The Inescapable Anomie Of Smallness

Michael Hedges May 29, 2014 Follow on Twitter

Big media markets have many advantages. More money, obviously, is one. More watchful eyes, arguably, is another. Smaller media markets, where everybody knows everybody, become consumed by the bitterness of scale. Criticism is very unwelcome.

Macedonia is one of eight countries that took shape after the breakup of Yugoslavia more than two decades ago. It’s small, roughly two million people, and challenged economically. The media sector has been widely described as “overcrowded” though the printed media offerings have shrunk and television channels are few and full of reality shows. Public broadcaster Macedonian Radio Television (MRT) holds a modest market position, digital transition aiding measurably. Web-based media is robust, Facebook the most used social media platform.

“Macedonia’s prospects for media sustainability further deteriorated,” said the IREX 2014 Media Sustainability Index (MSI) released this month. Local experts consulted by IREX were pessimistic “about the prospects of escaping the trends toward greater state control, politicization and economic degradation of the media.” The IREX MSI, financially supported by USAID, is developed from observations of in-country panelists who for this report remain anonymous due to “abusive verbal and media attacks.”

In the IREX 2014 MSI, Macedonia ranked lowest of the former Yugoslav countries plus Kosovo and Albania. Slovenia, an EU Member State since 2004, was not ranked. Of the five objectives used to determine the overall MSI score only the professional status of journalism improved year on year, albeit very slightly and from a low point.

Full-time journalists in Macedonia are poorly paid, notes the report, and many “operate under constant fear of losing their jobs.”  In February editor-in-chief of daily newspaper Nova Makedonija - Zoran Dimitrovski – was unceremoniously dismissed. Publisher Minco Jordanov, reportedly Macedonia’s richest person, gave no public explanation. Journalists Association of Macedonia called the dismissal “politically motivated.”

Last year Nova Makedonija investigative journalist Tomislav Kezarovski was sentenced to four and a half years in jail for disclosing the identity of a protected witness in trial who later confessed to falsely accusing a murder suspect under pressure from police. The incident took place in 2008 when Mr. Kezarovski worked for the magazine Reporter 92. Noting what appears to be selective prosecution, media watcher Reporters sans Frontiers (RSF) called Kezarovski’s conviction “incomprehensible and disturbing.” The murder trial ended in the defendant’s acquittal.

Mr. Dimitrovski helped organize a rally in support of Mr. Kezarovski in October last year. When arrested Mr. Kezarovski was taking a hard look at the mysterious death last year of Fokus newspaper publisher Nikola Mladenov.  Fokus regularly publishes reports critical of the rich and powerful. 

In 2011 TV and newspaper owner Velija Ramkovski was tried and convicted of tax evasion, which some observers say was politically inspired. The A1 television channel and four newspapers were forced to close when Ramkovski’s assets were frozen. “This is not an isolated incident but a confrontation with media critical of the government,” said Amnesty International (July 5, 2011). Mr. Ramkovski is serving a 13-year jail term.

The IREX 2014 MSI panelists rated business management lowest of the five criteria, and falling further from the 2013 report. Many media owners are, allegedly, tied to the government through state advertising or other, more mysterious links. The MSI panelists complained that most media outlet owners have “other core businesses” preventing, they say, a functioning, independent industry. WAZ Group, the big German publisher, exited Macedonian assets in 2012.

The top two privately owned television channels are owned, more or less, by Macedonian politicians. Socialist Party leader Ljubisav Ivanov-Zingo resigned a seat in parliament last year rather than divest Sitel TV as ordered by the Macedonian Broadcasting Council. Kanal 5 owner Boris Stojmenov, head of the VMRO-Vistinska party, shifted ownership to his son.

Planned support for online media from the Netherlands Embassy in Skopja drew criticism from local media as “meddling” in the country’s internal affairs, reported government news agency MINA (May 13).

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