N ieman Reports - Nieman Foundation - Harvard University

Shattering Barriers
need for a fourth estate
to fight corruption, hold
government accountable,
and educate its
citizenry—is intrinsic
to our journalism.
But democracy, as
we know it in America,
isn’t yet working here.
Consequently, in the
Balkans, journalism is
a different beast. Those
who are involved in
journalism act as players
in the political process.
Most editors and
publishers see themselves
as serving the
political establishment
by hosting a dialogue
with the political elite
about what is best for
the country. The idea of
serving the public interest
is a distant second
since unfortunately the
public really doesn’t
matter. Power resides solely (and those
who hold it hope permanently) with
the political elite so direct engagement
with them is seen as the most effective
media strategy to bring about change.
This difference in perception
changes everything. When the audience
and the owners belong to the
political elite, not only does it change
what stories get reported but it also
changes how they are written or
produced. Few feature stories about
ordinary citizens are done because
journalists and politicians regard
them as irrelevant. Storytelling and
background context mean less to a
group of insiders so stories are often
unintelligible to ordinary readers.
Instead, it is no surprise that most of
the Balkan news media tend to feature
event-driven political stories about the
daily theater of Balkan politics.
Corruption also means something
different. Westerners think of corruption
as the (often illegal) use of
resources for the benefit of the few
at the expense of the many. In the
Balkan context, what Westerners call
corruption is seen as the customary
tool of political organization. No one
The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, a consortium of
investigative centers, brings together journalists on cross-border stories.
holds the expectation that resources
will be fairly distributed. The spoils go
to the winners, and therefore people
are not trying to change the system.
They are trying to belong to it.
Independent Media?
The words “independent media” mean
very little in the region. Independent
of what, people would ask. In Balkan
countries, almost all business
is still determined by politics so no
one is truly independent. Almost all
media—organizations and journalists—have
political connections either
directly through the political parties
or indirectly through oligarchs and
organized crime. Political parties
sponsor some of them and the ruling
party controls state media. The business
elite and the politicians operate
the advertising market. News media
that survive in the region do so not
through the quality of what they produce
but through the nurturing and
maintaining of connections with this
elite. A nongovernmental organization
like CIN is considered by many to be
an agent of foreign powers.
This arrangement
undermines journalistic
standards in this
country and other countries
in the region with
similar dynamics. If
income and credibility
are not connected with
fairness, accuracy and
readability but with
political and financial
relationships, then the
workplace standards
don’t need to be high.
Rather than being
seen as a bad thing,
organized crime is seen
as just another actor in
the political process.
Crime figures here are
smart in how they build
connections to powerful
political parties and
oligarchs. Some provide
inexpensive loans to
politically connected
businesses, which serve
to launder their money and increase
their political influence. It can be
difficult sometimes to separate who
is a criminal, who is an oligarch, who
is a politician or, as is often the case,
who is all three.
My Training as Editor
When I became an editor and had to
work with journalists reporting stories,
my real training began. For one thing,
communication was an issue. Understanding
someone’s words did not mean
that I understood the importance they
held. It took years before reporters
really understood what I was trying
to say and, in turn, before I could see
things through their eyes. Gradually,
however, the “Chinatown effect” lost
the power of its mystery so that I was
able to understand why people acted
as they did and, importantly, I became
able to predict their behavior.
In the beginning, it seemed as
though people seemed to lie a lot to
me. I took offense, as many Americans
tend to do. But I eventually realized
that to survive in a country ruled by
one party, people sometimes had to lie
42 Nieman Reports | Spring 2011