Citizens Want Local Media, But Not Prepared to Finance Them
Nearly two thirds of Macedonian citizens feel the need for a local television station. At the same time, they believe that the financing should come from the state, i.e. municipal budget. Over a half of the citizens are not prepared to secure funds from the family budget to finance local media, although 79 percent of them said they need local information.
According to the survey, three quarters of the citizens are interested in the current affairs in the world, Macedonia and in their municipality. The most interested for information from their local community were the citizens of Probistip (93 percent). The major part of the polled mostly get their information from the national broadcasters, followed by local television broadcasters and national daily newspapers. In terms of topics of interest, the Macedonian citizens would like to have more information on the local economy, healthcare and the work of the local administration. The least interesting is the topic of agriculture. The survey, conducted by the local office of BRIMA GALLUP, identified the manner in which the citizens receive information specific for their local communities; identified the types, quantity, quality and regularity of information available to the citizens on local level; estimated the interest of the local populations for the types of local information they would like to receive, as well as the media through which they would want to get the information; and evaluated the ability of the local communities to provide financial support to the local media. The survey was conducted in January 2006, on a sample of 1,918 citizens from 15 municipalities in the Republic of Macedonia: Debar, Kriva Palanka, Makedonski Brod, Demir Hisar, Berovo, Krusevo, Delcevo, Kocani, Vinica, Kratovo, Probistip, Resen, Valandovo, Sveti Nikole and Negotino. The survey was financially supported by FOSIM and the OSCE Mission to Skopje. |
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