THE SILENT VOICE OF ALBANIAN JOURNALISM IN MACEDONIA IN THE YEARS 1990-2001

Abdylnaser SINANI

Abstract

The last decade of the twentieth century was an extraordinary period for the Albanians of Macedonia at that time. The dissolution of the former Yugoslav federation, the independence of Macedonia as a sovereign state, consequently marked the beginnings of democratization processes in these areas. In Macedonia, democratic changes were a reflection, firstly, of geopolitical influences on the political scene in the region and beyond. Secondly, they were the result of severe repressive measures of the system against Albanians and Albanian patriotic developments within the country, especially within the diaspora. The enthusiasm and hope of journalists, the public, and other employees of written media in the Albanian language in Macedonia were quickly challenged by another ideology, cloaked in the mask of political pluralism, through control and self-control of the media by "democratic" institutions and Albanian parties. The topic of this research paper is the role and contribution of printed media in the Albanian language in the Republic of Macedonia, from 1990 to 2001, in the context of reflecting the social reality of Albanians in this country. It also explores the efforts to portray the objective truth of the societal, economic, and political situation – in other words, the equality of the public that the media represented. This was a challenging mission during the years when there was a conflict in the society between two aspirations: that of the Macedonians for a state with a unitary concept and the aim of the Albanians for a society-state community that includes all the citizens. Using the method of content analysis, this research conducts a qualitative analysis in terms of the intensity and frequency of texts, information, reporting, analyses, and interpretations. It focuses on the editorial policies of the newspapers of that time, namely 'Flaka' and 'Fakti'. The assumption is that the media in the Albanian language during the given period did not meet the expectations of public opinion; they were often misused by state politics and policies of Albanian parties. As a result, the media were excessively politicized, heavily controlled, lacking independence both economically and politically, and undermined freedom of expression.

Pages: 11 - 27