Kosovo and the Media

This book is published within the South East European Network for Professionalization of the Media SEENPM www.seenpm.org Kosovo And The Media Macedonian Institute for Media Skopje Macedonia Kosovo And The Media Publisher: Macedonian Institute for Media For the Publisher: Mihajlo Lahtov Publication editors: Marko Trosanovski and Tome Smilevski Proofreading: Jason Brown Designed by: Jane Stefanov Printed by: Vinsent Grafika - Skopje Number of copies: 500 www.mim.org.mk www.seenpm.org CIP - Каталогизација во публикација Народна и универзитетска библиотека „Св. Климент Охридски“, Скопје 316.774(4-14):323(497.115) “2008” 316.776.3:316.658 KOSOVO and the media / [publication editors Marko Trosanovski and Tome Smilevski]. - Skopje : Macеdonian Institute for Media, 2008. - 261 стр. : граф. прикази; 23 см Фусноти кон текстот. - Библиографија кон трудовите ISBN 978-9989-158-06-3 а) Медиуми - Југоисточна Европа - Косово - Политички прилики - 2008 б) Медиуми и јавно мислење COBISS.MK-ID 73790730 Kosovo And The Media CONTENT REGIONAL OVERVIEW 9 ALBANIA 29 BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA 47 BULGARIA 59 CROATIA 75 HUNGARY 93 MACEDONIA 105 MOLDOVA 121 MONTENEGRO 135 ROMANIA 151 SERBIA 163 SLOVENIA 185 TRANSCRIPT OF THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE: MEDIA COVERAGE OF THE SITUATION IN KOSOVO 213 5 Publisher’s foreword This book is a result of the project entitled Media Coverage of the Situ- ation in Kosovo – Creating a Forum for Dialogue for Media Professionals in South East Europe implemented by the Macedonian Institute for Media (MIM) on behalf of the South East European Network for Professionalization of the Media (SEENPM) in 2008. The project involved eleven researches from eleven SEE countries (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia and Slovenia). The main task was focused on press analyses in the above noted respective countries as well as report preparations underlining the main characteristics of the media coverage regarding the Kosovo situation. In the meantime, MIM and SEENPM from 16th to 17th May, 2008 in Sko- pje, organized the International Conference carrying out the project name, Media Coverage of the Situation in Kosovo. Journalists, editors, media ex- perts, political analysts from across Europe analysed the coverage of the Kosovo issue by the media in Serbia, Kosovo, SEE region and West Europe. The analyses conclusions were tremendously important for presenting a quality overview of the issue and further used for a long-lasting discussion session. Organizing a Conference on Kosovo was an issue of great importance and at the same time a great challenge for all involved parties. Not because we believed that it would solve the complex Kosovo problem, but because we were positive that part of the solution should be seen through open and continuous dialogue. A dialogue that will not only locate the virtues and weaknesses of the media coverage, but also should be used later for generating ideas and concepts for the next steps and further successful ac- tivities. This book contains the highlights of this debate that took place at the Skopje Conference and also all eleven country reports accompanied with the regional overview prepared by the editor, Marko Trosanovski. This col- 7 KOSOVO AND THE MEDIA lection of researches, analyses and opinions demonstrates the challenges that media, not only in Kosovo and Serbia, but also in the whole SEE region were facing while reporting on the Kosovo situation. I hope that we have made a small contribution towards better media coverage in the future, es- pecially on the topics that concern a great deal of our audience. At the end I would like to express our gratitude to the organizations that supported this project: OSCE Mission in Kosovo; Balkan Trust for Democ- racy; Konrad Adenauer Stiftung-Sofia and the Embassy of Switzerland in the Republic of Macedonia. I would also like to use this opportunity to thank to all SEENPM members for their involvement and participation in this project, all participants, speakers and moderators at the Conference, authors and editors of this book and all collaborators involved in the execution of this project. Mihajlo Lahtov Macedonian Institute for Media 8 REGIONAL OVERVIEW Marko Trosanovski REGIONAL OVERVIEW REGIONAL OVERVIEW Each reality, each event processed through the media filter is inherently three-dimensional. Our unavoidable media environment has three layers: objective, constructed and subjective1. The first one is the reality per se, the second the reality as we perceive it and the latter as it is shaped by the media. The analytical insight into these three aspects, their essence, structure and implications, will enable a comprehensive picture of our surrounding, whatever it may be. This publication is mainly striving to disentangle the objective and the constructive reality which are the core determinants of our subjective experience. By focusing its attention on the events around Kosovo and their media coverage, this publication offers the challenge of understanding a complex event in a more complex “unconventional” media environment. South East European Network for Professionalization of the Media (SEENPM) inquiry attempts to tell a few stories of what the media wrote about Kosovo and to answer where and how it was told and what was the effect. Thus, it generally offers a conceptual framework composed of research question, the context within which meaning is given to the texts and inferences that are indented to answer the research question2 considering the context. The first two topics of each report included in this publication, dedicated to political and media context, aim to encompass and describe the objective component of the realities of Kosovo. It comprises the political events and political stances of the local elite. On the other side, the media context gives patterns of the media systems that produce the content (the media ownership structure, potential political influences, human resources capacity etc.). These two aspects construct the epistemological prism through which the media content can be analyzed. One of the principles of any text analyses is that the meaning is not inherent to the text, thus the inferences from this part will be set side-by-side with the analysis of the research findings. 1 Đorđević, T. (1988).Komunikacija i vlast, Beograd: NIRO Mladost 2 The conceptual components are borrowed from Krippendorff, K. (2004). Content Analyses: An introduction to its Methodology, 2nd ed. Thousand oaks, CA: SAGE Publication, Inc.29-31 11 KOSOVO AND THE MEDIA At the end, the goal of this research endeavor is to answer the research question, which is how the Kosovo case was covered by the media in SEE3 region. How media framed and Primed events and whether they informed, educated or manipulated the readership. Each report is not logically con- clusive, but all together contributes to the probability of the final conclusions. Mass communication is maybe the strongest socialization asset in the contemporary world and inevitably our knowledge is comprised of what we read, listen and watch. It provides democratic control, integration of all segments of the society and most importantly the cultural capital of the citizenry4. The importance of this research is that it contributes to understanding and improvement of the modalities of media content production. At the end, the reports will speak for themselves, but certain frequent trends will be summarized here. KOSOVO - THE POLITICAL ASPECTS OF ITS REGIONAL REL- EVANCE The beginning of 2008, the research period of this publication, is a period when the issue of the future status of Kosovo was posted in the focus of the world’s public attention. In that context, this research only confirms that the solving of the future status of Kosovo was intensively and inevitably followed by the daily media in the region. During the coverage of the resolution of the Kosovo issue, the newspapers included in this regional project, elaborated the position of their political factors towards the Kosovo independence. The most frequent topics used by the media during this period were solving Kosovo’s future status, the day (date) of independence and the possible repercussions from this act in the region, minority issue, the possible reactions of official Belgrade, the arguments “for” and “against” independence, as well as the USA, the EU and Russia’s positions who had the biggest influence on the outcome of the Kosovo case. The act of proclama- tion of Kosovo’s independence was the most important world media event at the time. This was confirmed by the fact that “the birth of new European country” was broadcasted live by many world and regional media and made the front page headline on many world and regional newspapers. Between the “newborn” state and the disintegration of Serbia After the establishment of the UN mission in Kosovo according to the principles of the Security Council’s resolution 12445 the future status of Ko- 3 SEE stand for South East European 4 Radojković, M. and Stojković,, B. (2004) Informaciono- komunikacioni sistemi, Beograd:CLIO 5 Available at http://daccessdds.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N99/172/89/PDF/ N9917289.pdf?OpenElement [07.07.2008] 12 REGIONAL OVERVIEW sovo was set in an undetermined “political process”, seen both in sense of time and content. Following the establishment the international commu- nity approached this issue in a very reserved manner with its focus on the “standards over status”. However the violent unrests in March 2004 led to revision of this kind of approach mainly because of the serious threats of destabilization of Kosovo and the possible conflict spillover in the region. In May 20056 USA initiated a new process with a noticeable inclination and ef- forts for a more prompt solution to Kosovo’s status. On the basis of the comprehensive review of Kosovo submitted to the Security Council by the UN Special Envoy Kai Eide in October 2005, the formal preconditions for launch- ing the future status process started.

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