Macedonia Mulls Curbing Media Corruption in Elections

Borce Manevski, spokesperson for the Broadcasting Council, said the council proposed strict caps on the discounts that the media offer parties in elections.

"We demand that the media offer equal prices for political advertising to all political parties," Manevski told Balkan insight.

Manevski argues that caps will "prevent the favouritism of any one party in certain media".

Slagjana Taseva, head of the local watchdog, Transparency-Zero Corruption, says current vague laws allow too much room for corruption in the media.

"There are many suspicions that they [the parties] bribe the media by promising favours in exchange for discounts and free marketing," Taseva said.

She explains that if a political party commissions advertisements worth a million euro, but gets a 90-per-cent discount on the price, the media outlet is in practice donating the sum of 900,000 euro to that party. 

The council plans to limit such "de facto" donations from the media to 20,000 euro.

But some media experts say the council's proposal is step in a wrong direction that will further legalize corruption, not prevent it.

"The media... should not be allowed to donate [any] time to political parties [in elections]," Roberto Belicanec, media expert from the local NGO, Centre for Media Development, told Balkan Insight.

"We should follow the practice of many EU countries and totally ban political advertising on TV," he added. "This media time is needed for debates and the exchange of ideas, not for commercials that favour only those with money or power."

The proposed changes will soon go before the government of Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski. If the government adopts them, they will then go before vote in parliament.