ABSTRACT The contribution assesses the role of the media in respect to democratization and EU accession in the countries of the Western Balkans (WB) and the development of press freedom over the long run. The author closely analyses the legislative framework and its implementation in practice and focuses in particular on the economic and political pressure on the media in the region. The article offers three arguments to explain the bad shape of media freedom in the Balkans: structural factors (state advertisements as the main source of income, economic tycoons close to incumbents as media owners), proximate or external factors (the deteriorating level of media freedom in some EU countries and the whole WB region, with an accent on stability rather than democracy) and political-societal dynamics (defamation and libel as means to punish journalists, verbal and physical assaults on journalists). The media in the WB region do not serve as the watchdog of democracy but are instead used as a means to reinforce illiberal regimes.

中文翻译：

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西部巴尔干半岛的媒体：控制过去的人控制着未来

摘要该文稿评估了媒体在西巴尔干国家和地区民主化和加入欧盟方面的作用，以及长期而言新闻自由的发展。作者仔细分析了立法框架及其在实践中的执行情况，并特别关注该地区媒体的经济和政治压力。这篇文章提供了三个论点来解释巴尔干地区媒体自由的不良状况：结构性因素（国家广告是主要的收入来源，经济大亨接近于现任媒体所有者的经济大亨），近因或外部因素（媒体自由度的恶化）在某些欧盟国家和整个世界银行区域，着重强调稳定而不是民主）和政治社会动态（诽谤和诽谤是惩罚记者的手段），对记者的口头和身体攻击）。世界银行区域的媒体不充当民主的监督者，而是被用作加强自由政权的手段。