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To the Newsweek Editor: On Your Macedonian Coverage
Eran Fraenkel
April 03, 2001
Your April 2 issue of Newsweek contains two pieces on Macedonia
that again demonstrate how poorly the Western media understand
and report events in this part of the world. The article by Joshua
Hammer and comment by Fareed Zakira are full of half-truths and
factual inaccuracies that misinform and mislead your readers. Like
the witness oath at a trial, the question is whether your pieces
not only are the truth, but whether they are the whole truth. My
answer is: absolutely not.
I write this as someone who has been working in Macedonia for
the past thirty years, the last seven directing a non-governmental
organization engaged in conflict transformation. There are many
explanations for the violence that has afflicted Macedonia recently.
There are also various reasons why some of Macedonia's Albanians
may popularly support such violence, and why some ethnic Macedonians
deeply fear Macedonia's Albanian community. None of these phenomena,
however, is absolute. Macedonia is not just another Balkan country
waiting explode, no matter how convenient that perspective is for
reporters looking for a simple story line.
There can be no justification for this new quest for a journalistic
badge of honor, when reporters struggle their way to the guerilla
headquarters in the Tetovo hills and presume after a day or two
to become experts in local affairs. Blanket statements such as
Albanians "have been denied basic rights, including the use
of their own language in schools and other institutions" are
an outright falsehood. It is revisionist history to claims that "dozens
of schools teach an Albanian-language curriculum" because
Arben Xhaferi joined the government in 1998. Albanian claims of
double the Macedonian national unemployment rate are believable
only if one takes Albanian and government labor statistics at face
value. Albanian numbers are high and government statistics are
low. Anyone sincerely reporting on Macedonia would discover all
this within days of arriving here.
The photographs used in Hammer's piece are anything but objective.
The picture of spent ammunition in particular was taken from a
perspective that entirely exaggerates its size. This may be dramatic,
but it is inflammatory not informative. What is your point in using
it?
Zakaria's comment is more complicated. Like every other Western
medium, Newsweek insists on distinguishing between ethnic Albanians
and Macedonian Slavs. Macedonia's population consists of a numerical
majority of ethnic Macedonians, and a numerical minority of ethnic
Albanians. There are no Slavs as such. By refusing to refer properly
to Macedonians, Newsweek is denying this community its cultural
and ethnic identity. You allow Albanians a cultural identity, but
Macedonians only a racial one. By what right? Does Newsweek refer
to British Anglo-Saxons, to Russian Slavs, or to German Aryans?
Is Newsweek deliberately supporting one side in the ongoing regional
political debate about the name of this state and its people? If
so, Newsweek should reveal its position and not presume that its
language is value-free. It isn't.
Zakaria furthermore advocates the abandonment of "the fiction
of multiethnic states." Does this mean he recommends the partition
of Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia, and Albania to recreate a Greater
Macedonia, or only the creation of some greater Albanian state?
Does he also call for the partition of Germany, Poland, France,
Belgium, and other pluralistic European countries? The Balkans
have no monopoly on minorities, let alone discontented minorities.
So I ask you, why do you not report that many people here are
trying by various means to stem the erosion that is occurring in
Macedonia. Why do you present Macedonia's demise as inevitable,
pre-ordained, or justified?
Why do you ignore the various local media appeals for unity and
reason and NGO appeals against violence?
Why do you disregard people who, in their everyday life and existence,
are struggling to prevent this allegedly inevitable dissolution
of their country? Where are their stories?
In other words, where is the effort to understand Macedonia and
not just to feature breaking news. If your answer is that breaking
news sells, you are condemning the media in the West and not Macedonia.
This, like the reporting of the Kosovo war and Macedonia's role
in that crisis, is a challenge that the Western media fail to meet.
This is what angers, insults, and ultimately discourages Macedonia's
citizens of all nationalities from believing that their reality
truly matters to anyone outside.
These are the images that you are creating. If you care to, you
can also change them.
Dr. Eran Fraenkel
Executive Director
Search for Common Ground in Macedonia
Orce Nikolov 63
1000 Skopje
Republic of Macedonia
tel: (389-91) 118-572
fax: (389-91) 118-322
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