[Nettime-bold] FWD: re: Protest letters

["Nebojsa Vilic" <nvilic@osi.net.mk>]

---------- Original Message ----------------------------------
From: Pavle@aol.com
Date: Mon, 12 Mar 2001 21:56:21 EST

Dear  friends:  
 
In reaction to BBC's horrible misleading coverage of the latest events on 
the 
Balkans, please send this letter to all of your friends and to the following 
addresses:
 
> <A HREF="mailto:newsonline@bbc.co.uk">newsonline@bbc.co.uk</A>,
> <A HREF="mailto:newsonline.complaints@bbc.co.uk">
newsonline.complaints@bbc.co.uk</A>,
> <A HREF="mailto:community@cnn.com">community@cnn.com</A>
>

Dear Sir/Madame,
 
In respect to the BBC's coverage of events on the  Macedonia -Kosovo 
border, 
I am writing the following protest:
 
The continuing misrepresentation on the events in Macedonia by the BBC 
is > 
giving significant support to the Albanian extremists' terrorist attacks on 
Macedonia.
 
The frequently repeated BBC report in which an Albanian woman living in 
the 
border area with Kosovo is quoted as saying,"the Macedonians are even 
worse 
than the Serbs" is an example of propagandist and populist quasi-
journalism 
in which the stability and future of one whole nation (Macedonia) is put at 
risk.
 
The BBC is constantly (intentionally!?) failing to give a complete, fair 
picture of events in Macedonia, and especially on the issue of the extent 
of 
human rights already given to the Albanian population in Macedonia. The 
BBC 
has not bothered a single time to mention the vast human/minority rights 
Albanians enjoy in Macedonia. 
 
During the last 10 years of Macedonian independence it has become an 
inevitable practice that every government will have a coalition with the 
Albanian minority political parties. In the current coalition government, 
the 
political party of the Macedonian Albanians holds four key minister
seats and several deputy positions. There are 28 Albanian MPs in the 120 
seat 
Macedonian Parliament. 
 
Minority rights are extended to the maximum where education is 
concerned. The 
Albanian minority in the country has education in its mother tongue up  to 
and including University level (a brand new Albanian language University is 
under-construction at the moment). Many TV and radio stations in 
Macedonia 
broadcast full programming in Albanian. Macedonia had Albanian language 
TV 
programs much before even Albania had a TV station. There are 
numerous 
Albanian daily newspapers, magazines, and literature printed in 
Macedonia. 
Albanians in Macedonia hold high-ranking executive positions in public 
enterprises, army, police, local government etc. The Macedonian Army 
and 
Police have Albanian Generals and other high-ranking officers. In the 
Municipalities where Albanians are more than 20% of the population the 
Albanian language is an official language of communication. This is just a 
small fragment of the enormous amount of rights given to the Albanians 
in 
Macedonia. Rights given to Albanians in Macedonia have been uplifted to a 
level much higher than what European conventions and juridical practice 
in EU 
countries prescribe.
 
While there was war in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo due to basic minority 
rights violations, Macedonian minority rights democracy was flourishing.
 
Dear staff of the BBC, is this what makes theMacedonians "worse than 
the 
Serbs"?!! Were Macedonians really "worse than Serbs" when they were 
the only 
ones who welcomed 400.000 Albanian refugees from Kosovo into 
Macedonia during 
the NATO bombardment of Yugoslavia!?? Macedonia's stability in 1999 
was 
sacrificed in the name of humanity and the readiness to accept 400.000 
Albanian Kosovar refugees in the country while none of the NATO 
countries was 
willing to take no more than few hundreds of refugees. Is this the way you 
are saying THANK YOU for the political, strategic and logistic help which 
Macedonia gave to NATO during the Kosovo crisis!? Furthermore, your 
portrayal 
of ethnic Macedonians as "slavs", and not Macedonians, is insulting. When 
you 
write about Poles,> Czechs, Serbs, Russians, Croatians, etc., BBC does 
not 
certainly label them as "slavs".
 
This letter appeals to your sense of responsibility, fairness and logic 
reasoning to prevail in the BBC reporter's coverage on the events in
 Macedonia. Macedonia and its 10 years of successful democratic 
practice are 
endangered by the radical, unreasonable, barbaric acts of Albanian 
guerrillas. Macedonia is the last country in Europe that deserves this type 
of irresponsible treatment by BBC! STOP the quasi-reporting from 
Macedonia! 
Give Macedonia fair treatment!
 
Sincerely Yours,
 
> -your name-








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