School of Public Policy Mother Theresa Module 1: Freedom of Expression - Contemporary issues and debates with relevance to Macedonia

Natasha Donevska 01. 02. 2011

Essay title: Deliberate self-censorship vs. freedom of expression in Macedonia - -

As in most democratic societies, freedom of speech in Macedonia is a constitutional right and it is also (supposed to be) guaranteed as a basic human right according to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Not only it is a right but expression of diversity in opinions on political and social issues is a responsibility of every citizen, contributing to the democratic processes in the society. Freedom of speech and censorship are often seen as being two sides of the same coin, when censorship is defined as the suppression of free speech''. Even if freedom of expression is guaranteed in constitutions of countries, there are constraints aiming to guarantee morality, which in a subtle way impose self-censorship. In communist countries, state dictatorship imposes considerable control of expression on individuals and institutions. On the other hand, in democracies, the profit-making regulations of the market play the crucial role both in the control of expression and the self-censorship. While self-censorship is usually intentional, it is often not voluntary. Most of the time self-censorship is deliberate but there are social circumstances that through time create such a mindset that makes self-censorship even unconscious. As a consequence of a century long history of a suppressed nation, in Macedonia censorship is imprinted in the collective unconsciousness. Hence, people quite often are not even aware of the self-censorship process as its consequences. The collective mindset of the common people is to act upon the wellknow to everyone proverb: A head bent down, is not cut by the sabre ( ). Besides in Macedonia, these kind of proverbs exist in other countries as well, warning people of the dangers of unrestrained expression; for instance, "He who speaks truth is kicked out of nine towns" (Turkish); "Mouths are to eat with, not to speak with" (Japanese). Not only the five centuries long suppression under the Ottoman Empire, but also the former communist governance system within former Yugoslavia have a considerable role in the development for such a mindset. Considering the education system, self-censorship has been constantly promoted by teachers of many generations depriving the students of opportunities for debates and open discussions at a crucial stage of development of their critical thinking. Expression of different points of view has been rarely encouraged, conformity endorsed, knowledge and creativity strictly controlled or utilized exclusively for

the state interests. Nowadays the formal education system is still strongly holding on to these practices of the former system. Even the public libraries are still functioning within the structures from the former Yugoslavia, where readers do not have access to the books but only the employee has. Today the structure of the public libraries does certainly not hold the function of control who reads what, yet it greatly discourages curiosity, urge for awareness raising and most of all diminishes the possibility of serendipity in peoples search for knowledge. Nowadays, in the so-called democracy, the tendency of hindering the new emerging minds not only continues but is even more severely enforced. The methods differ tough. Formally claiming for democracy, Macedonia is a not a country where terror is practiced by the government to control the freedom of expression like in other parts of the world, but the governments have developed a whole system of different means of suppression that citizens internalise and obediently follow: Employment in the public administration. The unemployment rate of more than 30% and the inefficient and incompatibly structured public administration perfectly serve the political parties, providing various opportunities of manipulation and gaining obedience of voters. Considering this huge rate of unemployment in the country, only one employment keeps the whole extended family of the employed as a hostage to the party in power and ensures quite a number of votes in the next elections. Even though in many cases those public administration employments remain only as promises, it still has huge impact on peoples obedience to the authorities. Control over the media. Even in the developed countries, it is not uncommon that media owners and governments of states function through a symbiotic relationship. This relationship is natural knowing that the power of media can play a prominent role in the electoral campaigns and/or maintaining a positive image of the ruling party, through promotion of the public policies of the government, in return of big quick profits. In Macedonia, almost all owners of the main national televisions are either owners of powerful business corporations or are politically involved. Despite it being prohibited by the state law, obviously the profits are prioritized over the media integrity and independence. (Ab)use of legal constraints. In most of the democratic societies freedom of expression is still limited. Recognizing that expressions which damage someones reputation, particularly if it causes them measurable loss, are prohibited and can be prosecuted in the court of law. Laws ensure compensation for the party to which the expressed untrue statements, deliberately or carelessly expressed were directed at. However, in Macedonia in many occasions these laws are being used as oppressive means first of all due to the corrupted justice system, the influence of the party in power over the court officials and the ease by which judgements can be obtained. These means, through several publicly (over)exposed prosecutions, have been utilized by the authorities to above all create fear of such LEGAL actions, sending the message of necessity of self-censorship. Imposed cultural regeneration. In the attempt to enforce a culture of conformism, especially with the last government set, the concept of division, between the Patriots and the Traitors have been prominently endorsed. Considering it is the right oriented party in power, claiming to work exclusively for the countries interest, consequently the Patriots are the ones loyal to the governments policies and a Traitor is a label for those who have and express an opinion different from the ruling party.

This concept of division represents a significant mean of pressure to inhibit not only freedom in expression of ideas and communication of information but also the creation of new different ideas and critical thinking. An apparent example for that is the government officials response to the group of young protesters, called Raspeani Skopjani. This small youth group invigorated the Macedonian civil action by choosing music as a mean of their civic and political activism. Their impact results from singing carefully chosen songs ironically reflecting certain political event, thus provoking entertainment but also critical thinking. Thanks to the wide spread use of the new social media they manage to easily send a concrete message and challenge public opinion in a completely non-violent way of confronting public policies. After the violence occurring almost regularly during each attempt of peaceful public protest in the last years, this creative initiative of youth social activism was supposed to indicate a political maturation of the democracy in Macedonia, until the ruling party came to considered it as threat, publicly labelling the group as a product of the opposition (the Traitors). According to results from a recent survey of civil association AGTIS, two thirds of respondents said they are afraid to criticize the institutions of government, because of the risk to lose their job. President of AGTIS, Aleksandar Cvetkoski, locates the reasons for fear in the communist past and the tradition of spying, weak and corrupted institutions, lack of independent judiciary system, and opportunism of people. He also considers the frequent lawsuits for libel and publicly expressed opinion, a kind of pressure because public figures must be prepared for that. Since they are public authorities maybe someone will talk about their work. Professor Biljana Vankovska calls for citizens to face the fear to speak publicly: "I believe that fear and every situation must be opposed by civil courage and determination to go further otherwise society will become owned only by opportunists, the conformists and the silent ones. No matter which government it is, however, every government needs a critical consciousness and opposition in terms of civil opposition, and not just political."1 In spite of the subtly imposed system of control of speech, there is considerable resistance against censorship. Once repressed, the need of free speech, finds a creative way of expression, through various art-work, humor, jokes, cartoons, etc. Moreover, nowadays governments have to face the challenge of the power of the new social media. Social media does and can play a significant role in civil resistance. It stripped the power away from the state-controlled traditional media and instead allows the mainstream populations to set up their own system of expression related to certain topics. The Internet, blogs, and social networks are seen as a new virtual space for people to organize campaigns and discuss social and political issues that were obstructed to hold offline. Recent events in the Middle East and North Africa have highlighted the potential use of online social networks for activism. The Egyptians have demonstrated that a Facebook group (We Are All Khaled Said) can make people more aware and openly confront the injustice and brutality they face from their government. Twitter was also used to confirm or deny statements of certain developments being reported by the mainstream and state media. Videos captured on cell phone cameras and posted on YouTube exposed what government censors didnt want people to see, and became a source of inspiration to keep the movement strong and inspire other oppressed people to rise up. On the other hand, the freedom
1

The quoted statements are an excerpt from the documentary "Freedom of expression", produced by the NGO AGTIS

provided by the social platforms, digital tools and the Internet may also be misused for propaganda and promotion of harsh speech, easily adding weight to personal and security concerns. Taking into consideration the recent protest at the fortress Kale, the organizing utility of Facebook was immediately apparent. Finally, I have no conclusions. Its very difficult to draw conclusions on these complex issues but one thing is for sure, a multilateral approach is an absolute necessity in their consideration. Its nobodys fault, but social circumstances naturally occurring in an emerging democracy.

Bibliography www.agtis.org.mk www.balcanicaucaso.org www.freedomhouse.org Cole, P. Media Freedom in 2010; University of Sheffield [www.societyofeditors.org] Freedman, L. & Johnson, H. Who's Protecting Whom? "I Hadn't Meant to Tell You This", a Case in Point in Confronting Self-Censorship in the Choice of Young Adult Literature; Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy; Vol. 44, No. 4, pp. 356-369 Loury, C. G. Self-Censorship in Public Discourse: A Theory of "Political Correctness" and Related Phenomena; Boston University Sturges, P. Self-censorship: Why we do the censors work for them; Delivered at LIBCOM Conference, Russia, Nov 2008.