Monitoring of the media reporting on corruption in Macedonia 2009

on 03 March 2012.

The articles on corruption published from January 1 to December 31, 2008 in five daily newspapers (“Dnevnik”, “Vecer”, “Vreme”, “Utrinski Vesnik”, and “Fakti” 1) were subject to direct monitoring. The object of analysis as part of this research were the total results of the monitoring, not the results of any separate newspaper.
The monitoring included articles that referred to corruption, corruption practices, accusations and allegations for corruption, abuse of public means, as well as the undertaken anticorruption measures, activities, and policies. The monitoring was conducted in the period from January to May 2009.

The published articles and their contents, among other things, were analyzed from the following aspects:
•    The page on which the news article was published;
•    The size of the news article;
•    The announcement of the news article on the front page;
•    Illustrations of the news article;
•    The author of the news article;
•    The genre of the news article;
•    The number, status, formality, and location of the news article sources;
•    A fair and balanced approach;
•    The occasion for the news article;
•    The area in which the corruption example appears;
•    The act of corruption;
•    Possession of documents and evidence to confirm the corruption,
•    Affiliation of the perpetrator of corruption (current of former government).

Bearing in mind the extent, scope, and manner of the monitoring, this constitutes the only one of its kind, as well as the most thorough and comprehensive monitoring ever conducted in the country, which offers relevant quantitative and qualitative indicators of the manner in which the media inform about corruption.

Mr. Mihajlo Lahtov, Mrs. Vanja Mihajlova, and Ms. Antoaneta Ivanova participated in creating the methodology for this research and in training the monitors. The monitoring was conducted by the students Ms. Natasa Jordanova, Ms. Elena Petkovska, Ms. Ivana Sokolovic, Ms. Monika Risteska, and Mr. Zamir Mehmeti.