Macedonia Title removed

April 23, 2009

Comment: The article attempts is to provide comprehensive picture and alert about growing sex tourism in the region, though it acheives the contrary. The choise of the title, ‘Teenage girls offer sexual favours to foreigners for very little money’ (removed for child protection ethical standards) and the illustration ( girl under ten in a degrading position) both serve a call to explore these new destination for paedophiles and people in pursuit of sex with minors.

The author of the text explores an issue which is relatively unknown to the wider Macedonian public. Supporting facts with evidence gathered from various research activities, the author manages to illustrate different aspects of the same problem with examples from various Eastern European countries.

Furthermore, the journalist lists the regions, along with one of the places where trafficking in underage girls is very common, gives valid information about the fees charged for the sexual favours, citing sources from the Macedonian Ministry of Interior. The penalties that are inflicted on the procurers are supported with facts, by providing the legal framework not only for procurers charged with child trafficking, but also offenders who receive or enable others to receive sexual favours and in other ways exploit minors, all the while knowing that these children are victims of trafficking.

In the attempt to warn the wider public, the journalist uses the warnings of numerous regional civic organizations according to which countries of Eastern Europe are a growing market for juvenile sex tourism. The Eastern part of Macedonia, as well as various Roma settlements have in so far reports been ranked as severely impoverished areas, posing a real risk of the appearance and emergence of this phenomenon.

However, the problem is in the fact that the relevant institutions usually stop once they reach this point. Detected cases are registered and only sometimes prosecuted by court officials. End of story. The journalist indicates Italy- a country which has been combating human trafficking at a national level. However, the author fails to list the measures and precautions that the Macedonian government is taking for this particular problem. The key question here may be whether such measures and precautions actually exist. In order to get a clear picture of the situation, one needs to provide insights and reactions of the social work centres. They could function as the necessary link for a more successful prevention scheme. Unfortunately, the only actively engaged parties are the civic organizations, whose ambition to change the current situation is admirable.

Th*e iconography of the article is ethically questionable.*The picture shows a girl from younger age group than it is referred in the article and the illustration not relevant to the topic either. The girl is pictured in a degrading situation which leads to further misinterpretaion of the intention of the article.

(This Press review is under the framework of EIDHR funded project, implemented jointly with Open Gate-La Strada)