The media continued to criticize the Government about the direct influence over the electoral campaign in favour of VMRO-DPMNE. Most of the media assessed the activities of the Government as election marketing, since the Prime Minister Gruevski was announcing the construction of various buildings during the pre-electoral campaign”. Part of the media blamed the Government for using the state apparatus in favour of VMRO-DPMNE’s election campaign and stated that “the Government is spending state funds for its party goals and is totally neglecting the general citizens’ interest.
Part of the media in Albanian language, criticized the Government that the money of the Albanian taxpayers is being spent for the personal rating of the Prime Minister and stated that “the citizens have the right to ask whose money the Government is spending for party goals”. At the same time, the government policy to intensively set up monuments got interethnic dimensions, i.e. part of the media in Albanian language, noticing the trend of the “sculpturomania” initiated by the Government, opened the question “why is there no place for a monument of the Kosovo KLA commander, Adem Jashari”.
The media which directly support the Government were applying double standards when presenting news and information. On one hand, they emphasized that the Government is providing foreign investments even in a time of a world crisis (for instance, the entrance of the private Turkish company “Shishedgam”), and on the other hand, pardoned the government from responsibility for the failure of certain foreign investments, such as “Swedmilk”, reminding the farmers that “they have a private debt from a private firm”.
The complete report of “Media Mirror” will be published by March 30, 2009 at the latest, and will be made available to all the relevant domestic and foreign institutions.
The media monitoring will continue in the period of the second election round as well. The last “media mirror” report will be published by the middle of April, 2009.
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