European Forum

EU worried about media freedom in Western Balkans

EU institutions and international journalism associations are increasingly concerned about the media situation in Southeast Europe. While the EU cannot do much in this respect, the challenges to media pluralism and press freedom are expected to be among the major concerns the European Commission will include in this year's progress reports for Western Balkan countries.

Problems differ from one country to another. But there are several similar challenges faced by media throughout the region. Intimidation of journalists, political pressure, and illegal state subsidies for government-controlled media are common in most Balkan countries, with the exception of Croatia. According to EU diplomats, in some countries, the media environment has even worsened in the form of increased pressure on professional journalists. This is the case in Albania, Macedonia and Kosovo, but the situation is not much better in Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Montenegro.

Albania
In Albania, journalists have been attacked and there was a harsh court sentence against a TV station which exposed a former minister's abuse of power. Journalists in Kosovo have been threatened in several cases, while the government is seen to support the newspapers that promote its policies and avoid criticism. The public broadcaster, RTK, is one of the media under political control.

Macedonia
A continued campaign is being led in Macedonia against media and journalists who are critical towards the mainstream government line. "The authorities of Macedonia are scandalously neglecting the safety of journalists. Police and public officials have failed to intervene over incitement to violence against journalists," the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has complained to Macedonian authorities. The complaint was provoked by a TV host issuing a list of journalists to be targeted, accusing them of being traitors. This was widely condemned as hate speech by NGOs and the association of journalists in Macedonia. Yet, no official condemnation has been voiced in public, nor was action taken against the presenter, Milenko Nedelkovski. He is known for close ties to PM Nikola Gruevski and his party. The show on which the remarks were made remains on air. Selected media in Macedonia receive huge amounts of money for governmental advertisements, another way of stifling healthy competition in the media sector. Also, Freedom House has expressed concerns about media freedom in Macedonia. In its latest report, the lobby organisation said the media in Macedonia "face political pressures and influence because some of the media owners are presidents of political parties" in the governing coalition.

Serbia
In Serbia, the problem stems from media ownership, with some newspapers being owned by unclear or unknown companies. Many cases of violence against journalists were also not properly investigated. Some killings of journalists remain unresolved. Media in Serbia are under political and business pressure, with the direct participation of state officials in governing bodies and through political appointments of chief editors.

Croatia
In Croatia, direct political influence is no longer a big problem. Reasons for concern remain, however, especially regarding the safety of journalists who write about corruption and organised crime. Police investigation on the brutal attack on Dusan Miljus, a leading investigative journalist covering organised crime, has so far failed to produce results, two years after the event took place.

"We feel that the Western Balkan countries care about what we write in the progress reports about the media situation. They pretend that they are working to improve the situation. But this is done only through changing laws, hardly by implementing them. It looks like they just want better progress reports but not necessarily a better media environment," said one EU official. When requesting candidate countries to improve their performance in this field, the EU is restricted by the fact that, apart from common values such as press freedom, there are no clear EU rules for the sector. And the situation is not satisfactory in some EU member states, either. With the financial and economic crisis hitting the media in Southeast European countries, journalist organisations have asked the EU and national governments to pay more attention to the challenges they face.

Sources: WAZ EUobserver; Google images (image)