SKOPJE, 31.01.2019 – The Association of Journalists of Macedonia strongly condemns the reaction of the Turkish Embassy in Skopje, which in its statement called the Turkish newspaper Zaman-Macedonia “a terrorist newsletter of FETO”.

For a newspaper that has been publishing over 25 years in Macedonia to say that it is a terrorist newsletter of any organization, it is a scandalous call for a lynch to the opponents.

We expect that other state institutions will condemn this act as well, which is aimed at suppressing the freedom of speech. We encourage our colleagues from Zaman-Macedonia to continue with their work and we offer them further support in the direction of informing the International Federation of Journalists about the pressures this editorial office faces while working in Macedonia.

The reaction of the Turkish Embassy in Skopje came after it was announced in the public that the newspaper Zaman-Macedonia is one of the newspapers which will receive financial assistance (subventions) from the Government within the project for supporting the print media.

SARAJEVO, 31.01.2019.-Local media houses have great influence and impact over the general public audience, particularly in local communities. Media houses should be free, independent and objective and should stand and represent required pre-requisites, as one of the fundamentals, for this kind of reputation is the transparency of media ownership structure.

However, insufficient and poor marketing possibilities, including financial dependability represent key obstacles that local media houses are facing at the moment, which altogether results in the decline of media program quality.

Above mentioned quality entail the issue of fair play in this “market game”, but also, through commercial advertising, includes the approach and way of how certain subjects should be analyzed, which again would eventually enable us to have better understanding of ownership structure and relationship or at least to determine the impact by certain political structures and business groups (both public and private) that have been influenced by powerful political centers.

Media market crisis produces professional journalism crisis and discredits the social role of media as well. Long – term problems in media market caused the increase in unemployment rate, as far as professional journalism is concerned, which additionally resulted in the decline of information and after all, this issue questioned the function that media houses have or should have in the democratic processes.

From financial to editing dependence

Commercial media houses mostly manage to sustain in the market, due to commercial marketing activities which include slightly different approaches, where the quality of professional journalism is diminished bearing in mind that such media houses are usually biased towards mainstream and general public opinion.

During the present time, a major discourse in the media field is considered as dominant, attracting thus, a significant number of consumers of this kind of information without more powerful standard and criteria, and accordingly, marketing industry follows these kinds of contents considering them as relevant (in terms of number of visitors), listening or reading audience rates, particularly the number of visits as far as portal scene is concerned.

The following question arises: How can positive business operations and activities be attained in media houses if media owners and entrepreneurs obey their legal duties, as far as social rights of media employees (journalists) are concerned?

Jurica Gudelj, editor one of the oldest websites in BiH believes that possibilities of positive business turnovers, under the above-mentioned circumstances, are minimal, but yet feasible. He admits that it is hard to run a reliable, stable and self-sustaining business. “Dnevnik.ba” is market – directed and aimed media house and the significant amount of finances in this house comes from the marketing; therefore there is a list of subjects that influence and make significant impact on media houses, however, it is up to journalists and editors to resist such behavior”, claims Gudelj.

The leasing of public media space (room) by political parties is particularly interesting during the pre-election campaigns because we could then thoroughly analyze political influence over certain media houses and in specific media space (room). “Media financing makes an absolute impact on reporting way and editing policies”, claims Dragisa Sikimic, the founder and chief-in-editor of “Moja Herzegovina”, local and popular web site. “Most significant financing sources of “Moja Herzegovina” (local web site), consists of grants/projects (almost 90% of financial sources), and marketing (around 10%).

It is difficult to, at the same time, be present in the market and also sustainable in terms of finances, because small size media houses require fieldwork activities, engaged and socially responsible journalism which is, at the same time, most expensive and costly solution”, commentated Sikimic. The free market should be independent in terms of power centers and political influences, and editing independence should be advanced by having professional journalists engaged and ensuring financial independence.

Pay and Create!

The quality of work is no longer an imperative, but instead, the core content that would attract more and more audience which is eventually narrowed to spectacular – based headlines and events that are attractive to present – day consumers.

Identifying and recognizing “fake news”, has become more and more difficult; there are many sponsored articles and texts and they are not marked as such texts in comparison with responsible media work, signed personally by the authors of such texts. Media products lose the core of their genuine information and generally, loses its quality, which additionally encourages the migration of audience into internet field, where these contents, with weaker quality, are at least available free of charge. “The influence of non-registered websites with no Impressums as far as the public audience is concerned is double – sided; on one hand, such media have the possibility of acquiring and accomplishing their short –term aims and agendas.

On the other hand, from the long – terms distance point of view, such projects cannot remain sustainable, because the public is after all, about cleaver and intelligent people who want to know about the authors of texts and articles they read”, stated Gudelj. Today, we have the domination of the alliance between the readers and advertisers. Journalists are required to create “pleasant environment for commercial advertisers”, and this shall exclude analyzing serious issues and topics.

Media houses are completely biased towards commercial advertisers, and journalists have absolutely no impact over this issue. Commercial advertisers, unfortunately, thus manage to buy significant protection from media headlines and highlighted titles. the problem of eliminating political influence, however, it is estimated that the audience is surely capable of identifying and recognizing an independent content.

“Clear, obvious and sustainable work can be recognized by editing policies, authenticity, and hard and dedicated work”, claims Sanja Bjelica – Sagovnovic, chief-in-editor of “Dnevni list”. According to contents, structure, information and news and approach to certain topics, we may be able to determine the influence of political groups and business subjects. Bjelica Sagovnovic claims that “the situation in entire BIH is not good, and the situation in media houses.

Interest by a certain age – groups and different ethnic groups ae being neglected and media houses thus lose their connections with media market and general public audience, becoming thus therefore subject to political influences and state and public institutions. In most cases with local media houses getting involved the situation and case is that he who pays shall create the program content; instead of having media houses whose primary task should be the production and manufacturing the content that shall be considered important for general public and that fulfil and met public criteria.

This text is a part of E-Bulletin– eighth edition of special serial of BHN online bulletin implemented through the “Media and Public Reputation” (origin. “Mediji i javni ugled”) project, also representing a contribution to public debate regarding the transparency of media ownership and upholding and encouraging the passing of set of laws aimed to advance media field and information market in BiH.

SKOPJE, 30.01.2019 – The Association of Journalists of Macedonia believes that public officials, especially ministers, should refrain from statements that can be perceived as threats or labeling of the media. This way of communication will not help in the process of professionalization of the media.

AJM: We condemn Osmani’s pressure on the media

Deputy Prime Minister Bujar Osmani, speaking about the scandal in PIOM, threatened with lawsuits against all media that linked this scandal with DUI officials. We would like to remind that one of the main roles of the media is to investigate and express doubts about all the officials, regardless of which political party they come from, and the government representatives, or in this case, the Deputy Prime Minister in charge of European integrations should refrain from threats of lawsuits in the spirit of the freedom of the speech, for which he declaratively advocates.

All the possible misunderstandings should be addressed through transparency and openness, and not with threats.

AJM: Ministers should refrain from statements that are perceived as labeling

In context of the statement of the Minister Robert Popovski, where he suggested that structures from the previous government are still influencing the way that TV Alfa reports, we believe that comments that politically label media are not contributing to create a better media environment and European values.

The professionalization of the media, including those who have broken or violated the professional standards in the past years, is a long process that requires complete elimination of all political influences in the media in order to standardize the ethical and moral principles of journalism, for which, all social actors, including members of the government, should be more cautious.

We appeal to the media to strive to respect the professional and ethical standards. We remind that only the self-regulatory bodies and the public can assess the professionalism of the media and the way they work and report. We encourage all citizens, and among them officials and ministers, to enable to increase the professional standards in the media through these bodies, because the violation of these standards is not in anyone’s interest, and least in the interests of the trust in the media.

BEOGRAD, 30.01.2019. – Nezavisno udruženje novinara Srbije od 2014. godine izdaje godišnju Hroniku napada i pritisaka na novinare, a od 2008. godine vodi evidenciju prijavljenih incidenata, odnosno incidenata koji su poznati javnosti. Na događaju “Medijske slobode i autorska prava” NUNS je predstavio Hroniku napada i pritisaka na novinare za 2018. godinu.

Upoređivanjem podataka iz beze koju vodi NUNS, očigledno je da je u 2018. godini nastavljen trend povećanja broja pritisaka na novinare i druge medijske profesionlce.

Iako pritisci ne sadrže direktne pretnje niti neposredno fizički ugrožavaju novinare, oni mogu da dovedu do ugrožavanja sigurnosti novinara. Broj pretnji i fizičkih napada na novinare i medijske radnike je gotovo isti kao i 2017., a i ove godine primetan je veliki broj pretnji upućenih putem interneta i društvenih mreža.

Poslednji slučaj ozbiljnog ugrožavanja bezbednosti novinara u 2018. je slučaj bacanja zapaljive naprave na garažu novinara portala Žig info Milana Jovanovića koja se zapalila, zahvatila celu kuću koja je potpuno uništena. Ovaj slučaj je jedan od najozbiljnijih slučajeva napada na novinare od detoniranja bombe na prozoru Dejana Anastasijevića 2007. (slučaj se i dalje nalazi u predistražnoj fazi).

U decembru 2016. godine potpisan je Sporazum o saradnji i merama za podizanje nivoa bezbednosti novinara između Ministarstva unutrašnjih poslova, Republičkog javnog tužilaštva i 7 novinarskih i medijskih udruženja. U okviru Sporazuma osnovana je Stalne radna grupa, uspostavljen mehanizam prijavljivanja slučajeva ugrožavanja bezbednosti novinara, kao i kontakt osobe za razmenu informacija kod strana potpisnica.

Iako su napravljeni određeni pomaci, situacija i dalje nije na zadovoljavajućem nivou – rad Stalne radne grupe je doveden u pitanje u novembru 2017. kada su, zbog nezadovoljstva u primeni Sporazuma i drugih okolnosti, NUNS, NDNV, ANEM, AOM i ASMEDI zamrzli status u njoj. Međutim, udruženja su smatrala da je u situaciji kada je bezbednost novinara ugrožena, saradnja sa institucijama koja bi dovela do ostvarivanja pozitivnih rezultata prioritet. Udruženja su RJT i MUP-u poslala zahteve i mere za unapređenje rada Grupe, a posle više sastanaka i pregovora o odmrzavanju statusa, u oktobru 2018. Stalna radna grupa je nastavila sa radom. Tokom ovog perioda uspostavljeni mehanizam prijavljivanja slučajeva i razmene informacija je funkcionisao.

Prema NUNS-ovoj evidenciji i podacima dobijenih od nadležnih organa i novinara, od ukupno 31 zabeleženog slučaja napada i pretnji novinarima u 2018. godini, tri slučaja su rešena izricanjem neke vrste kazne, dok je 18 slučajeva još u toku pred tužilaštvom i policijom. U 5 slučajeva je utvrđeno da nema elemenata krivičnog dela koje se goni po službenoj dužnosti, a dva su u sudskom postupku. Dva slučaja pretnji nisu ni prijavljena, a o jednom slučaju NUNS nema informacije.

Problem nekažnjivosti

Nekažnjivost je i dalje veliki problem – na to ukazuju slučajevi pokušaja ubistva Dejana Anastasijevića (2007) i fizički napadi na Davora Pašalića (2014) i Ivana Ninića (2015) koji i dalje nisu rešeni. Nerešeni su i slučajevi ozbiljnih pretnji Dragani Pećo i redakciji KRIK-a, Nedimu Sejdinoviću i Dinku Gruhonjiću (svi iz 2016. godine), upad u stan Dragane Pećo i neovlašćeno snimanje Predraga Blagojevića (2017), kao i mnogi drugi slučajevi.

Na problem nekažnjivosti ukazuju i tri nerasvetljena ubistava novinara. Slučajevi Radoslave Dade Vujasinović (1994) i Milana Pantića (2001) su još u predistražnom postupku, dok se suđenje za ubistvo Slavka Ćuruvije, započeto 2015.godine, i dalje odvija pred prvostepenim sudom. Iako je Komisija za istraživanje ubistava novinara u 2017. napravila pomake u slučaju Milana Pantića tužilaštvo još nije preduzelo odgovarajuće korake.

Pritisci na novinare

Trend rasta broja pritisaka se nastavlja: u 2018. godini NUNS je zabeležio 72 pritiska, uključujući ozbiljne pritiske koji mogu da dovedu do ugrožavanja bezbednosti novinara.  Politički i ekonomski pritisci su i dalje pritisutni, a dovode do autocenzure, pa samim tim i do sužavanja slobode medija. Najčešća meta pritisaka su mediji i novinari koji svoj posao obavljaju u službi ispunjavanja javnog interesa, koji se bave istraživačkim novinarstvom, nezavisni mediji i novinari koji obavljaju svoj posao u skladu sa Kodeksom novinara Srbije.

Ono što je posebno obeležilo 2018. godinu su pritisci koji dolaze od javnih funkcionera, čak i onih na najvišim državnim funkcijama. NUNS je u 2018. godini zabeležio 30 slučajeva napada, prozivanja, vređanja, omalovažavanja i diskriminacije novinara, medija, novinarskih i medijskih udruženja od strane državnih i lokalnih funkcionera.

Pored političkih, učestali su i ekonomski pritisci koji se manifestuju kroz distribuciju novca za oglašavanje i budžetsko sufinansiranje medijskih sadržaja od javnog interesa. U 2018. godini nastavljeno je sa administrativnim uznemiravanjem medija kroz neopravdane, duge i iscrpljujuće posete inspekcija, izbacivanje iz prostorija, itd. Najupečatljiviji slučaj iz 2018. je slučaj portala Južne vesti.

Pritisci putem sudskih postupaka

Nastavlja se i trend podnošenja velikog broja tužbi protiv novinara u vezi sa objavljivanjem informacija u medijima: u 2018. godini broj podnetih tužbi iznosi 626, a u istom periodu su rešena 505 predmeta. Ukupan broj nerešenih predmeta na dan 31. decembra 2018. godine iznosi 1.042. U 2017. godini podneto je 548 tužbi, dok ih je u 2016. bilo 507.

Karakteristično za prethodnu godinu je porast tužbi koje podnose nosioci javnih funkcija protiv nezavisnih novinara i medija koji pišu kritički. To je posebno zabrinjavajuće jer i sam Zakon o javnom informisanju i medijima propisuje da su funkcioneri dužni da tolerišu iznošenje kritičkog mišljenja, kao i prakse Evropskog suda za ljudska prava koja takođe ukazuje na to da javni funkcioneri moraju da trpe viši stepen kritike.

Najupečatljiviji slučaj u 2018. bio je podnošenje tužbi zbog povrede časti i ugleda od strane ministra Nenada Popovića protiv Mreže za istraživanje kriminala i korupcije – KRIK. Ministar je podneo četiri tužbe i to zbog četiri teksta u kojima su navedene gotovo iste informacije zasnovane na obrađenim dokumentima u okviru međunarodnog projekta „Rajski papiri“. U svakoj od tužbi ministar je traži po milion dinara naknade štete.

Kršenje Kodeksa novinara Srbije

Trend masovnog nepoštovanja Kodeka novinara Srbije nastavljen je i u 2018. godini: od ukupno 71 prijavljenih slučajeva, Komisija za žalbe je utvrdila da je u 37 prekršen Kodeks. Poslednji monitoring Saveta za štampu je utvrdio da je u periodu od avgusta do decembra 2018. najčešće bilo prekršeno poglavlje IV – odgovornost novinara (2.213 puta). Od ukupnog broja prekršaja Kodeksa najveći broj su počinili Alo (929), Srpski telegraf (769), Kurir (701) i Informer sa 600. Dok su namanje Kodeks kršili Politika (36) i Danas (57).

Nastavlja se trend kampanja koje mediji bliski vlastima vode protiv pojedinih novinara i medija koji obavljaju svoj posao u skladu sa profesionalnim standardima, poput kampanje TV Pink protiv novinarke Tamare Skrozze iz januara 2018. Ovakvi slučajevi često svoj epilog nalaze na sudu kada novinari tuže medije koji sprovode kampanje zbog povrede ugleda i časti.

Pored navedenih tema, u Hronici su obrađene i druge oblasti, kao što su sufinansiranje javnog interesa u javnom informisanju, Regulatorno telo za elektronske medije.

[1] Izvor: http://www.bazenuns.rs/srpski/napadi-na-novinare

BELGRADE, 30.01.2019. – The Independent Journalists’ Association of Serbia (NUNS) has published a Chronicle of attacks and pressure on journalists in 2018.

The attacks culminated with the torching of the home of Zig Info portal journalist Milan Jovanovic who reported on embezzlement by the local authorities in the Belgrade suburb of Grocka.

NUNS said that cooperation between journalist organizations and state institutions has improved but that the pressure on journalists is increasing.   Of the 102 reported incidents in 2018, seven were physical assaults and 23 were verbal threats. The attackers were punished in just three cases, Marija Vukasovic of NUNS said.

“The impression is that these were mainly cases involving journalists who are more present in the media and we would like it if the other cases of threats and attacks were treated in the same way,” she said.

Internal Affairs Ministry State Secretary Biljana Popović Ivkovic and deputy Public Prosecutor Branko Stamenkovic said that pressure is not a crime. „In simple terms, sometimes what journalists as victims see as danger to their security is not a crime under our criminal code,“ Stamenkovic said.

„We really have to sit down and see what pressure is. It is not an act of crime,“ Popovic Ivkovic added.

Omer Hadziomerovic from the Serbian Judges‘ Society said and Lidija Komlen Nikolic of the Association of Prosecutors that is not the case. They both said that the courts and prosecution do not react adequately to attacks on reporters.