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Albanian Media Institute Instituti Shqiptar i Medias REPORTING NEIGHBOURS IN BALKAN MEDIA REPORTING NEIGHBOURS IN BALKAN MEDIA Publisher: Albanian Media Institute Albanian Media Institute Instituti Shqiptar i Medias Rr “Gjin Bue Shpata”, Nr. 8, Tiranë TelFax: ++355 4 2229800 E-mail: [email protected] www.institutemedia.org © Copyright: Albanian Media Institute 2015 ISBN: This publication has been produced with funding from Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC). The content of this publication are the sole responsibility of the authors and in no way can be taken to reflect the views of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) or the Swiss Government. Editor: Remzi Lani Layout: Bujar Karoshi Table of Contents Foreword........................................................................................................................5 ALBANIA: Between shadows of the past and interest of the present ................................................................7 BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA: The ethnic principle continues to be dominant ........................................................................................................29 KOSOVO: Between lack of coverage and bias reporting .......................47 MACEDONIA: Few neighbours, one profession and many truths ......................................................................................................69 MONTENEGRO: When neighbours are treated as “the rest of the world” .....................................................................................97 SERBIA: Tabloids and comments sections spread stereotypes and hate speech like in war times .......................................115 Foreword Media is all around us, we consume it daily. It influences our thinking and reflects what we think and how we feel. Therefore, if we want to learn more about each other, we must observe the media channels, what they report about us, about others, about our neighbours. What do the Western Balkan countries say about each other in their media outlets? The studies presented in this publication give some answers. The findings are interesting: some confirm the obvious, some are encouraging, and yet others are disturbing. For example, using derogatory names for a neighbouring population should ring alarm bells to all of us. On the other hand, I am pleased to note that fair and unbiased portrayal of other countries and nationalities are often present in most Western Balkan media. This publication opens up a path for dialogue and better mutual understanding among media actors in the various Western Balkan countries. I see its main value in presenting facts and bringing different perspectives together. This is a promising base to further foster bridges between journalists, reporters and media experts. I hope that these bridges will extend to reach wider publics in the region, so that all of us will have a greater understanding and tolerance for the ‘others’. It is for this purpose that the Swiss Government supported the studies in this publication on “Reporting Neighbours in Balkan media”. Switzerland stays engaged in promoting initiatives that bring peace, stability and cooperation among the Western Balkan countries. Looking at the experience of my own country, I am convinced that ‘good neighbourhood’ is not only key for peace and stability, but also for development and prosperity. Christoph Graf Swiss Ambassador in Albania July 2015 ALBANIA: between shadows of the past and interest of the present Rrapo Zguri media expert, Tirana Geopolitical context From geopolitical context standpoint, the Balkan region where Albania is located represents an area where the strategic interests of the three most important global actors are intertwined in the region: the West, Russia, and Turkey. In the context of western influence, the two neighboring countries that are EU members, Italy and Greece, have a direct impact on the international relations of the region’s countries. However, after the strong economic crisis it has been under in recent years, the role of Greece has weakened to some extent. Among the region’s countries, Albania’s closest neighbors in terms of geographical proximity are Greece, Macedonia, Kosovo, Montenegro, and Serbia. Following the so-called initiative “Balkan Schengen,” the region’s countries have applied the lifting of visas and free movement of their citizens, which helps, among others, in mutual familiarization. With regard to strategic alliances, Albania and Greece are NATO members, while Macedonia and Montenegro also intend to join the Atlantic Alliance. With regard to EU integration, Albania received the status of candidate country during 2014. Macedonia, Serbia, and Montenegro have acquired this status as well, while Greece is an EU member since 1981.1 Lagging farthest behind in integration in Euro-Atlantic structures is Kosovo, also because of the lack of full recognition by the UN. Methodology This study on reporting neighbors in Albania’s media is mainly based on data from empirical research collected from the press, but there is also data coming from the online environment as well as from the main television stations. The empirical study conducted in the form of monitoring was focused on some of the country’s best-known newspapers such as Panorama, Shekulli, Tema, Shqip and Gazeta Shqiptare. The monitoring also includes other newspapers when it comes to certain aspects of the themes addressed by this study. The target of the empirical research included news, articles, analyses, editorials, as well as other materials that, in terms of content, make up the reporting or commenting on the situation and relations with neighbors. 1 http://europa.eu/about-eu/countries/index_en.htm Albania: between shadows of the past and interest of the present 9 Besides the monitoring, another employed method is that of case studies to move the empirical research and analysis to a concrete terrain of developments. The study analyzes separately the reporting in the media on each of Albania’s neighboring countries, such as Serbia, Greece, Macedonia, Kosovo, and Montenegro, by picking the most typical case studies for each country. The typology of the selection of case studies relies on two criteria: first, those developments or events that have had the highest profile and have received the most extensive coverage; second, we selected the events that were the most approximate in time, in order to study the current situation of Albania media in terms of reporting neighbors. International news Reporting in the media and Reporting the Balkans The economic crisis that media in Albania is undergoing has had a considerable impact on the international reporting of these media outlets. Cuts in human resources first affected international news departments. At present, only some of the country’s television stations, such as Top Channel, TV Klan and Vizion Plus, have correspondents in some European or regional capitals, such as Brussels, London, Belgrade, Pristina, Skopje, or Athens. Newspapers do not have correspondents for foreign news stationed in other countries. This has led to a situation whereby international news reporting in Albania’s media, as well as most of the reporting in television stations, is done relying on the translation or adaptation of information obtained from Internet resources or other media. Nevertheless, reporting on neighbors is more present compared to reporting on other regions or countries in the world. On the other hand, reporting on neighbors is more frequent at times of crises or problems in bilateral relations among the countries and rarer in calm periods of the development of these relations. In general, media in Albania are correct when reporting different domestic developments in the neighboring countries, such as reporting on the crisis in Greece. However, when the reporting involves events related to conflicts or unresolved issues between the two countries, media discourse appear to show the stereotypes and prejudice for other peoples in the Balkans. In these cases, one also sees an expansion of nationalist rhetoric and an involvement of politics and extremist nationalist elements in media discourse. It is a positive fact that Albania has no independent media outlets with a nationalistic orientation. This reflects also the poor support that nationalist- 10 Albania: between shadows of the past and interest of the present based organizations have in the country. For instance, the only party in the country with a nationalistic profile, such as the AK (Red & Black Alliance) only managed to get about 1% of votes in the 2013 parliamentary elections, unlike other neighboring countries, where political forces with a nationalistic program have extensive support and a large number of representatives in the respective parliaments. In reporting neighbors, the forms of discourse vary to include ethnic or racial discourse, territorial integrity discourse, religious discourse, anti- terrorist discourse, European discourse, etc. Reporting on Serbia During the last decade, we notice an increase in economic relations between Albania and Serbia. Thus, during the period January – August 2014, over a period of eight months, imports from Serbia reached approximately 108 million Euros.2 However, in relations between the two countries, the issue of Kosovo and Serbia’s non-recognition of new realities created in Kosovo represents a permanent stalemate. These relations saw notable aggravation especially following incidents in the soccer
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