SCOOP-Macedonia: Part of a Global Movement to Support Investigative Journalism

By David E. Kaplan Global Investigative Journalism Network       As the world entered the 21st Century, the Internet Age hit with full force, and the impact on journalism was fierce. Commercial media was clobbered by two blows. First came the loss of advertising revenue, as print and broadcast ads either went online, for much cheaper, or vanished entirely. And then in 2007 came the global recession, which...

5 years SCOOP: Others about us

Brigitte Alfter, Journalismfund.eu A never ending story Critical voices are a necessity and a gift to any society. Like cleaning, repairing and building keeps a house in good shape, critical in-depth investigative journalism and constructive thought keep a society in good shape. I’m happy to know that Scoop Macedonia attempt exactly that and year after year struggles to provide necessary journalism.   Anne Haubek, Danish Radio Development of critical...

Business and politics in the media: Are reforms possible?

DOCUMENTATION     When in the spring of 1996 the first issue of the independent daily “Dnevnik” was published, the then government was aware that the time was coming of the media that it would not be able to control. “Dnevnik” and then the private TV “A1” soon became influential media, taking the power to create public opinion of the then media that were state-owned – newspapers “Nova Makedonija”,...

DIGITALIZATION: FOREIGN CHANNELS MORE ATTRACTIVE, DOMESTIC CHANNELS FAIL SIMPLE FEATURES SUCH AS TELETEXT

Residents of Novo Selo, in Demir Hisar, do not have a major choice on their TV sets, and learn about what is happening beyond their place of residence solely on the three channels emitted by the public broadcasting service – MRTV, including the parliament channel. Although they have procured receivers to follow other channels with national concession, whose signals should reach their homes, they are still denied this service....

SCOOP research: State land divided to officials

Argument about a state land in Vevcani. Around 267 hectares under the Struga village of Vevcani have two tenants. The land is state owned and Ministry of Agriculture offers it to two owners. First under public call, issued in situations where state land is already planted and the farmer has not taken out a lease, and then it is given to public announcement. The company “Eco Project” applied, run...

SCOOP wins third prize “Nikola Mladenov” for investigative journalism

The team of investigative journalists of BIRN Macedonia won the first prize in the annual competition of MIM for journalism award “Nikola Mladenov” for best investigative story. The winning story on “Skopje 2014 under scrutiny” was awarded for the series of articles and interactive on-line database that disclose public spending for the controversial project “Skopje 2014”. Journalist Biljana Nikolovska won the second prize for the documentary “When the health...

The mystery of one building: in the center of Skopje, but “invisible” to the institutions

Centar Municipality has no records of the Telecom building, a striking eight-store building in the center of Skopje. Built next to the Stone Bridge and located on Macedonia square, this building is shrouded in mystery. Apart from the parties, no one knows how much the land was purchased for, how much tax has been paid for this building and what utility fees have been paid for it. Minister of...

SCOOP research: MPs – one discussion 400 Euros

  DOCUMENTATION1 DOCUMENTATION2 Sashko’s phone alarm from Kocani rings at 5:10 am sharp, when he wakes up to get ready for another day at work. He is a worker in one of the foreign investments in Eastern Macedonia, where the day should bring a daily fee of 500 denars. “I earn 12,000 denars salary. I work 25 days a month, it means every Saturday. One week first shift, the...