NGO INFO-CENTRE MACEDONIAN CENTRE FOR EUROPEAN EDUCATION Monitoring of Media st nd January 1 – April 22 2012 HIGH LEVEL MONEY – HIGH LEVEL DIALOG SKOPJE, June 2012 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Introduction and Methodology 3 2. Quantitative Overview 3 3. Qualitative Overview 5 3.1 High Level Accession Dialogue 5 3.2 European Parliament Resolution 8 3.3 European Funds 9 3.4 Diplomatic and Lobbying Activities 11 3.4.1 Gjorge Ivanov 12 3.4.2 Nikola Poposki 13 4. Conclusions 15 2 1. Introduction and Methodology The NGO Infocentre, in cooperation with the Macedonian Centre for European Training (MCET), conducted monitoring of media coverage of the European integration processes in the Republic of Macedonia, in the period January 1 – April 22, under the auspices of the “Media Mirror” media monitoring programme. The monitoring programme is supported by the Foundation Open Society Institute Macedonia. The monitoring covered the reporting in seven daily newspapers (“Utrinski vesnik”; “Dnevnik”; “Vest”; “Večer”; “Nova Makedonija”, “Fokus” and “Den1”), the central news programmes aired on seven TV stations that broadcast nationally and over the satellite (Kanal 5 TV2; Sitel TV; Telma TV3; MTV14; Alfa TV; AlsatM TV and Vesti 24 TV5), and three news web portals - “Plusinfo”, “SkyMk” and “Kurir”. The monitoring covered the Monday, Wednesday and Friday editions of TV news and web portals’ reporting, and Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday editions of daily newspapers. The monitoring focused on the following journalistic genres: news, statements, reports, commentaries and interviews. 2. Quantitative Overview Between January 1 and April 22, 2012, the media coverage of the European integrations included a total of 654 reports and stories; 248 of them aired in TV news programmes (38%), 279 (43%) articles were published by the daily newspapers, and 126 articles (19%) were published on the internet portals. Table 1: Breakdown of television coverage, by broadcaster No. of reports and Television broadcaster percentage of the total 24 Vesti 56 (9%) МТВ1 47 (7%) 43 (7%) Sitel Kanal 5 32 (5%) Alfa TV 27 (4%) AlsatM 27 (4%) Telma 17 (3%) 1 The “Den” daily newspaper was included in the monitoring starting on March 1, 2012 2 For technical reasons, the monitoring didn’t include the central news programme on February 20, 2012 3 For technical reasons, the monitoring didn’t include the central news programme on February 1 and February 20, 2012 4 For technical reasons, the monitoring didn’t include the central news programme on March 26 and March 28, 2012 5 For technical reasons, the monitoring didn’t include the central news programme on March 26 and March 28, 2012 3 Table 2: Breakdown of print media coverage, by newspaper Daily newspaper No. of reports and percentage of the total Nova Makedonija 58 (9%) Utrinski vesnik 56 (9%) Dnevnik 51 (8%) Večer 42 (6%) Fokus 38 (6%) Vest 26 (4%) Den 8 (1%) Table 3: Breakdown of internet portal coverage, by portal Web site No. of reports and percentage of the total SkyMk 72 (11%) Kurir 33 (5%) Plusinfo 21 (3%) Table 4: Breakdown of coverage per genre Genre No. of reports and percentage of the total Report 495 (75%) News 85 (13%) Statement 30 (5%) Commentary 25 (4%) Interview 19 (3%) 4 3. Qualitative Overview 3.1 High Level Accession Dialogue In the first quarter of 2012, the start of the High Level Accession Dialogue (HLAD) between Macedonia and the European Union was the topic that received greatest coverage and commentary. At the start of the reporting period, the media reported that Stefan Füle announced the start of the HLAD process for the coming spring at a meeting of the Stabilisation and Association Council6, and announced that the discussion will focus on the issues of “freedom of expression, rule of law, reforms of the public administration, electoral process and the fight against corruption”.7 The media carried Füle's views on the process: “This should provide new support to our relations and shall enhance our cooperation on the five priority areas that I mentioned. In one of those areas, the rule of law, we shall use the momentum created by the new proposal by the Commission on Chapters 23 and 24, referring to fundamental rights, the judiciary, justice, freedom and security and we can start the technical consultations referring to issues covered by those two important chapters”8 and the view of the Deputy Prime Minister for European Integrations Teuta Arifi: “We believe that this process, together with the high-level dialogue, offers a fine future for the relations between Macedonia and EU, which we shall witness this spring".9 The journalists’ comments ranged from the notion that the dialogue was "yet another semantic novelty used by EU in the case of Macedonia"10, to the comment that it was just a "mechanism intended to show that Macedonia's progress on the road to EU was not arrested", i.e. a "consolation formula that should replace the start of negotiations date".11 Some media saw the dialogue as “enhanced oversight and control over the most criticized policies in the country" and "institutionalised form of pressure"12. The media also carried the comment by the Chairwoman of the National Council for European Integrations Radmila Šekerinska: “The HLAD is a dialogue that should lead to resolution of the problems aimed to prevent Macedonia from deviating from the European train. That is not a monitoring or a scanning process, having in mind that the scanning is not done on political level but is conducted by the technical services and offices".13 Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski offered his own views on the dialogue: “The country practically receives a higher level treatment, makes a step forward. Although Greece blocks us from starting official negotiations, which we really deserve, this is, nevertheless, a step forward".14 The Secretariat for European Affairs (SEA) holds similar opinions and commented that the 6 MTV1, January 24, 2012 7 Plusinfo.mk, January 24, 2012 8 Sky.mk, January 24, 2012 9 Večer, January 25, 2012 10 Nova Makedonija, January 26, 2012 11 Vest, January 25, 2012 12 Utrinski vesnik, 13 Fokus daily January 26, 2012 14 Kurir, February 17, 2012 5 dialogue was “a sign that Brussels seeks a way to push the screening process in Macedonia quietly forward”15, i.e. an “informal and yet substantial dialogue that will first open Chapters 23 and 24, on internal affairs, the judiciary, media, fight against corruption and elections”16 and which will “bypass the blockade and shorten the period of the negotiations for membership”.17 The media carried other comments coming from SEA: “Clearly, we have a problem, but the process of EU accession is not a process that will conclude immediately, even if we resolved the name-dispute tomorrow. We therefore sought a possible form and, although we don’t name it as such, this is really a screening process”18, as well as the opinions of unnamed sources in the Government who noted that: “This is not the same form of negotiations that applied to the other countries, but in reality, this dialogue is replacement for the commonly used form”.19 The general public was also informed by, again, unnamed sources in SEA, that the dialogue was launched on an initiative of the Macedonian Government which sought "a creative approach from EU to Macedonia, i.e. a revival of the process to allow the country to move forward".20 Regarding the topics that will be discussed, the pro-Government media reported that the first meeting, on March 15, will “first open the Chapters 23 and 24, referring to internal affairs, the judiciary, the media and the elections”21, and the whole process means that “Macedonia does actually, albeit informally, open the most difficult Chapters 23 and 24”.22 The media reported that the dialogue will be led by Nikola Gruevski and Stefan Füle.23 At the same time, the media covered the visit by Deputy Prime Minister Teuta Arifi to Brussels, where she discussed "the next steps in terms of fulfilment of criteria", and discussed the reform action plan for Macedonia with the Director-General of the Directorate General for Enlargement Stefano Sannino.24 Again, the media reported that the dialogue was, in fact, “a screening process that will formally not be considered or named as such”.25 On the eve of the opening of HLAD process, the media reminded the public that in addition to "the rule of law, freedom of expression and freedom of press, reforms of electoral system and public administration", the ethnically motivated incidents that took place in the country will be added as a priority topic of discussion.26 Some commentators noted that the HLAD process was announced by Jose Barroso as early as March 2011 and asked: “Is Füle coming in an impossible mission to reason with the whole Government, and especially Prime Minister Gruevski and get them back on track? Is he truly honest, or is that just a mere 15 Dnevnik, March 3, 2012 16 Nova Makedonija, March 3, 2012 17 Vest, March 3, 2012 18 Večer, March 3, 2012 19 Nova Makedonija, March 6, 2012 20 Telma TV, March 2, 2012 21 Kurir, March 2, 2012 22 Sitel TV, March 2, 2012 23 Plusinfo.mk, March 2, 2012 24 Telma TV, March 2, 2012 25 Alfa TV, March 2, 2012 26 Fokus, March 15, 2012 6 declaration, that Macedonia will join EU sooner or later”.27 The media reported that the dialogue was debated at the National Council for European Integrations (NCEI).28 After the opening of the HLAD process and the Füle-Gruevski meeting, the media reported that they discussed the “freedom of the media, rule of law, reforms of the administration, electoral reforms