[Prishtina-E] Letter to the Editor of AP /Outbreak of fighting in Macedonia/Mr..Testorides

[Imer Berisha]

Dear frienda and compatriots,

This is the letter I have just sent to the Editor of the Associated Press 
and to Mr.Testorides, in relation to today's article of Mr.Testorides, who 
does not want to mention things, that I believe he does not like.

_________________________________________________________________
To the Editor of the Associated Press /also to Mr. Testorides/

I have a particular respect for the work that Associated Press is doing at 
the present and has been doing in the past covering the recent conflicts in 
the Balkans.

However, it has to be said that from time to time some reporters do show a 
certain amount of partiality, lack of arguments and most often the omission 
of certain facts that will otherwise give the respected reader an 
opportunity to have an information containing all the needed details, and 
make his own judgment on the issue.

Unfortunately, an instance like this is the article posted today at Yahoo, 
page about Kosova, by Associated Press, having as the author Mr. Konstantin 
Testorides.

Mr. Testorides among others states:

"The ultimate aim of fighting in both regions appears to be to link them to 
an independent Kosovo run by the ethnic Albanian majority, despite 
international opposition to sovereignty for the Serbian province."


Let we recall that article is primarily about the fighting in Macedonia.

If Mr.Konstantin Testorides has its opinion, of course he has the right to 
make it public. Even if this opinion is not in line with the arguments of 
the matter. This is his freedom of speech.

But what Mr.Testoridis is doing and, I believe has no right to do as a 
journalist/reporter, is to hide the facts.

I do understand that a lot of journalists when they start to write about a 
certain issue do not have enough information about it, which to some extend 
is excusable.

So in this case we are dealing with one of those two scenarios:

1. Either Mr. Testorides has not enough information of what is happening on 
the ground in the region (as I said this is forgivable) and does not make 
any effort to familiarize himself with events in the region, which is not 
forgivable to someone claiming to be a journalist of Associated Press.

2. OR is Mr.Testorides on purpose hiding from the reader important 
information, knowledge of which by the reader,will make his task more 
difficult(Mr..Testorides' task) to influence public opinion in the way he 
wants.

I believe that Mr.Testorides' article i.e. the omission of some crucial 
information belongs to the second category, i.e. he has on purpose left out 
the events of two days ago:

-Outlined demands of Albanian Fighters in Macedonia stating that:
THEY ACCEPT THE SOVEREIGNTY OF MACEDONIA AS A STATE, and are not fighting to 
destroy Macedonia.

I believe that if any similar situation happens in any country, it is very 
important to know who is behind and what are demands, therefore it should 
have been to the benefit of the reader for Mr.Testorides to inform him/her 
of this, to me very important development.

Interestingly enough, other demands contained on their agenda, wanted some 
individuals or not cannot be characterized other bur relating to human 
rights such as:

- the right to Macedonian citizenship;

- the right to use Albanian Language as an official language;

- the right to education/ to have at least one University in Albanian
  Language (35-40% of Macedonia's population are Albanians);

- equality with Macedonians that's what NLA-National Liberation Army   
wants;(Albanian population want the same)

- a census to be carried under international supervision;
  (than everyone would know what is the percentage of Albanians in
   Macedonia)

To make things worse for people who see, or would like to see these demands 
as "illegal, extremist etc." they will be disappointed to know that all 
these demands have been put forward for years by Albanian Political Parties 
but no avail. Macedonian government thought that it would be enough as fare 
as the respect of human rights and the rights of minorities is concerned if 
Albanians in Macedonia are not imprisoned and killed on daily bases as in 
Kosova!

At this point something to think about: what defines a minority as a such
a 5%, 10%, 30% or 49% a difficult question I suppose for HR Lawyers too.

Allow me to remind you one more thing, no Albanian can write his/her name in 
their shops in Albanian language in Macedonia, it is prohibited, even if the 
majority of the town's population is Albanian.

For the sake of comparison in London for instance you can write your name in 
any language you can think of.

Therefore I appeal to the Associated Press to have in mind a balanced 
approach of a journalist when they assign reporters to different areas.

Journalists should not hide the facts and should not make their own 
judgments or prejudge anything.

I believe they should "display" the facts, so te speak, to the reader and 
allow him the choice i.e. to make his/her own opinion.

Putting before the reader all information, germane to the situation, by  the 
Associated Press and its journalists, will be an important contribution to 
the peaceful resolution of any conflict and this one in particular.

Yours sincerely,

Imer Berisha
Cleveland
Ohio
e-mail:
imerprishtina at hotmail.com




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