Macedonia and the division of the media into “Ours” and “Theirs”

By VEBI VELIJA
All political analysts now agree on the fact that the collapse of communism occurred parallel to the eruption of ethnical issues. National Rights overshadowed Human Rights, and the struggle for power assumed the features of a fight being waged by given ethnic groups. Unfortunately, this is what has been occurring over these years in Macedonia too. In the attempts to build democracy, pluralist parliamentary elections were organized, during which, ethnic issues predominated. In general the parties that produced the most hype in favour of a given national group which they were linked to won these elections and not the parties with constructive ideas for the whole community. Throughout the entire former Yugoslavia, political leaders instilled and cultivated in their individual ethnic groups systematic distrust towards other nationalities. Macedonia is no exception. The media too have also helped reach this goal, especially television. During fifteen years of pluralism, the Albanians failed to obtain a professional media that spoke in their own language, but together with the Macedonians they endured precisely this situation. Therefore, being different ethnic communities and full of mistrust for one another, they were easily manipulated. The birth of Alsat in Macedonia had the purpose and continues to have this purpose of cultivating free and fair information, tolerance and co-existence, the reflection of the life of the country, with its different ethnicities and the issues it features. In this situation, a professional television has only one duty: to teach people how to listen to all political sides. This is the only possible editorial policy that can create peace and tolerance. I will mention just the one example from the painful history of Bosnia. In October 1991, Serb television broadcast an item of news on the beating up of an Orthodox priest by Croat forces. On the same day, Croat television broadcast the history of a Catholic priest who was maltreated by Serb supporters. Both stories were true. However, Serb television made no mention of the incident with the Catholic priest, and Croat Television did the same regarding the Orthodox priest. The tension that built up between Serb and Croat ethnic communities due to this selective method of using information, began to decrease only when TV Sarajevo transmitted both items of news, something which indicated clearly to the hot heads that no one had a monopoly over what is right or what is wrong.
Relations between professional journalists and ethnic journalists, between the professional media and the political parties in the Government, in fact, were transformed into a war between, professionalism and politics, the truth and half truths, the civil community and ethnic community, freedom and control, open and closed society, democracy and dictatorship.
Throughout the different events in Macedonia, TV Alsat has tried precisely to keep the public informed openly and professionally, steering clear of demagogy and half truths. Alsat has put its screen at the disposal of all relevant players, offering the public a complete picture, something which profoundly serves peace and tolerance. The philosophy of TV Alsat is the truth which is the same for all ethnic groups, correct and professional reporting and also the creation of opportunities for journalists to work freely. It is easy to recognize the truth from a half truth, but it is very dangerous when these half truths are used to create ethnic tension. This is not only a very important contribution for the media, but also for this distorted political environment that divides journalists and the media in Macedonia today into two categories: Ours and Theirs. In closing, I would like to present another significant fact: subjected to constant pressure to deliver half truths with an ethnic sting, the announcer of Radio Zagreb resigned in February of 1992. This pressure was directly exerted by the Leader of the HDZ, (Croatian Democratic Union Party), Franjo Tudjman. “I had never worked under such strain,” the announcer said at the time, “as far as I’m concerned, it was easier to work under communism than today.”
To avoid reaching this tragic conclusion, it is the duty of the entire environment in Macedonia to reduce ethnic tension, not to manipulate facts as an exaggerated triumph, and the media must report with as much truth as possible. Only by presenting to the public all sides of the story, without any of the censuring or auto-censuring, only by communicating with and not just speaking to the respective ethnic communities, will we reach peaceful co-existence, so vital for the future of Macedonia.