Skopje, 22.08.2017 – The first ten-day report on the media coverage of the local elections 2017 published by the Agency for Audio ad Audiovisual Media Services indicates that, in general, broadcasters have been abiding by the professional
journalist standards in their news programmes. With the majority of media, a tendency has been noted to ensure as many versatile standpoints as possible concerning the issues and topics covered. An exception to this trend are a small number of media outlets, which have manifested a tendency to convey standpoints by entities sharing the same position with regard to certain topics.
The monitoring was conducted in the period from 7 until 16 August 2017 over the entire programme of the television and radio programming services at the state level, focusing on their reporting in one newscast aired at prime time. The Electoral Code does not specify any concrete rules about the manner of reporting in the newscasts in the period from the elections’ announcement until the start of the election campaign. Hence, monitoring conducted before the start of the election campaign is being focused on the adherence to the professional standards and principles for performing this business activity and the ban on reporting on the government’s activities as a means to electoral presentation in the media.
The key findings and individual reports concerning the programming services that were subjected to monitoring are contained in “Local Elections 2017: Report on Media Coverage in the Period from 7 until 16 August 2017”, available at this link