By XHABIR DERALLA
When they arrest someone who raped a woman or a child, they don’t ask them for an interview. When someone is suspected of arson, of course, they report about of a pyromaniac. If someone is heard to have stolen, robbed or cheated, there is no room for doubt – it is a dirty criminal, especially if they are a member of an ethnic community that has “strong predispositions” to crime. It is known that at least one ethnic community in “sad Macedonia, besieged from all sides” is prone to crime and disrespect for the state. If necessary, there are two or three, depending on the context and the “type of criminal act”.
When someone is suspected of murder, they are already murderers. If the perpetrator is from the ethnic community “discreetly” indicated, and “correctly” not named before, then it must be a “bloodthirsty murderer” because it “flows in their veins”. If it is an attacker who abuses the victims, reports are about a “monster”.
But they will certainly compete over the Putin’s right to receive (at least) half, if not all media attention. The Russian army, under Putin’s command and with the blessing of the Church, demolishes and burns entire cities and villages, razes them to the ground, destroys maternity hospitals, schools, kindergartens, theaters, kills civilians en masse, carries out unprecedented terror, tortures and massacres, rapes women , children, even babies… They loot everything they can from the empty homes to “make” their mothers and wives at home happy. Very “homely”, isn’t it?
But Macedonian journalism is “professional” and “balanced”. There will always be room for the “Russian side” which, poor them, never get enough space in the Western media. And Putin, on the other hand, is interesting to our audience, “brings many clicks”, so it’s always good to have a story about him.
Our audience “deserves” to know Putin. Therefore, in all the different variants we will publish stories about him riding on a horse, him, being so strong and half-naked. And him, driving a truck with a construction helmet on his head, the sweet one, how close he is to the people… There he is, with the animals, it’s like Tarzan, see him. Close to the people and the animals, but see how strict he is with the Western leaders, receiving them at the other end of that long and beautiful white table in his palace.
When he gets angry, Putin, like any “good and just father” and undisputed ruler, or rather emperor, he throws the traitors in prison for 20-odd years. Russia is big, it has 140 million inhabitants. Everyone wants to “pick” from Russian treasures. Poor Putin, he is forced to rule with a firm hand.
It is the same with domestic politics. Macedonian professional media, balanced to the point of exhaustion, do their best to justify that description.
One cannot help but give the “correct” advantage to Mickoski and those whom Deralla “incorrectly” calls ruscists. Indeed, some politicians want to do everything they can and cannot, just to move the country away from the European integration course, but the Macedonian “balanced” media will always find a good word and – as much as possible – a “balanced” space to present and explain their ideas. Who knoes, they might have good reasons for doing so. Didn’t we hear before, in Gruevski’s time, that the West is bad, corrupt, dishonest and perverse? And the ethnic community that produced the “Frameworks”* went too far. We already gave them everything! Wait, wait, what do the “intellectuals” and “experts” say? That an Albanians have no right to negotiate with Bulgaria**? There must be a reason for that. Give some “balanced” media space to that too! Referendum to cancel the Agreement with Bulgaria? Ah, that’s a serious topic. Give it as much “balanced” media space as possible! Not a word should be left out.
Apart from political ideas and actions, the audience wants to know when Gruevski’s child, pardon me, Mickoski, is going to the first day of school. That does not necessarily mean that “we, the media” are building a cult towards authoritarian figures, aren’t we “balanced to the bone”? Government is government, it should always be criticized, even when it ensures the European future of the country. Let’s see what the opposition and its “good experts” and “analysts” say about it! That’s balanced journalism!
Mickoski is the heir to, and formerly part of, a kleptocratic and violent clique that plundered and terrorized their own country, sowed fear and division, and alienated the country from the pursuit of national strategic goals… Come on, Mr. Deralla, be “correct”, what is that “unbalanced” vocabulary?
*"Frameworks" – ironic name for the Albanians employed in the state administration, according to the clause for proportional participation, as outlined in the Ohrid Framework Agreement that ended the war in 2001. **Academics and some NGO leaders opposed the fact that the Minister of Foreign Affairs, being an ethnic Albanian, has no right to negotiate with Bulgaria on identity issues.
This article is available under the Creative Commons 4.0 license.
