Media Plan Institute in cooperation with the Novi Sad School of Journalism, Journalism and Public Relations School from Skopje and independent analyst Nata{a Ru`i} implemented the research project Minorities and Media in the Western Balkans, which analyzed national minority media and programs for national minorities in four countries in the Western Balkan region. The project detects and describes the main problems in the operation of these media in relation to journalistic, social, political and financial challenges. This book is one of the results of the project. Prepared in the framework of the Regional Research Promotion Programme in the Western Balkans (RRPP), which is run by the University of Fribourg upon a mandate of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, SDC, Federal Department of Foreign Affairs. The views expressed in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent opinions of the SDC and the University of Fribourg. Information in Minority Languages in the Western Balkans: FREEDOM, ACCESS, MARGINALIZATION Sarajevo, July 2013. Publisher: Media Plan Institute, Sarajevo For Publisher: Radenko Udovi~i} Editor: Davor Marko Authors: Radenko Udovi~i}, Emir Vajzovi}, Davor Marko, Dubravka Vali} Nedeljkovi}, Nata{a Ru`i}, Igor Micevski, Sne`ana Trpevska, @aneta Trajkoska Reviewers: Rade Veljanovski, Faculty of Political Science, University of Belgrade, Lejla Tur~ilo, Faculty of Political Science, University of Sarajevo, Igor Kani`aj, Faculty of Political Science, University of Zagreb Translation from Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian: Print: Kanita Halilovi} Svjetlost {tampa, Sarajevo Cover and Layout: Circulation: Mirza Latifovi} 500 copies CIP - Katalogizacija u publikaciji Nacionalna i univerzitetska biblioteka Bosne i Hercegovine, Sarajevo 342.725/.726:316.77] INFORMISANJE na jezicima manjina na zapadnom Balkanu : sloboda, pristup, marginalizacija / [autori Radenko Udovi~i} ... [et al.] ; prijevod na engleski Kanita Halilovi}]. - Sarajevo : Medija plan institut, 2013. - 234, 238 str. : graf. prikazi ; 24 cm Na nasl. str. pri{tampanog teksta: Information in minority languages in the Western Balkans. - Tekstovi na bos., hrv., i srp. jeziku i tekst na engl. jeziku štampani u me|usobno obrnutom smjeru. - O autorima: str. 231-234. - About authors: str. 235-238. - Bibliografija i bilje{ke uz tekst ISBN 978-9958-514-04-3 1. Udovi~i}, Radenko COBISS.BH-ID 20582150 Information in Minority Languages in the Western Balkans: FREEDOM,FREEDOM, ACCESS,ACCESS, MARGINALIZAMARGINALIZATIONTION Sarajevo 2013. CONTENTS CONTENTS Marko, Davor: Introduction - Information in minority languages: From freedom to marginalization ............................................ 7 Vajzovi}, Emir: Democracy, human rights and media in the context of national minorities .................................................................... 21 Methodological framework of research ................................................. 36 Vali} Nedeljkovi}, Dubravka: What are national minority media? .......................................... 45 Marko, Davor: Comparative statistic observations ........................................... 61 Marko, Davor: Analysis of media in minority languages in Serbia ................. 71 Micevski, Trpevska, Trajkoska: Media of the non-majority communities in Macedonia .......... 99 Udovi~i}, Radenko: Media and national minorities in BiH ..................................... 123 Ru`i}, Nata{a: Analysis of minority media in Montenegro ............................. 161 Udovi~i}, Radenko i Davor Marko: Conclusions and recommendations - How to adopt European standards into good practice? ................................. 187 About Authors ....................................................................................... 235 5 Information in Minority Languages in the Western Balkans: FREEDOM, ACCESS, MARGINALIZATION 6 DAVOR MARKO Introduction INFORMATION IN MINORITY LANGUAGES: FROM FREEDOM TO MARGINALIZATION Davor Marko Access to information in minority languages is a fundamental minority and human right. Access to information of public importance and the possibility of creating media content in the native language of citizens are inherent rights that characterize any democratic society. Active (creating content) and passive (ability to use existing content) access to information is a precondition for having the sort of informed, aware and active citizens that democratic societies aspire to have. In this regard, the principle of active participation and the principle of freedom, understood in Mill’s terms, are crucial for the exercise of the right to information of minorities. “If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind.”1 This principle is applicable to the relationship between the majority and minorities in society and to the use of minority languages in the public media space. This space is open to all, and it is up to the individual to decide whether he or she will access it or not. Unfortunately, practice demonstrates that a position of power is the determining and crucial factor for the practical implementation of constitutionally and legally guaranteed rights of minority communities. Thus, we have a situation in which the majority (or majorities, as in Bosnia and Herzegovina, with the Constituent Peoples) totally ignores the information needs and rights of minorities. Or we have a situation in which a numerical 1 Mill, J. S. “On Liberty” (1859), available on the Gutenberg Project website (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/34901/34901-h/34901-h.htm), published 10 January 2011. 7 Information in Minority Languages in the Western Balkans: FREEDOM, ACCESS, MARGINALIZATION minority (such as Montenegrins in Montenegro, who make up 44.98 percent of the total population) is in a position of political power that allows it to set the rules and to institutionalize principles from its own “majority” perspec- tive. We also have situations in which formal minorities are de facto in a majority position, i.e. a position of power, as is the case with the Albanian ethnic community in Macedonia or with Hungarians in some communities in Serbia (such as Tetovo and Subotica), or that formal majorities (such as the Constituent Peoples in Bosnia and Herzegovina or citizens of Serb ethnicity in Serbia) are de facto in the position of a minority (Bosniaks and Serbs in mostly Croat-populated areas in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosniaks and Croats in the Republika Srpska, Serbs and Croats in Sarajevo and Zenica, and Serbs in Subotica, where they make up a little under one-third of the city’s population). Treatment of minorities in the media2 Most research carried out in and beyond the region of former Yugoslavia has focused on how minority communities are perceived in mainstream media. This includes analyses conducted by Media Plan Institute (2007, 2008, 2009, 2011, and 2012) and Mediacentar (2010) from Sarajevo, Novi Sad School of Journalism (2006 - 2013), the International Center for the Education of Journalists, from Opatija (2006), the Peace Institute, from Ljubljana (2009), and the Macedonian Media Institute. This is consistent with the practice applied by researchers in numerous inter- national research studies (Hartmann & Husband 1974; Said 1979; Van Dijk 1991; Jager & Link 1993; Riggins 1997), who placed the treatment of minorities in a broader scholarly discourse analyzing use of media language in the presentation of the “other”. Teun van Dajk, representative of Critical Discourse Analysis school, points out in his analyses that media presentation 2 This part of the Introduction is adapted from my article “Mediji i manjine u Bosni i Hercegovini” [Media and Minorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina], published as a chapter in the book by Hod`i}, E. and T. Jusi}, eds., Na marginama: Manjine i mediji u Jugoisto~noj Evropi [On the Margins: Minorities and Media in South East Europe], Sarajevo: Mediacentar, 2010 (131-176). 8 DAVOR MARKO Introduction of minorities abounds in (un)concealed racism and discrimination against members of minority communities. “Armed” with prejudice and reporting with stereotypes, media offer their audiences an interpretative framework and models of conduct that are not favorable to minority communities, which is also the case with crime reporting (van Dijk 1995: 29). A large number of papers on media use the term national as the primary marker of group membership and within it analyze the identity, position and rights of minorities (Sreberny 2005: 445). One of the most comprehensive and most accepted definitions of minorities was offered by the former United Nations Special Rapporteur Francesco Capotorti, who wrote that minorities are “groups, numerically inferior to the rest of the population of a State, in a non-dominant position, whose members – being nationals of the State – possess ethnic, religious or linguistic characteristics differing from those of the rest of the population” (Capotorti 1991). Du{an Janji} of the Forum for Ethnic Relations from Belgrade differentiates between “new” national minorities and traditional ones. “New” minorities are those that received this status after the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia, they are an important factor numericallyspeaking, and their parent countries are former republics of the SFRY (Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia), now independent