Minority-Language Broadcasting, Kin-state Media and Transnational Polarization: Turkish Community in North Macedonia between Skopje and Ankara

Kuvaus

Media in Eastern Europe and the Balkans have long been associated with propaganda tools until the simultaneous collapse of the communist regimes in the early 90s. During the period of democratic transition in former communist countries in Eastern Europe and the Balkans, public service broadcasters’ wider objective of strengthening existing political order by serving the dominant concept of national identity was replaced with offering a space for public affairs in order to consolidate citizenship regime and democracy. Using public funds to broadcast for this purpose brings obligations in context of the right of access of ethno-linguistic minorities to the mass media in multi-ethnic countries in preserving the identity, culture and the history of ethno-linguistic minorities and in strengthening their sense of belonging within the society in the home-state.
In North Macedonia, one of the most ethnically diverse countries in Europe, minority-language programming in the public broadcaster date back to the first days of the official foundation of Radio Skopje in 1945, subnational public radio station in the People's Republic of Macedonia, one of the constituent republics of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. This paper aims to analyze the impact of the Macedonian public broadcaster MRT's 76-year-old Turkish service and Turkey-based Turkish audio and audiovisual media on the public sphere of the Turkish community of North Macedonia, the largest non-majority community with less than 20% of population in the country. The paper also examines the country's recent media reforms focusing on the broadcasting in the languages of non-majority ethnic communities, foreseen in the Przino Agreement.

Aikajakso	31 maalisk. 2022
Tapahtuman otsikko	International conference: Multi-platform and Connecting Communities: Contemporary Challenges for Minority Language Media
Tapahtuman tyyppi	Konferenssi
Sijainti	Flensburg, Germany, Schleswig-HolsteinNäytä kartalla
Tunnustuksen arvo	Kansainvälinen