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Development and Pluralization of the Media of Security Sensitive Ethnic Minority Groups: the Experience of South Eastern European States

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Development and Pluralization of the Media of Security Sensitive Ethnic Minority Groups: the Experience of South Eastern European States Development and Pluralization of the Media of Security Sensitive Ethnic Minority Groups: the Experience of South Eastern European States by Igor Valentovitch A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Department of Political Science University of Toronto © Copyright by Igor Valentovitch 2014 Development and Pluralization of the Media of Security Sensitive Ethnic Minority Groups: the Experience of South Eastern European States Igor Valentovitch Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Department of Political Science University of Toronto 2014 Abstract This thesis is about the media of security sensitive ethnic minority groups in South Eastern Europe. Why some of them enjoy developed media spheres whereas others are media-deprived? Why operating in similarly structured liberal contexts, the media spheres of some minorities develop as pluralist and liberal, whereas those of others as non-pluralist and authoritarian? In search for answers to these questions, this dissertation compares the media of Turks in Bulgaria, Albanians in Macedonia and Hungarians in Romania. It proposes a model of development of pluralist media spheres of security sensitive ethnic minorities, incorporating variables from three levels of analysis (group, state and system), namely, political cohesion of ethnic minority groups, their level of education, status of interethnic relations, media funding mechanisms, external system pressure and grand polity design. The central thesis of this study is that there is a strong correlation between the structuring of the political and media domains of security sensitive minorities. The outlook of their media spheres ii depends on the structure and processes taking place within their political spheres. The chances of development of pluralist minority media strongly increase when the political sphere of given ethnic minority group is characterized by political party pluralism. Politically coherent minority groups (represented in the political domain by a single political party) are less capable of generating pluralist media systems than politically pluralist minorities. The mere situation of minority media institutions within the pluralist context of majority media does not result in automatic liberalization of the former. Pluralization of the political spheres of minority communities is the factor that contributes to the pluralization of their media domains. In short, ethnic minority political pluralism breeds ethnic minority media pluralism and development. iii To my mother, father, wife and son iv Acknowledgments I would like to express my deepest appreciation to my supervisor Professor Ron Deibert for his invaluable help in the completion of this dissertation. Ron became my supervisor during a difficult time in my academic career, and despite his busy schedule, he oversaw my work with diligence, professionalism and enthusiasm. Ron went beyond his immediate responsibilities of academic mentorship and offered me encouragement and working environment that made the completion of this project possible. Thank you, Ron! I would also like to thank the members of my dissertation committee – Professor Jacques Bertrand and Professor Lucan Way, and the external readers – Professor Zsuzsa Csergo and Professor Joe Wong. Your insightful feedback and reassuring comments made me believe in the value of my work and its utility to other researchers and professionals. On this note, I would like to acknowledge the generous help of the producers of media and scholars of ethnicity for finding the time to share and discuss their work with me. Milen Belchev and Sabri Alagöz – thank you for your aid and friendship. This project could not have been completed without the support of my family - my parents Maya and Igor Sr., my wife Rozina and my son Victor. Their sincere love, precious understanding and firm belief in my potential gave me the strength and determination to overcome the challenges associated with the completion of endeavors of this scale. Indispensable in this regard has also been to me the friendship and advice of my colleagues Filiz Tutku Aydin and Blago Blagoev. My warmest and sincere thank you to all of you! v TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 1 – Introduction 1. The Puzzle . 1 2. Why Researching Ethnic Minority Media is Important? . 3 3. Research Goals and Levels of Analysis . 6 4. Research Questions, Variables, Hypotheses and Thesis . 8 4.1. Independent Variables and Hypotheses 10 4.1.1. Minority-level institutional and resource constraints 10 4.1.2. Media-related constraints 14 4.1.3. State- and supra-national level constraints 17 5. Method and Research Design . 22 6. Data and Data Collection Methods . 26 7. Dissertation Structure . 29 Chapter 2 – Literature Review 30 1. Literature on Ethnicity . 32 1.1. What is Ethnicity? 33 1.2. Theoretical Approaches to Ethnicity 37 1.3. Utility of the Instrumentalist Approach for the Study of 44 Ethnic Minority Media in the Balkans 1.4. Classification of Ethnic Minority Groups 47 1.5. Ethnicity, Democratization and Ethnic Minority Media in 50 Eastern Europe vi 2. Literature on Ethnic Minority Media . 57 2.1. Functions and Role of Ethnic Minority Media 59 2.2. Variables Affecting the Development of Ethnic Minority Media 64 2.2.1. Normative tool 67 2.2.2. Financing tool 69 2.2.3. Training tool 73 2.3. Models of Minority Media Development 74 3. Media Systems and ‘Propaganda’ Model . 77 3.1. Mass Media Systems and Media Pluralism 79 3.2. ‘Propaganda’ Model 91 4. Media in Eastern Europe: Democratization and Media Liberalization . 102 5. Chapter Conclusion . 111 Chapter 3 – Media of the Turkish Minority in Bulgaria 115 1. Characteristics of the Turkish Minority in Bulgaria . 117 1.1. Ethnic Diversity in Bulgaria 117 1.2. Media and Information Preferences of the Turkish Minority 118 1.3. Interethnic Relations in Bulgaria 120 1.4. Socio-Economic Profile of Bulgarian Turks 125 1.5. Political Profile of Bulgarian Turks 128 2. Bulgarian Legislation and Access to Media . 131 2.1. International Law and Minorities Access to Media 132 2.2. Bulgarian Constitution and Minority Rights 133 vii 2.3. Bulgarian Media Law 135 3. Turkish Ethnic Minority Media in Bulgaria . 139 3.1. Printed Media of the Turkish Minority in Bulgaria 139 3.1.1. Turkish print minority media during the 139 pre-communist period (1978-1944) 3.1.2. Turkish print minority media during the communist 143 period (1944-1989) 3.1.3. Turkish print minority media today 147 3.2. Electronic Media of the Turkish Minority in Bulgaria 155 3.2.1. Turkish minority radio in Bulgaria 155 3.2.2 Turkish minority television in Bulgaria 165 3.3. Implications of the Level of Development of Turkish Minority 174 Media for the Turkish Community 4. Turkish Minority Media: Analysis of the Factors for their Underdevelopment 179 4.1. Political Cohesion of the Turkish Community 180 4.2. Power Relations within the Turkish Political Party 182 4.2.1. Establishing the link between the political and media 188 spheres of the Turkish community 4.3. Status of Interethnic Relations and Turkish Minority Media 196 4.3.1. Rise of nationalist sentiments in Bulgarian society 196 4.3.2. Bulgarian nationalism and Turkish minority media 201 4.4. Funding of Turkish Minority Media 206 4.4.1. Turkish businesses and Turkish minority media 207 4.4.2. State support to Turkish minority media 208 4.5. Educational Standing of the Turkish Minority 211 viii 5. Chapter Conclusion . 216 Chapter 4 – Media of the Albanian Minority in Macedonia 220 1. Ethnic Diversity and Interethnic Relations in Macedonia . 223 2. Minority Politics in Macedonia . 226 2.1 Minority Politics in Macedonia during the Socialist Period 226 (1945-1991) 2.2. Minority Politics in Macedonia during the first Transitional 229 Decade (1991-2001) 2.3. Minority Politics in Macedonia Today: 233 Ohrid Framework Agreement 3. Social and Educational Standing of Albanians in Macedonia . 238 4. Political Organization of Albanians in Macedonia . 243 4.1. Genesis of the Albanian Political Pluralism 246 4.2. Structure of Albanian Political Parties 249 4.3. Explaining the Pluralism in Albanian Political Sphere 253 5. Media Landscape in Macedonia . 260 6. Albanian Minority Media in Macedonia . 266 6.1. Regulation of Albanian Minority Media 266 6.2. Financing of Albanian Minority Media 270 6.3. Albanian Print Minority Media 275 6.4. Albanian Electronic Minority Media 279 6.4.1. Public Albanian electronic media 279 6.4.2. Private Albanian electronic media 282 6.4.3. Regional Albanian electronic media 286 ix 7. Explaining the Proliferation of Albanian Minority Media . 290 7.1. Political and Media Pluralism within the Albanian Community 291 7.2. Training of Minority Journalists 297 8. Chapter Conclusion . 299 Chapter 5 – Media of the Hungarian Minority in Romania 303 1. Hungarian Minority in Romania . 305 2. Ethnic Diversity in Romania . 306 3. Romanian Legislation and Status of National Minorities . 307 4. Interethnic Relations in Romania . 311 5. Educational Standing of Hungarian minority . 315 6. Political Organization of Hungarian Minority . 316 6.1. Moderate Political Camp 317 6.2. Conservative Political Camp 324 7. Romanian Media Landscape . 328 8. Hungarian Minority Media in Romania . 334 8.1. Hungarian Minority Media: Role and Structure 334 8.2. Hungarian Electronic Minority Media 336 8.3. Hungarian Print Minority Media 340 8.4. Hungarian Internet Minority Media 348 9. Explaining the Proliferation of Hungarian Minority Media . 350 9.1. Funding of Hungarian Minority Media 351 9.2. Media Traditions of Transylvanian Hungarians 357 9.2.1. Austro-Hungarian and Inter-War period 357 x 9.2.2. Communist period 358 9.2.3. Post-totalitarian period 360 9.3. Educational Standing of Hungarian Minority and 361 Training of Hungarian Media Professionals 9.4. Hungarian Political Pluralism and Media Development 365 9.4.1. Monolithic and anti-pluralist period of 366 development of Hungarian media 9.4.2.Dynamics of pluralization of Hungarian political 373 and media spheres 9.4.3.
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