INTERNATIONAL PRESS INSTITUTE

EXCERPTS FROM THE ANNUAL REPORT ON PRESS FREEDOM

1999 World Press Freedom Review

MACEDONIA (FYROM)

By Klime Babunski, Macedonia Media Bulletin

The past year did not bring anything good for the media in Macedonia. If anything, it could be said that the negative trends which started in 1998 continued.

In the early part of the year there were no major developments, if we do not count the conflicts in and around the NPH Nova Makedonija, which reflected the conflicts between the coalition parties in the government: VMRO-DPMNE and DA. The Government is the biggest shareholder with 30 percent of shares. The process ended with a change of the Board of Governors, or to be more concrete, the DA stepped back and the assembly of shareholders appointed as chair a person close to VMRO-DPMNE.

During the presidential elections, some "evergreen" questions regarding the media coverage of the campaign came to the surface, and unfortunately the voters faced the partisan public media situation.

Regarding the public broadcasting, Mark Stevens, Head of the OSCE Election observation mission, told the European Institute of the Media that "... last year the opposition party, VMRO-DPMNE was very critical of MRTV (Macedonian radio and television). They said it heavily favours SDSM, who...control the media and the media control their interests. They said this is undemocratic and a terrible situation. And here we are one year later, those very same people now in charge of the government and MRTV is reflecting VMRO-DPMNE interests. So on a political level it is rather disappointing."

After the election things deteriorated. The process of disciplining journalists continued, but this time with the help of police. In Veles, a town near the capital Skopje, during of process of privatising a factory the two coalition parties came again into conflict, and the police, "gave a lesson" to the journalists reporting on the developments. The journalists and the camera crews were brought to the police station for an "informative talk", and their tapes were held until the following day. The public prosecutor did not start proceedings against the policemen. In addition, there were some minor cases of police harassment against journalists.

In December, the Parliament adopted changes to the Criminal Code, making the legal situation worse for journalists. For the policy makers it was not enough to make the sanctions in terms of prison terms and fines longer and higher, but also they make the whole process much harder for journalists. Before the changes, a journalist who had been sued for publishing false information, could have defended themselves on the grounds that they thought the information was true. Now after the changes, if a journalist does not want to be punished for published work, they must show the truthfulness of the information in court.

At the moment, the Ministry of Information is preparing a law on media. According to journalists and editors, and keeping in mind the events of the recent past, it is hard to believe that this law will improve the situation. On the contrary, they are greatly concerned that further restrictions on freedom of expression and on professional freedom of journalists will be imposed.

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