INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
By Cristy Mishkula, The Blaze
November 6, 2003

Media and politics have a lare impact in the former Yugoslavia. Cristy Mishkula has the story.

Two European journalists came to ASU on November 5 to talk about the struggles, differences, and experiences of international media compared to the United States. Lora Krumova of Bulgaria and Ljubica Mangovska from Macedonia are studying electronic media in Arizona and the United States until May. They said that their country’s journalism schools and programs are becoming more popular among many younger students in hope to change the future of the media in Bulgaria and Macedonia. They stressed that they do not have much freedom of the media and that they need the help from the European Union to make broadcast television and radio better for their citizens and their journalists. A reporter from Nova Televisor, Lora Krumova talks about the electronic media in Bulgaria and the network she works for as a broadcast journalist.

      "We have more than 200 televisions, cable televisions. We have three national television networks. One owned by the state, which is dependent from the government and the two others, one is Rupert Murdock. He made a television three years ago in Bulgaria, a very strong one. It has national coverage, and the other one is a private television. It became national one month ago. It is the one I am working for. It is called Nova Television. It is a Greek network which is covering a lot of televisions all over the Balkans."

      Editor-in-chief of Terra Television, Ljubica Mangovska explains how the media works in Macedonia. "From 1992 to now, we have 157 electronic media, but only 10 to 12 of them are serious, with serious program formats. They are informative and objective news programs. The media in Macedonia, like the media here, are apart of politics. They are pressed between political players on one side and the other side of society. Truly financial independence of the media is very rare because the media in Macedonia can’t make profit because of the huge number of electronic media and competition. There are really a few great examples of truly independent media, and it is a big challenge for the journalists to feel real media freedom."

      Krumova and Mangovska says coming to the United States to study the media is a great privilege, and it gives them a better understanding of how the electronic media works all around the world.

—Cristy Mishkula, The Blaze, 1260 AM