Monitoring of the media reporting on corruption in Macedonia 2011

Monitoring of the Media Reporting on Corruption in Macedonia 2011KEY FINDINGS The corruption as a topic is relatively frequent in the media. The corruption is not present on the front pages or the first minutes of the newscast. The corruption stories are dominantly not announced at the front pages or in the breaking news. One third of the stories are small, one third medium-sized and one third large. Few of the stories are illustrated with original photo or authentic recording. The news is dominating over the investigative stories. The author is not identified in almost half of the stories. The independent investigation of the journalist is seen in very few of the stories. More than half of the texts do not identify the sources or provide only one source. Police, political parties and officials are main sources of information on corruption. More than half of the stories provide only one angle of the story. The sources are dominantly identified. The actor of corruption is not consulted in dominant part of the stories. The journalist does not possess, nor has seen evidence (documents) to support the reporting on corruption in dominant part of the stories. The abuse of official position is the most common act of corruption reported in the Macedonian media. Half of the texts refer to corruption in governmental institutions. In majority of texts, the actor of corruption belongs to the current government.