Review: Government Forges European Report on Macedonia?
Published in Reviews
on 24 - 10 - 2014 Author: Оливера Војновска
The article under review is a good example of conveying all the information in just a few lines. By using links placed on the key words, the readers can verify the trustfulness of the published contents on their own.
Link to the original article: Владата го фалсификува европскиот извештај за Македонија?
[Government Forges European Report on Macedonia?]
Date and time of publication: October 20, 2014. 14:06 hrs
Review date: 23.10.2014
Reviewer: Olivera Vojnovska
The Key in the Two Links
Information sources for this material are the ИProgress Report on the Process of Association of Republic of Macedonia into the EU and the official translation of this document published on the web-page of the Secretariat for European Affairs of Republic of Macedonia. This short news item informs that:
“In the official translation of the annual report on Macedonia’s progress, published on the official page of the Government’s Secretariat for European Affairs (SEP), is missing the first pages which are present in the original text, containing Brussels conclusions. These conclusions mention the terms backsliding (lowering of intensity of reforms) and backward (regress in the spheres of media, judiciary and other areas).”
Notable property of this article, unusual for most Macedonian media, is using direct links towards the referred documents (the official translation and the original), enabling the readers to see for themselves and form their own conclusion about the trustfulness of the main claim. By comparing the publications on the official web-page of the Secretariat for European Affairs (the section “documents” placed on the middle part of the main page, providing download of the Macedonia Progress Report 2014, one can see that the Macedonian version is indeed lacking of three pages, which are present in the original, indicating that the translation and the original are indeed different. So, such “hole in the translation” justifiably raised suspicions of the author of the news item that the “SEP practically forged the European Report.” The same point is stressed in the provocative title:
“Government Forges European Report on Macedonia?”
The public can judge for itself whether the version published by SEP has omitted important remarks present in the original European Commission Report. This also raises the issue whether this mishap is benign or essential, and intentional in order to create a positive image about the direction in which the country is moving on its road towards the EU. The key for this assessment are the two links – a technique which, somehow, cannot “break the ice” in the Macedonian media. Therefore, the approach and the manner of packaging and presenting this journalistic product results in its positive review.
INFOGRAPHIC
TRUTHFULNESS
has facts
accurate allegations
trustworthy allegations
SOURCES OF INFORMATION
sources are presented
official
relevant
2 sources
unbiased
EXTENSIVENESS
extensive
no concealed information
BIAS
presenting the whole truth
no spinning of the truth
no false information
balanced
COMMENTING
comments included
distinguished from the facts
PLAGIARISM
original work
author is attributed
TITLE QUALITY
informative
creative
sensationalistic
appropriate
clear
PHOTOGRAPH
has a photograph
appropriate
neither manipulating nor informing - serves as an illustration
author (source) is not attributed
HATE SPEECH
no offensive speech
no hate speech
doesn't encourage violence
no discrimination
EDITED FOR THE WEB
readable
low quality multimedia elements
has contextual links
orderly written
not connected with tags