– Quite briefly, because I have a series of texts, which I am glad are excellently read, and of course, in parallel attacked by the troll factories of the ultra-right. The basic ignorance is when you say “we do not have to go to Europe”, in the European Union.

First and foremost, no one is forcing us to go to the European Union, but we are begging to join the EU, and the one who is not satisfied with the situation in his country, when he crosses the border of his country, does not look east, but looks right to the European Union, of course other countries, but the EU countries are the first to address, where he knocks, and the one who is in those ranks. Which is also very serious, when you say European values, you immediately mean something related to the European Union. I apologize, but European values ​​refer to European values. The values ​​that have arisen, born, elaborated, thought, contemplated, applied, or attacked, on the continent of Europe, just as you can say values ​​of civilization. And for the most part they will overlap. Or you will say – green values. When you say green values, do you mean only ecology, or do you mean only a certain part of the planet, or the whole planet…

It is also about European values. You can nurture European civilization and green values, whether you are a member of the European Union or some other association. It must be said at once very loudly that people must begin to understand what the word “values” itself means. Because the Nazis also have their own values, which are opposite to the European ones.

When asked by the moderator how much those European values ​​are represented in the media, Deralla pointed out that they are very much represented.

-Absolutely a lot, and not only in those editorial offices where it is a basic strategy of the concept of building media production, but in a huge number of media one can recognize a latent nationalist thread in the reporting, primarily because the terms are not understood. I do not want to prejudge that journalists who are left to manifest a certain nationalist, anti-multiculturalist attitude or position, but because some things are simply not known. You know, we all have prejudices that we ourselves are not aware we have, and we need to work on ourselves.

It is about the following, one thing is to have political will, or editorial media, intellectual will, human will, to contribute to the development of the media in terms of promoting multiculturalism as one of the basic European values, and another thing is to have will to learn something about it, to sit down to learn, to learn the practices, to see what it means in philosophical, in social, in another sense of the word, and even in terms of interpersonal relations, relations between communities. And because of that, when you are in a situation to do media production and inform, you have a very serious responsibility. Because one thing you have to say – my job is whether I will grow eggplants or cucumbers this year, yes, you have the right to grow eggplants, or cucumbers, or both. Another thing is when you bring it to market. A product that can harm public health, then you have a responsibility. It’s the same, to paraphrase the New Zealand Prime Minister, who addressed on Facebook and said – you can not make billions from what you do, from having a Facebook platform or media platform without being responsible for what is on your platform, and what can be caused in society… she said this after the terrible tragic incident, in which dozens of people were killed in New Zealand, by a terrorist a year ago.

You have an obligation to understand your responsibility, and as such to participate in media or public traffic. One thing is very important to remember, and that is that in the world and in Europe there are at least two different models, in which the society, ie the state regulates these issues. You have a concept that is most prominent, best developed in the United States, where the responsibility, the need to promote multiculturalism, means that multiculturalism is not just a European value, is according to the so-called laissez-faire model, which means to indulge in events, circumstances in society, while in Europe, you have state interventionism. Both have pros and cons.

In Macedonia, you have a situation in which state interventionism is dependent on the political will of the one in power, although it often knows how to be the opposite of what the Constitution promotes, that is, what regulates the constitution and laws. So, you had a regime in which for eleven years everything was according to the Constitution and the laws, on paper, but in practice, you had an extremely nationalistic behavior, and the government, and the institutions, and systematic violence and repression, and that was repercussed in the media, hardly after that you can see the practice in the media in Macedonia to promote multiculture, from some original generic or really a commitment accepted by the editors, bosses, etc. Interventionism in the media, in terms of promoting social issues such as multiculturalism, means budgeting, it means policies, it means education, it strengthens public awareness. I think there is a great need for that in Macedonia, but it must be better elaborated, better understood, and, most importantly, care must be taken that it does not become another way of developing clientelism between the media and the government,” said Xhabir Deralla at the CIVIL panel “Multiculturalism and European values ​​in the media”.

Diana Tahiri

Camera: Atanas Petrovski

Editing: Arian Mehmeti

Photo: Biljana Jordanovska