Skopje, 30 May 2024 – Today, the Agency for Audio and Audiovisual Media Services published the reports on the media coverage of the 2024 Parliamentary Elections in the period from April 18 to 22 and from April 25 to May 6, as well as of the second round of the 2024 Presidential Election campaign, from April 25 to May 6. The monitoring covered 10 programme services of the commercial national television stations: Alsat-M TV; Alfa TV; Kanal 5 TV; Sitel TV; Telma TV; 21-M TV; TV Klan Macedonia; Shenja TV; 24 Vesti TV and Sonce TV, and the programmes of the Public Broadcaster: – MRT 1, MRT 2 and the Parliament’s Channel. The other programme services were monitored only upon complaints.
The monitoring covered the entire programme, day and night, and analyzed the forms of electoral media coverage. It singled out for analysis the central news editions of the TV journals/newcasts. As regards the total amount of broadcasted interviews and debates, it selected only those the main content of which were the Presidential and/or Parliamentary Elections.
All television channels that were part of the sample for monitoring the media coverage of the second round of the Presidential Elections reported in a fair, balanced and impartial manner, respecting the principle of equality as a professional obligation under the Electoral Code.
The TV services’ coverage of the Parliamentary Elections was focused on informing about the activities of the four major ruling and opposition coalitions, respectively: the Coalition for a European Future, the “European Front” Coalition, the “Your Macedonia” – VMRO/DPMNE Coalition, and the VLEN/VREDI Coalition. Alsat-M TV was the only one to have managed to provide information about the activities of all 17 participants in the campaign. Due to the lack of primary journalist staff and an adequate correspondent network, none of the newsrooms managed to fully meet the obligation to ensure balanced coverage of the electoral process based on the principle of proportionality according to the number of verified MP candidate lists. Some of the newsrooms informed the AVMU about this factual situation even before the beginning of the campaign for the dual electoral process.
As regards the Public Broadcaster, it was once again confirmed that the restrictions under the provisions of the Electoral Code regarding the distribution of news airtime, do not ensure the essential balance in reporting.
In general, all media outlets covered by the monitoring analysis fulfilled the obligation to make their content accessible to people with sensory disabilities.
The Report on the Media Coverage of the Second Round of the 2024 Presidential Election Campaign is available at this link.
The Report on the Media Coverage of the Second Round of the 2024 Parliamentary Election Campaign is available at this link.