Polyparty-ism - Search for Common Ground

72
important and positive role in the
exposure and interruption of this "project",
even the ones that have published
it, like the newspaper "Vecher".
Maybe the split and the media stand
taking, was a logical move. It was followed
by a lot of amateurism, hysteria,
murder of truth and murder of profession.
Unfortunately, infiltrated "journalists"
have appeared among us in the
media, trying to stimulate a final clash
between the Macedonians and the
Albanians, guided by the money they
have received. I think that when all of
this will come to an end, there won't be
a place in the Macedonian media for
such "journalism" and distribution of
cheep police stories. I am sure that the
truth about the "patriotic" media and
the "traitors" (the ones who hasn't
joined the game of the authorities for
building a false patriotism among people
in order to achieve their dream by
causing direct damage to the citizens
and the state.) will be revealed. Until
then, there still might be a space for
presenting cheep stories of some
"police guys" that unfortunately are
presenting themselves as journalists.
Shkeljzen Halimi, editor in chief of
the newspaper "Fakti"
On one round table discussion
organized recently in Skopje, our colleague
Aco Kabranov, talking about
the media in the context of the current
events in Macedonia, among the rest,
said that some journalists have become
simple "note-takers of police stories". I
completely agree with his statement.
These stories that are completely
unconfirmed, in the last months have
"poisoned" the Macedonian public and
now there is a need for greater efforts
on the behalf of those media that were
publishing that kind of stories for the
needs of a certain conjuncture, to create
a new public opinion, free from the
irrational hate accumulated in it.
The present situation is not convenient
for dangerous "sensations"
that contribute most to the increasing
of the circulation. It is completely
unethical of some media to earn
money playing with this fire. Least of
all we need fire that can burn us all.
We should put an end to the invention
of dangerous information warranted
by some sources from the Ministry of
Internal Affairs, familiar only to the
editors. Because, from what we have
already seen, it appears that the
employees at the Ministry of Internal
Affairs are the most agile assistants to
the Macedonian media. On top of
everything, at least until now none of
those predicting information, based on
the sources fro the Ministry of Internal
Affairs, have proved to be true. And at
the very end, the Macedonian media
would have to stray from the logic that
they have created, according to which
the Albanians should be seen only as
"terrorists", which will create better
climate for stabilizing the situation.
What can the media do to prevent the
announced spring aggression? If they
are willing, they can do a lot, as not to
give space to the police stories, but to
the every day reality that the
Macedonian citizens are facing.
Spring should come also for those
media that used to be "dimmed" and it
should not be bloody, but blossomed
by the truth.
Goran Mihajlovski, editor in chief of
the newspaper "Vest"
The media didn't do anything to
prevent the war, and I have a feeling
that sometimes they have even
increased the tension. No matter how
hard we try to avoid admitting it, I
think that the media were also divided
to Macedonian and Albanian block, as
it happened with the people in terms of
crisis and every day life. Because of its
conception "Vest" has tried to avoid
taking sides, by presenting the news
only by photographs. When on the
front page we would have published a
photograph of the members of the
NLA or have even just mentioned the
name of Arben Dzhaferi, often we
received a number of phone calls by
our readers that were threatening us by
saying that they will stop reading and
buying our newspaper. Willing or not,
we had to be coordinated with the
needs of our readers and subconsciously
we entered the general media
split even by publishing a usual news
report.
Branko Trichkovski, editor in chief
in the newspaper "Utrinski vesnik"
The military conflict in Macedonia
has one serious controlling dimension.
The media, on a general level, have not
crossed that line, despite of all mistakes
they have made. There were
examples of instrumentalization, of
overemphasized national tone, of tendentiousness
and provocation. But, as
a general critical group, the media
have hold that line of controlling the
situation, more than they have played
the role of generators of some war
option. On the other hand, they were
lacking a more active role in the prevention
of the things that were happening,
because most of them were
conformists. The media should not be
separated form the general situation
and the other participants in it. It
should not be forgotten that by using
real resources, all of the authorities
have lead their politics that could not
have ended in a different way. Then
the media should be selective.
"Utrinski vesnik" from the beginning
has represented the antiwar option
energetically and risk taking. Others
have represented populist and the current
popular stands, according to the
public mood. As we all know, there
were, and there still are, media that
believed in a vulgar and primitive way
of solving the problems, by bloodshed
from both sides.
Branko Geroski, editor in chief of
the newspaper "Dnevnik"
The idea that the media have a special
role or a mission within the social
movements really does sound attractive,
but it is completely opposed to
the trends of the modern journalism on
the West, which is definitely and completely
commercially oriented.
Consequently, my opinion is that the
media have no obligations or rights to
create or prevent wars. War or peace,
the journalists are obliged to do their
job professionally and that means that
they should report instantly, accurately
and responsibly. That goes for the
world media giants, like CNN or BBS,
but also for the Macedonian media and
all the other local media throughout
the world.
According to my opinion, the
media in Macedonia, even in the
moments of war, have accomplished
their task quite professionally. They
gave enough important and crucial
information to the people, and then
people will articulate their own political
will.
Faik Mustafa, editor in chief of the
newspaper "Flaka"
During the war, media almost
Will there be peace?, February 2002