Introduction
During April 24th till April 28th, I paid in the company of Steven Assies(Press Now) and Phil Davis(The Thomson Foundation) a visit to Macedonia organised by Press Now in order to survey the alleged shortcomings of the media and the supposed lack of journalism training. My assignment was to be engaged in the printing press and to look after the possibilities for a (joined) curriculum and training at the faculty of journalism at the university of Skopje as well as the SEE-university-under-construction in Tetovo.

Thanks to the efficient preparation of amongst others the Dutch embassy I managed to meet some twenty-five people. They were mostly very co-operative and ready to listen and to talk. I always feel a slight hesitation in these kind of missions. I don’t want to be seen as an uninvited visitor peddling in unsatisfied desires. So I acted as a reporter, preaching the goal of good journalism as a weapon against corruption, discrimination and lies. My role simply was to promote ideas and possibilities. The initiatives of course have to come from the media and the faculties in Macedonia.Background
There are many presupposed ideas about the existing structures and rigid attitude of the old bureaucrats and communists within the University of Skopje. And indeed, the university looks like a purifying plant, grey, gloomy and dirty with hidden windows, designed in the worst traditions of the post-Stalinist period. A depressing place. And indeed, inside the office of dean Dimitar Bajaldiev I see an absolutely indifferent head of the department of journalism, named Todov Pelivanov, who reads the newspaper while the visitor explains the goal of his visit. And yes, I meet Tome Gruevski another professor and head of the University Publishing House who is not interested at all. The only thing these two remnants of the old period add is ‘they tell lies about us’ and ‘we need money for equipment’.But fortunately there is also dean Dimiter Bajaldiev himself. He was minister of education during 1992-1994. Half a year ago he was appointed as dean of the faculty of law – the department of journalism is part of the faculty of law. He is listening carefully, likes to know everything about Press Now and explains that his highest ambition is to improve the faculty of journalism. Every year about twenty students pass their final exam. Most of the graduates find work, because during their study they have to work to survive. It is true, he says, the situation is very poor now at the faculty. The education is strictly theoretical because there is hardly laboratory and equipment to practise journalism. He blames history, he blames the present ministry of education who has not a clue of what is going on. Bajaldiev wants to make students suitable for journalism. He assures me that he is willing to co-operate with everyone to improve the situation at the faculty.The meeting is also attended by Dobrinka Taskovsky, a professor who is obviously an ally of the dean. She is eager and explains her willingness to do everything to change situation. The last six months she was occupied with scrutinising the curricula of three hundred faculties all over Europe. Now she tries to implement the best in a curriculum at the faculty of journalism. Coming period (first semester starting in September) a visiting professor will teach at the Faculty. He will also advise on curriculum development (a project as I learn later from Irex Pro Media).In accordance with the election register, one quart of the students at the Skopje University is Albanian, she explains. Roma-students are positively discriminated.Later on I also had an meeting with professor Violeta Cepujnoska, vice rector of the University. A soft spoken lady who embarrasses me by telling that she is so impressed by the Dutch, ‘because The Netherlands is the first land with standards’. She guarantees that she will back dean Bajaldiev. She says that by the huge autonomy of the faculties, the university is not so powerful but that the rectorate and senate are trying to restructure the organisation and gain power. She also agrees that the university has to get rid of the old communistic inheritance. There are bureaucrats who thwart new ideas, who don’t want changes at all. But changes are inevitable, high schools by example make already fresh starts. Students from the university more and more are ready to protest against conservative powers. The vice-rector tells that in the last months ‘in a number of cases’ old fashioned bureaucrats are replaced from their position. She personally thinks that by reforms, the university of Skopje can easily co-operate with Europe. The university has twenty-four faculties and thirty thousand of students.Dean Dimiter Bajaldiev as well as Violeta Cepujnoska both express their willingness to co-operate with the SEE-university in Tetovo in creating a combined curriculum. But until so far both don’t know anything what is going on. They say, there has never been any contact. They even don’t know that in the new university beside English, French and Albanian, also Macedonian will be spoken.Because there are so many prejudices and rumours about the faculty of journalism at the University of Skopje, I have to pay much attention to that part of my visit. In the continuation I will be more precise.My visit to dr. Alajdin Abazi, director of the SEE-university-under-construction in Tetovo was a pleasant one. Four kilometres outside Tetovo, they have just started in preparing a forty acres site for building the new campus. In the coming weeks huge prefab blocks will arrive from Austria to be placed. In September they hope to start teaching. The SEE-university has at its disposal some twenty-five million Euro.
Abazi is a heart-warming man, willing to listen and to co-operate with everyone for the benefit of Macedonia. He is exactly aware of the ‘conservative powers’ at the Skopje university: ‘Except at the faculty of economy there is hardly transition in Skopje.’ Nevertheless he express his intention for cooperation. He explains his ideas in circles: circle one contains cooperation within Macedonia; circle two means Pristina and Tirana; circle three means cooperation with the rest of Europe. The SEE-university will be the first multi-cultural university with the same attention for both the Albanian and Macedonian language. Abazi: ‘Our idea is to bring people together.’
The CEE-university will have five faculties: law, business administration, public administration, methodology and communication sciences and technologies. There will be strong cooperation with the existing University of Tetovo(UT), also called the ‘illegal university’ with twelve faculties. Some weeks ago the SEE-university has taken an unusual step by advertising with ‘a call for experience’ in The Economist. In a long discussion, Mr. Abazi agrees not to be satisfied that in de present plan for education, journalism is of minor importance. Now the SEE-university emphasises too much communication. Journalism is a very much different discipline. He likes to bring changes in the final documents.Back in Skopje I met representatives of the Swiss embassy, IREX, the US-embassy, OSCE, the European Union, Search for Common Ground, DPA(Albanian party), the Macedonia Media Institute and journalists from different media. Except Yolanda Robinson from the US-embassy, who is very negative without any credit to the faculty of journalism in Skopje (‘I have asked, what do you want to have but the dean refuses every cooperation, the rector is not able to intervene, so I suggest to select the best journalism students and bring them to Boston’), most of my informants realise that you can’t simply deny the role of the faculty of journalism in the Macedonian society. Almost every journalist who plays a role in the media, started at the faculty. They have a kind of love-hate relationship. They know the situation is very much politicised, they realise that different professors at the faculty are afraid to loose their jobs and stay but – at the same time everyone who wants to be a journalist is visiting the faculty.
Irex also is working with the Faculty- journalism Department. As a first step in September a visiting professor will be attached to the Faculty. He will basically work on modernising the curriculum of the journalism Department.To be short. At last I discussed that prisoner’s dilemma with Branko Geroski from Dnevnik newspaper and Saso Ordanoski from Forum monthly. Two respected journalists from serious media. Both started at the faculty of journalism in Skopje, both are extremely critical about the faculty and the level of their (young) colleagues. Geroski: ‘I left the faculty seventeen years ago, I watch the boys and girls who leave the faculty now and serious: even in my time education was much better.’ Ordanoski: ‘The quality at the faculty is so poor, the old professors don’t simply understand young journalists. Journalism in my country is very much the same as twenty years ago in the communistic period.’Branko Geroski has ‘bad experiences’ with NGOs. He hates NGO-tourism. ‘Every week at least one journalist leaves Macedonia to visit a course or a workshop in a country far away – sometimes a week, sometimes a year. That is not what we need. What we need is a sustainable training here, in Skopje, in Macedonia, on the spot.’ So he suggests a summer- or/and winterschool in cooperation with the faculty of journalism in Skopje, with the SEE-university in Tetovo and the media in Macedonia. ‘If Holland, maybe together with the Danes, will establish such a training, I want to join with all my heart.’
Saso Ordanoski very much accepts that idea. ‘Let us do it in a structural way.’So I ask them to take the initiative, to develop a plan together with all the parties concerned and work as fast as possible. They started already. On the 8th of may the first meeting took place. A report of this meeting is attached.Conclusions and recommendations
– Until so far many NGO’s and individuals have offered training to journalists in Macedonia. They mean well but at the same time these attempts don’t bring a structural improvement for the future of journalism. As the organisation Search for Common Ground stated: ‘Such training rarely results in changes in journalistic practice, because participants do not necessarily understand how to apply the training to their daily work’. There are recent initiatives in by example the establishment of the Macedonian Media Institute foundation(MIM) that likes ‘to upgrade the professional skills of Macedonian journalists’ and ‘to support the development of journalism education in Macedonia’. It is of no use to reinvent the wheel, so I strongly advise to look for corporation with Search for Common Ground and MIM, in which the Danisch School of Journalism is participating.
– Through the initiative of Branko Geroski and Saso Ordanoski, stimulated by my visit, for the first time all the partners in journalism education came together to discuss a possible cooperation. In the coming days they will develop ideas for a working committee to start a summer school. During my visit, I found that the constructive partners in journalism education very much want a fresh start and co-operate. The faculty of journalism at the Skopje University must be take seriously in this process.This is a preliminary report. For the recent future, much depends on the local initiatives taken by the Macedonian journalists, media-industry and the faculties.I recommend
– to support the local initiative in developing a combined plan to upgrade journalism education
– to support the director of the SEE-university in his attempts to include in the communications-department a more appropriate journalistic approach – to support the liberal elements of the faculty of journalism at the Skopje university
– to promote and stimulate the combined attempts bringing people of all ethnic groups together
– to consider as a first step support for a summer University course in Journalism
– to co-ordinate possible initiatives with the initiatives taken by other donor-organisations that are working on a structural approach to enhance journalist education in Macedonia (e.g. Irex and the Danish School of Journalism).As I find, universities and journalists in Macedonia expects much from Press Now, the Dutch embassy in Skopje and from the Dutch government.Rudie van Meurs
Herwijnen
May 11, 2001