Time frame: November 30 REPORT th based on the monitoring of election – December 9 campaign coverage in TV news th Institute of Communication Studies , 2016

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Time frame: 30th – December 9th, 2016 Macedonia democracy watch

GENERAL CONCLUSIONS age in TVr age news cove campaign r ing of election on the monito Repo r t based

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• During the monitoring period, from No- • Both channels of the public service cov- vember 30 to December 9, most of the TV ered the campaign of the most entities. stations covered the pre-election activi- Regarding the organization of the elec- ties of the parties’ with increased: MTV1 tions, reports were shown that presented 125, MTV2 - 80, Sitel 75, Telma 56, 24 Vesti financial reports of the parties; conveyed 67, M in Macedonian – 16 and in Al- the official standpoints of the institutions banian - 72, TV 21 in Macedonian - 91 and and of the international representatives, in Albanian - 85, Kanal 5 - 96, Alfa - 69, and there were fewer reports about poten- and TV Nova – 62 reports. tial irregularities. TV stations Sitel, Kanal 5, Alfa and TV Nova continued with the of the reporting, through an analytical numerous reports on the topic of ‘state approach. When reporting about party bilingualism’, and with some of them this programmes, TV 21 (in Macedonian and topic was the dominant topic of the news in Albanian) allocated most of their air

(Sitel – on December 5, published as many time to the three parties (VMRO-DPMNE, Time frame: November 30 as five reports on this topic). All of these DUI and SDSM), their coalitions and their TV stations framed the topic in a similar officials, reporters from the rallies, and way, as an introduction to the play-out of analytical approaches were provided some sort of scenario for federalization of not as often. Alsat M provided the least the country, led by the opposition. reports about the daily activities of the candidates (rallies and meetings with • Regarding other topics, during this pe- the people), towards the end of the news, riod, there were more frequent reports and in the time they allotted for the cam- about the measures and accomplish- paign, the media outlet analyzed specific ments of the Government, especially on aspects of it.

the following four TV stations Sitel (20), th – December 9 Kanal 5 (16), Alfa (25) and TV Nova (3). In • State bilingualism and federalization this process, VMRO-DPMNE and their were once again the most common topic leader were mostly favoured, especially for negative framing of the party SDSM. in the reports on foreign investment, the Most of these reports were published by source of which was the Facebook profile Sitel (19), most of which were editorial

of VMRO-DPMNE leader Nikola Gruevski. comment (every day from December 2 th

to December 5), then there were claims , 2016 • When it came to media such as TV 24, Al- from experts, citizens and foreign rep- sat M, Telma and TV 21, there was much resentatives (December 9, three com- more intense coverage of topics related to ments), ‘Statements such as this one are the organization and preparation of the the reason why many analysts in the last elections: abuse of official position and of few days have warned that Macedonia is state resources, irregularities, financing threatened by federalization and redefin- of campaigns (24 Vesti, Alsat M), the ac- ing of the state’). Alfa and TV Nova re- tivities of the civil sector, the events sur- ported with a negative rhetoric towards rounding trade union organizations and SDSM and their leader Zaev (Alfa, Decem- the judiciary system, the work of SPPO ber 4: ‘Experts warn that by insisting on 3 (Telma), as well as the regular work of the this concept, SDSM leader Zaev, on the institutions, mostly the courts (TV 21). topic of state bilingualism and cantoni- zation, can cause new disturbances and • In this part of the pre-election campaign conflicts in the country’, TV Nova, De- too, the public broadcasting service was cember 6, ‘Vast majority of Macedonians the only media outlet that covered the are against state bilingualism’. activities of all political parties that participated in the elections, simply by • Kanal 5, besides negatively framing reporting about the activities and the SDSM, this time also published reports messages of candidates and no specific that were positive for VMRO-DPMNE, i.e. topics were raised. MTV 2 in its news in they were construed in a way in which Albanian provided relative balance in they led to a conclusion that federaliza- representing the political messages of tion can be avoided by following the call of the parties from the Albanian and from leader Gruevski for his party to get 63 MP the Macedonian political block, for the positions (December 2: ‘Experts fear that parties that are in Government and the the announcements for potential wide oppositional political parties, by focus- coalitions after the elections bring about ing on issues that are of interest for the the danger of redefining the country and Albanian ethnic community. changes of the Constitution, which may be prevented only if the party currently • Sitel, Kanal 5, Alfa and TV Nova provided in power wins 63 MP positions’). a balance in quantity, however in view of the approach they provided non-critical • TV 24 Vesti touched upon this topic in- reporting: positive for VMRO-DPMNE, directly, although in a different context the coalition and the officials and a nega- (December 6: ‘Civil Macedonia placed tive stand towards SDSM. before an ethnic test’). TV 21 (in Macedo- nian and in Albanian) showed only one • Telma and TV 24 Vesti attempted to pro- report from a pre-election appearance of vide a balanced reflection of the realis- a political party, however without giving tic political diversity, which was evident a journalistic opinion. Alsat M and Telma in terms of the quantity and the quality paid no notice to the topic.