A1 TELEVISION DOOEL

Pero Nakov 60

91 000 Skopje,

Republic of Macedonia

tel. ++ 389 91 55 11 11

fax. ++ 389 91 55 11 33

Dear Mr. Dupuis

Further to our recent meeting in Brussels and the talks regarding the situation with the independent media in Macedonia, we have taken the liberty to send you some more information in order to give you a better picture of the atmosphere in which independent media work and develop. To be more precise, even with the change of Government after the last general elections, there is no sign whatsoever of the long awaited shift in the government stance toward the media.

We appreciate your personal efforts, as a member of the European Parliament Commission, which took the task to help the development of the new democracies in South-East Europe, and we believe that your authority in this field could initiate the necessary changes, for introduction of fair, democratic and market influenced conditions for development of the media freedom. As you are surely aware, that is the key for Macedonia if it wants to advance towards democracy, and to be accepted in the big European family, where we belong despite all the difficulties we encounter.

Please find attached the Requisition of the Association of the commercial broadcasting companies and some facts about A1 independent Television and we hope that you will rise this issue at your meeting with the Macedonian Prime minister on 16 of February.

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you need any other information.

Sincerely yours,

Borjan Jovanovski

Editor of the foreign affairs department

FEW FACTS ABOUT A1 TV

A1 Television was founded on 22, January 1993, as the first private and independent TV station in the Republic of Macedonia. The name is not accidental (A is the first letter of the alphabet and the number 1 also refers to a first born). Its birth coincides with rise of the pluralism, multiparty system, and the democracy in Macedonia. The message is clear - while in all of the socialist countries there were only state owned media (both press and electronic media), the post-communist countries in transition turned towards the pluralism without forgetting the media.

Macedonia was no exception, it got its first private TV station in A1 TV which based its editorial policy on the standards that have been practiced in the western democracies: professionalism, objectivity, fairness, and unbiased information without comments. All this with only one aim - to let the public make the conclusion.

Since the start, A1 TV broadcasts 24 hours of program. The concept of the program is to cover all spheres of politics, the economy, culture and entertainment, with an accent on the news which gives the unchallenged characteristic to the station. By definition, A1 is TV station with an informative characteristic. The central news bulletin is at 19:00, but, according to all the polls, the late news bulletin is also highly rated.

We also broadcast news every hour on the hour. The program starts at 6:00 with a morning program. The daily program includes other informative programs, interviews, documentaries, and of course there is the children program, movies, music etc. A1, today employs 100 people, 20 of which are journalists.

Correspondent network:

A1 TV had correspondents from New York, Rome, London, Belgrade, Zagreb, Prishtina, Athens and Sofia. But because of financial difficulties, generated by the monopoly of the state television, (which collects the state imposed fees), we had to cut the number of our staff and now we have our correspondents from Belgrade, Tirana, and we are the only TV with a correspondent from Brussels.

Transmitter Network From 1997 the Macedonian media, with the adoption of the law governing the radio diffusion, entered into another phase. Those TV stations who acquired a license for national broadcasting, are obliged to have at least 40% of own production in the daily program, and to cover 80 percent of the territory of the country. Since A1 TV fulfilled all the above mentioned conditions, and built up its own transmitter network, in 1988 it was granted the license.

Objectivity and Rating

The Macedonian public acknowledges A1 TV for its objective, unbiased, and on time, reporting about events. As an evidence for this serve the latest reports from competent institutions such as the European Media Institute. In its report on the coverage of the latest parliament elections, the Institute stated that: "the journalists of A1 TV refrained from comments, negative or positive, during the news bulletins and the other programs, and in that way, they gave the viewers an opportunity for an objective and fair approach to the campaign."

The same was said also by the Council for Radio-Diffusion (named by the parliament) which is supervising the licensing procedure. In its report on the coverage of the elections, for A1 Independent Television, it said that it was objective, neutral and that the public had trusted its information.

According to the polls by Brima Gallup, A1 TV has the highest rating in country and added that the central news bulletin has been watched by 53% of the viewers.

Awards

Several Video and Documentary productions have taken place on a number of European Festivals such as the London Film Festival, Art-video Festival in Locarno (Prix de Council of Europe), Moscow, Bulgaria etc. Our projects were awarded on international festivals (Golden Antenna, Montre) and the TV film N.E.P. was the only film from our country that has been selected for the London Film Festival.

Program

We must once again say that most of our program is of our own production or co-production, while the foreign program and the movies are broadcast with broadcasting rights. This is a practice which, beside the practice of pirating program by all the other private TV stations, A1 follows from several years back.

The informative program includes:

"A1 News"- (every hour on the hour from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m., 5p.m. news, 7 p.m. Central News Bulletin and the last at 10 p.m.) an essential part of witch is the program "Economy" with its exclusive stories from the world of business.

"Actuality"- which covers events of special interest that happened during the week;

"Tribune"- a contact program, in which several sides are confronted on certain issues;

"Red Line" - Exclusive interviews with politicians, businessmen and other celebrities.

"Money Time"- a program about the current trends in the field of economy in the country and a review of the most important events in the past week;

"Euro-zoom" - a co-production of A1 with the European Council. Twice a month exclusive interviews with from the Headquarters of NATO and the EU.

"A1 International" - covers international events, issues and problems with interviews of foreign diplomats.

Culture and arts program:

"Artifacts"- an informative program about the cultural and arts events in the country given in a form of a magazine.

"Stage Plays" A1 TV in cooperation with the Macedonian theatres broadcasts the plays that were on the repertoire in the previous season.

"Margins" - a highly artistically produced program which through the means of video-art and texts brings forward certain themes.

Entertainment and music program "Melody" - Music program about the modern folk music composed by Macedonian authors.

"Rhythm" - a program about the modern pop music which hosts new and less known singers.

"Something Informal" - a co-production of A1 and "K15 Production" informal interviews with celebrities from Macedonia and abroad from the world of entertainment.

"Fashion Article" - program about the latest events in the world of fashion.

"Extra S" - a co-production program for the young people.

"Fanta-scope" - a co-production with Saatchi&Saatchi. This is a combination of music and information of interest for the young.

"Coca Cola Boulevard" - a co-production with Saatchi &Saatchi. This is a combination of music top list and interviews in the studio.

"Super Star" - a music program for children.

Sports program:

NBA - Besides covering the current events in the field of sports A1 Television has the TV rights for broadcasting games, interviews and other programs.

English Football - broadcast of matches form the English Premier League.

Ambitions

Our plans for the future are technical improvement and to continue to be objective and independent information. We have ambitions to widen our correspondents network with our reporters from the neighboring countries but also from the world's major cities. We wish to improve the cooperation and start an program exchange with the Balkan countries.

The biggest problems for this TV station are the chaos in the sphere of broadcasting even after the introduction of Law for Radio-diffusion, the unequal treatment in the allotment of the fund from the public fee which is favor of the Public broadcasting company MRTV, and the incorrect competition. Thus, the annual income of the Public broadcasting company MRTV for 1997 was 38,591,700 DEM (from fees and commercials) while the annuity of A1 Television is 878,000 DEM. This shows clearly the financial monopoly of MRTV. We put forth effort to change this and, together with the other licensed, private TV and Radio stations, propose changes in the Law for Radio Diffusion.

A1 Television, Skopje

Velija Ramkovski

Gen. manager

A REQUISITION FOR MODIFICATIONS AND AMENDMENTS IN THE LAW FOR RADIO DIFFUSION

Since 1993, besides Public radio diffusion service (MRTV), the Macedonian ether has been enriched with the signals of private TV and Radio stations.

They have proven themselves to be a righteous competitor not only with its technical abilities but first of all with the high quality programs, the ratings among the viewers, and the evaluations given by the home and foreign monitoring. They accomplish their task: true and prompt information, to entertain, educate and initiate discussions about certain issues and events. The last parliamentary elections and the evaluation made by the audience and the monitoring of the European Media Institute, evidently show that they are a part of the democratic process taking place in the Republic of Macedonia.

On the other side, MRTV unlike some private broadcasters, was said to have been taking sides, and having in mind that the general manager is appointed by the Parliamentary Assembly, it is to be understood that this is not going to change and that it will always be on the side of the ruling party.

This speaks in favor of the private broadcasters who, with their objective information, will play an important part in the development of the democracy in the country. The surveys made in order to determine the rating of the program broadcast by the private electronic media, show that the viewers would rather believe the private TV and Radio stations than the MRTV.

- In Macedonia there are 129 broadcasting companies, three of which have concessions for national broadcasting, 40 TV stations on local level, and 57 of them are local radio stations. A1 Television, TV Sitel and the Radio Channel 77 are the first private national broadcasters in Macedonia.

Together they emit 72 hours of program a day, while the rest of 126 Radio and TV stations transmit 1000 hours of program a day. On the other side, MRTV, with all its TV and Radio channels, gives 96 hours of program a day.

This is another proof that the commercial broadcasting companies entirely achieve their task.

- The Association of the commercial broadcasting companies notifies that because of the financial monopoly of MRTV, the other broadcasting companies are concerned about their future. In addition, we bring forward the official data about the financial statement for 1997. The figures for 1998 are not particularly different and they shows that the total income from broadcasting (fees and commercials) is 43,064,150 DEM. 37,591,700 DEM of them go to MRTV, while all the other commercial broadcasters get 4,472,450 DEM. The total revenue from commercials is 7,300,000 DEM, while the amount of 35,764,150 DEM has been acquired from the public fee.

- These conditions can only lead to a fall in the program and working quality of the private electronic media, but can also mean a closer for many private radio and TV stations. The second reason for this is the disloyal competition by both the public and private broadcasters. According to the details, confirmed by the Association, beside the 129 licensed there are another 150 "wild" radio and TV stations that have no broadcasting license.

- While the Law for radio and TV broadcasting has been in force for 20 months, the ether, regarding the quality of the programs, has been a real mess. The Association points out that the enforcing of some of the regulations of the Law has been delayed. For example, the regulation that 10% from the public fees should be designated for production of program of public interest, so far, none of that sum has been allotted and, according to the Council for broadcasting, the resources are being accumulated on a special account. We have information that in October 1998 the Council has proposed to the Government to announce a tender for financing such programs, but the Government still hasn't done anything about that.

In order to overcome this situation the Association of the commercial broadcasting companies demands:

1. Changes and amendments in the Law for broadcasting made by a committee, which would include representatives from the commercial broadcasters.

2. These changes and amendments should secure equal treatment in the financing of the commercial broadcasting companies in regard to the Public national broadcaster. i.e. they should be financed according to their rating among the viewers.

3. Extension of the payment period for the concessions until the changes and amendments are incorporated in the Law.

4. The Government to announce a tender for the commercial broadcaster for production of program of special public interest.

5. The Ministry for traffic and communications should immediately take measures for closing the radio and TV stations, which have not been given a license.

6. The appropriate institutions should take severe measures against those broadcasters practice pirating of movies and other program.

7. Defining the precise duty of the Council for broadcasting in a manner which would operationalize the executing of Law for Broadcasting.

The Association of the commercial broadcasting companies, in future will work energetically to ensure equal treatment for the private broadcasters in regard to the public broadcasters. We are confident that this will serve the interest of the viewers, but it would also benefit the overall development of country. All that, of course, in absolute correlation with the assumptions of the broadcasting profession.

ASSOCIATION OF THE COMMERCIAL BROADCASTING COMPANIES

Chairman