Europe & Eurasia

Macedonia

{This graph represents scores that have been modified by CIMA so that higher scores indicate a better media situation. It is intended to show trends over time; each index measures significantly different factors of press freedom. To see an explanation for how this graph was created, click here.}

IREX Score: 1.65	[IREX Methodology]
{Higher is Better, Score Ranges from 0 to 4.00}

IREX Description:

Social networks and new media played an enormous role in the media scene in 2010. A couple of significant investments in Internet-based media, and the ubiquity of digital networks, helped broadband penetration reach more than 45 percent of Macedonian households. Subsequently, the Internet ranked second place as the audience's choice for news, right behind television (based upon data from advertising agencies and the State Statistical Bureau's data for broadband Internet penetration). Newspapers, however, suffered and faced a crisis of dwindling circulation.

Business management continues to be a weakness of the media, along with strategic planning and an understanding of applying market research to program design. This problem became increasingly evident in 2010, when the full effects of the economic crisis also hit the media; advertising income fell more than 20 percent.

In another important development, the Association of Journalists of Macedonia (AJM) took important steps to get back on track. Elections brought in new leadership, and AJM announced its mission to restore dignity to the journalism profession.

Read more on IREX’s site…

Freedom House Score: 48 (Partly Free)	[Freedom House Methodology]
{Lower is Better, Score Ranges from 0 to 100}

Freedom House Description:

Macedonia’s legal framework contains basic protections for freedoms of the press and of expression, and government representatives generally respect these rights.
Journalists remain subject to criminal and civil libel charges, although imprisonment has been eliminated as a punishment. In December a court ordered columnist Ljubomir Frckoski to pay US$45,600 after Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski sued him for slander. Frckoski, writing in the daily Dnevnik, had accused Gruevski of mismanaging the privatization of an oil refinery while serving as finance minister in the 1990s. Several days after the controversial ruling, Gruevski’s party decided to drop all 12 pending lawsuits by its members against journalists. Gruevski had drawn criticism in June for arguing that Macedonian reporters covering the European Union in Brussels should shape their reporting to suit the country’s interests.

Europe & Eurasia

Macedonia

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