Exchange of experiences of journalists from the Western Balkans during election processes

The members of the Section of Young Journalists at AJM together with the representatives of the journalist associations from the Western Balkans held a working meeting on April 4, the purpose of which was to provide a forum for the exchange of experiences in the context of the safety of journalists and media workers during the election period. Because Macedonia is in a pre-election period, it is of particular importance to emphasize vigilance and to intercept potential risks that may appear during the political campaign and the attitude of politicians, activists towards journalists, and media workers.

This event was also an opportunity for networking of young journalists and media workers from the countries of the Western Balkans, who shared the challenges they face as well as the best practices in the protection and promotion of media freedom and the safety of journalists.

Three journalists from Macedonian media opened the topic. David Ilievski, an investigative journalist from IRL, spoke about the challenges that journalists face when reporting, before and during elections, specifically on topics of high public interest that are outside the daily agenda of politicians during a campaign, but have a direct impact on the electoral process.

“When finalizing one of the stories we were working on, a decision had to be made whether we would publish it before the elections or wait until they were over. Why am I saying this in the context of the safety of journalists…Because I think that the issue we are facing is whether we will be used as ammunition in the election campaign of politicians, which can be an obstacle in terms of journalistic integrity and reputation” – said Ilievski

Tamara Dichovska, a journalist from TV Sitel, discussed the potential risks that may appear during the political campaign and the attitude of politicians towards journalists.

“How politicians treat journalists or how they treat the opposite party. The media should represent all candidates equally. How should it be done? A large part of the media have their favorites, that is, they do not give space to all candidates equally. Just for example – there was a political debate on one of the televisions and they invited that candidate, they discussed for an hour about a certain misunderstanding that they had a few years before, that is, the candidate was not given space to present the program, or rather what would do if she were president. In my opinion, it is not ethical at all, but that was the journalist’s choice at the time” – said Dicovska.

Adrian Kerimi, a journalist at TV Alsat spoke about proposals aimed at improving the security of journalists in monitoring the election process.

“We have to filter the community that we have as journalists. Just for example, for these elections 250 portals received public funds from the State Election Commission. We don’t know anything about about 200 of them, they don’t have an imprint, they don’t have the responsibility for covering events, they don’t have the main editors and journalists, they copy and share news from the television. So the community must be filtered first, the public must know who is a journalist and who is not,” said Kerimi.

From the Balkan associations of journalists, members of the Safe Journalists network, Monika Kutri, researcher at the Association of Journalists of Croatia, Tamara Filipović – general secretary of the Independent Association of Journalists of Serbia, Getoarbe Muliqi – executive director of the Association of Journalists of Kosovo, Brankica addressed Smiljanic – communications officer at the Association of Journalists of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Dražen Đurašković – program coordinator at the Union of Journalists and Media Workers of Montenegro.

Each of them shared the experience of journalists and the media during the election processes in the countries of the Western Balkans, and then followed a long discussion on the topic where experiences and recommendations were exchanged between colleagues on the topic.

Everyone agrees that it is a real challenge to report during an election campaign, especially in countries like ours where journalists are attacked, especially when they investigate a sensitive topic that includes illegal activities. It was emphasized that for each attack, it is necessary to report it to the competent institutions so that it can then be processed to the end.

The working meeting of representatives from the Section of Young Journalists of AJM, and activists from the regional network of the Western Balkans SafeJournalists Network was within the project “Protection of Freedom of expression and Independence of the Media as pillars of Democracy in the Republic of North Macedonia”.