A tribune

NGO and the media – a coalition for democratic changes

 

The media and the civil sector in the Republic of Macedonia cooperate very little and do not trust each other, said the representatives of these sectors at the yesterdays meeting on “NGO and the media – a coalition for democratic changes”, organized by the Institute for Sociological, Political and Legal Researches and the civil society organization SUNA.

 “The NGO and the media have mutual social goal, but also a conflict of interests. They live in parallel worlds. We want a civil sector that is not politically engaged. We want an evolution in the civil society organization such as the media have gone through in the past few years. The fact that the civil society organizations have been assessing our work for ten years is boring. No one has ever come to see how we do the work – said the journalist Dragan Pavlovik – Latas. He mentioned the lack of transparency in the work of the civil sector as one of the basic reasons for the general public mistrust in the civil sector. “Most civil society organizations are in fact governmental organization, some are even family organizations, some are party megaphones which is why they cannot speak on behalf of the civil society and the media cannot trust them” – stated the journalist Dragan Antonovski. The civil sector representatives, mainly expressed their disappointment because the media turn a deaf ear to their activities. They express their remark to the media because of their exaggerated interest in the political issues.

“My personal attitude is that the media are not interested in the civil society, but politics. If you fit into some political story, then you will be present in the media. The topic of the day is whether there will be early elections or not, and as long as this issue is exhausted, n space will be given to other issues in the media. Now is time for politics and news, and the time when we get enough of it and understand the importance of the civil society is yet to come”- said Goran Velickovski, speaking to the representatives of the civil sector and emphasizing his long-term positive experiences with the civil sector which break the stereotypes of the non-seriousness and the lack of dedication of the civil society organizations and the profit as the moving force for their operation.

The MCIC representatives stated that the evaluation of the civil society associations’ work are rough and only reinforce the black-and-white picture that these two sector have for each other. According to the research that this center has done, civil sector representatives are present in the media with about 300 supplements and articles in only 3 months time. However, most of them are just short reports, whereas the analyses and the more extensive comments that touch the very essence of the CSO activities are only few.

At the press conference which preceded the tribune, it was announced that this meeting is only part of the project which foresees four other such meetings that will elaborate various aspects of the civil society involvement in the social events in the country. The project has been realized in cooperation with the Institute for Sociological, Political and Legal Researches and the civil society organization SUNA.

 

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