North Macedonia’s Digital Paradox – More Information, Less Memory

A similar problem, to a lesser extent, appears when searching for news reports from May 5, 2015.

That was when the then opposition Social Democrats in North Macedonia published wiretapped recordings suggesting that police and top officials might have been involved in a police cover-up of the brutal murder of a young man, Martin Neskovski.

Searches for the news of the actual murder that took place in 2011 again tend to result in code 404 appearing.

The murder of the young man on the main square in Skopje was a pivotal event in the country's recent history, initially sparking protest against police brutality, but later informing the mass anti-government protests, dubbed "The Colourful Revolution" that in mid-2017 finally ousted Nikola Gruevski's authoritarian government.

These are just some of the examples that reveal the extent of a digital paradox in North Macedonia - of having more news reporting on key events than ever - but less archived memories of them.

At a time when the possibilities of storing and archiving data are almost limitless, the country has allowed the disappearance of archives that were collected over some 20 years by certain outlets before they collapsed.

The country does not have a single digital archive of printed media outlets, and in the online media sphere, articles appear and disappear almost overnight, with no responsibility.

A BIRN check shows that the online media usually only "remember" old articles for up to five years and no more.

The cover of the Dnevnik daily from December 2005 when North Macedonia was expecting a when North Macedonia's EU candidate status remained uncertain right until the end. "Paris and London Confront at Macedonia's Expense", the title reads...

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