Media Landscape of South East Europe 2002
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Media Landscape 2002 Media Landscape of South East Europe 2002 1 This book is published under the Media Landscape project, implemented by ACCESS-Sofia Foundation within the South East European Network for Professionalization of the Media (SEENPM) and funded by the FRESTA Programme of the Royal Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The book presents the results of a survey conducted in 2003 by ACCESS-Sofia Foundation, Bulgaria, in eleven countries in South East Europe: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, and Slovenia. The methodology of the survey was developed by ACCESS-Sofia Foundation. The relevant survey instruments were also elaborated by ACCESS-Sofia, with the kind assistance of Poul Erik Nielsen, Aarhus University, Danish School of Journalism. The data for the survey were kindly provided by our partner organizations as follows: For Albania: by the Albanian Media Institute (AMI), Tirana (Ilda Londo and Mirela Shuteriqi for AMI; with contributions from Gent Ibrahimi, Director of the Institute of Public and Legal Studies). For Bulgaria: by ACCESS-Sofia Foundation, Sofia. For Bosnia and Herzegovina: by the Media Plan Institute, Sarajevo. For Croatia: by the International Center for Education of Journalists (ICEJ), Opatija (Igor Kanizaj for ICEJ). For Hungary: by the Center for Independent Journalism, Budapest. For Macedonia: by the Macedonian Institute for the Media, Skopje (with contributions from Vesna Sopar, Explanatory Part, items 1-11). For Moldova: by the Independent Journalism Center, Chisinau (Iulian Robu for the Independent Journalism Center). For Montenegro: by the Montenegro Media Institute, Podgorica (Aleksandar Pajevic for the Montenegro Media Institute). For Romania: by the Center for Independent Journalism, Bucharest. For Serbia: by the Media Center, Belgrade. For Slovenia: by the Peace Institute, Ljubljana (Marko Milosavljevic for the Peace Institute). We would like to express our gratitude to the institutions and people listed above for their contribution to this book. We would also like to thank the leaders of the media centers in the respective countries for their help, as well as the SEENPM Research Committee for its support and encouragement in implementing this Project. ACCESS-Sofia Foundation Media Landscape of South East Europe 2002 ACCESS-Sofia Foundation Sofia, 2003 Media Landscape of South East Europe 2002 ACCESS-Sofia Foundation 2003 Copyright © 2003 by ACCESS-Sofia Foundation, Bulgaria All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the Publisher. ISBN 954-600-023-X Editorial board: Valery Roussanov Roumen Yanovski Veneta Litkova English-language editing: Katerina Popova Published by: ACCESS-Sofia Foundation 50, Shandor Petyofi Str., apt.1 Sofia 1463 Bulgaria Tel: +359 2 951 54 32 +359 2 951 54 44 Fax: +359 2 951 56 82 E-mail: [email protected] Internet: www.access-sofia.org Cover: maquett.com Layout: Elina Zlatanova Printed by: Apostrofi Ltd. Contents Introduction 7 Yasha Lange Media Landscape of South East Europe: a Snapshot of Troubled Waters 10 Roumen Yanovski Media Data 15 General Information on the Media 17 Country Profile 18 I. Print Media 23 I. 1. Print media circulation 24 I. 2. Top ten dailies (e.g. published 4-7 days/week) 28 I. 3. Top ten weeklies (e.g. published 1-3 days/week) 35 I. 4. Top ten print media published less than once a week 41 I. 5. Print media in languages other than the official language 46 II. Internet Media 55 II. 1. Internet penetration rate (Access to the Internet) 57 II. 2. Electronic (online-only) periodicals 59 III. Television 61 III. 1. Television companies: registration, coverage and ownership 63 III. 2. Television channels: registration, coverage and ownership 66 III. 3. Number of the non-commercial domestic television channels 71 III. 4. Number of the Pay-TV channels 72 III. 5. Television programming by content 73 III. 6. Broadcasting time by origin of programme 76 III. 7. Domestic television broadcasting in languages other than the official one 78 III. 8. TV-stations’ share of viewing time (%) 81 IV. Radio 85 IV. 1. Radio companies: registration, coverage and ownership 87 IV. 2. Radio stations: registration, coverage and ownership 90 IV. 3. Radio programming by content 92 IV. 4. Broadcasting time by origin of programme 96 IV. 5. Domestic radio broadcasting in languages other than the official one 98 IV. 6. Radio-stations’ share of listening time (%) 102 Media Landscape 2002 V. Media Economy 107 V. 1. Share of media revenues 109 V. 2. The ten largest media companies in the country 112 V. 3. Number of full-time media staff 115 VI. Appendix 117 VI. 1. News Agencies 119 VI. 2. Journalism education and training 122 VI. 3. Main journalist trade union organizations 124 Explanatory Information 127 Understanding Media 128 1. Media as a Corrective of Government 129 2. Public Trust in the Media 137 3. Media Regulation 143 4. Regulation Practices 151 5. Ethical Codes 161 6. Access to Information 169 7. Media Capital Concentration 177 8. Restrictions on Media Activities 185 9. Violation of Journalists’ Rights 191 10. Sanctions for Libel 197 11. Hate Speech 205 12. Sources on the Media Scene 213 13. On Data Sources 221 On the Survey Guidelines 227 6 Media Landscape 2002 Introduction Having followed the media in South Eastern Europe publication attempts to shed light on the division of ad- in the past ten years, I have not come across any publi- vertising expenditure, the answers in most cases are Not cation that is as rich in facts and figures as this book. Available. Official statistics are sometimes outdated and Take the chapter on Albania, which says that there are 18 inaccurate. Corporate information is regularly inacces- daily newspapers in the country. Sounds good. It even sible and might be manipulated. And media research cen- makes you think that Albania has a very lively, diverse, tres usually do not have the capacity to conduct sur- and viable press market. But read a bit further on and you veys, certainly not on a regional level. start to wonder: diverse all right, but viable? This is where the South Eastern European Network Those 18 newspapers together sell less than 60,000 for the Professionalization of the Media comes in copies daily, to an audience of over three million. In other (SEENPM – they admit the name is somewhat unpracti- words: Only one out of fifty Albanians buy a newspaper cal and long). The network is comprised of media centres per day. Most are sold in the main cities and hardly reach from all over the region and can therefore handle research the countryside. The largest selling daily, Gazeta on such a scale. SEENPM has used the strength of its Shqiptare, has a circulation of merely 9,000. Compare network to prepare this publication, the first of its kind. that to Serbia, where one out of ten people buy a news- paper every day and the largest selling newspaper has a Besides facts and figures, the reports provide short circulation of 230,000. to-the-point narrative information on key issues like libel laws and broadcast regulation. Great care was taken to Another example. Bosnia-Herzegovina has 151 radio develop a methodology that allows for comparisons and stations. Quite a lot. But only the top five radio stations consistency between countries. The organization respon- have an audience share above two percent. Another 15 sible for coordinating the research and preparing the stations score between one and two percent, and the publication, ACCESS in Sofia, should be highly credited remaining 131 stations have such a small audience that it for that. cannot be reliably measured. Moreover, of the total ad- vertising revenue in Bosnia-Herzegovina, only an esti- So, what does this book tell us? The quantitative mated six percent is spent on radio. data show in particular the enormous variety of media outlets. Dozens of newspapers and magazines, hundreds Many media outlets may seem an indication of a plu- of radio and television stations have been established in ral and viable market. Yet supplemented with all the other the past few years. No longer is the broadcast sector in information in this publication, it becomes clear that in South Eastern Europe dominated by a single state-owned fact the media landscape has by no means stabilized. television channel. Every country has one or more na- Many outlets are small and reach only a limited audi- tionwide commercial television channels, most often more ence, if measurable at all. They are struggling to survive popular than the public broadcaster. Admittedly, many on an increasingly competitive market. provide predominantly entertainment but several larger, private television stations produce news and informa- Media Landscapes in the SEE Region is a broadly tion programmes as well. set up exercise to map the media in South Eastern Europe in its entirety by combining both quantitative and quali- The same applies to radio. Commercial stations com- tative information. It offers an insight into the media land- bine news and music to compete with the traditionally scape per country and enables comparisons between dominant public broadcasters. More particular for radio countries. is the high number of stations that target a specific audi- ence; either by broadcasting in minority languages, play- It must have been a difficult exercise: Figures on media ing distinctive music or focusing on a local community. It outlets, circulation, market share and ownership are hard all does justice to the diverse nature of the region. to come by, let alone that they are hardly comparable from country to country. For example, even though this Official state-run newspapers have all but disap- 7 Media Landscape 2002 peared and private newspapers dominate the market.