27.01.2010 Media being major donors to political parties during election campaigns were singled out as bleakest event in 2009, while appellate court's decision to overturn a ruling ordering Austria's EVN to pay Macedonia's power generator ELEM 200 million euros was the lightest event in 2009.

Seventeen of the country's chief editors of electronic and print, quizzed in the Light-Bleak survey, run by Makfax news agency and NGO Transparency - Zero Corruption, picked this as the bleakest event in the fight against corruption in 2009.

The reports of the State Audit Office regarding the financial operations of VMRO-DPMNE, SDSM, DUI and DPA show that media are major donors to political parties in the course of campaigning. Ten of the chief editors quizzed in the poll singled out this event as bleakest. According to State Auditor's Office Kanal 5 TV approved a 97 percent discount (over 115 million denars) to VMRO-DPMNE party, while A1 TV and Sitel TV did not submit any papers.

Audio tapes posted on YouTube, revealing the chief inspector's involvement in racketeering and shutdown of a rival night-club was ranked second on the list of bleak events. Eight chief editors ranked this event second on the list of negative events.

Chief inspector Sasa Akimovski was dismissed by the government. However, it is still not clear who ordered the wiretapping and whether the audio footage is credible.

Six "bleak" votes went to government-run advertisements, commercials, announcements and public notices, for which the government had spent 10 million euros.

The State Auditor's Office found that in 2008 the government spent 49 percent of its budget on ads and commercials. The auditor also noted shortcomings in public procurement procedures and jobs.

The lightest event in the fight against corruption in 2009 was the appellate court's decision to overturn a ruling ordering Austria's EVN to pay Macedonia's power generator ELEM 200 million euros. Eleven editors picked the appellate court's ruling as their top event in 2009.

The appellate court described the district court's ruling as contradictory, ambiguous and ungrounded.

Second on the shortlisted light events is the invalidation of the bidding for double-decker buses for public transportation in Skopje.

The Light-Bleak monthly survey has been conducted for five years. An annual survey is conducted at the end of each year, containing the events listed in monthly polls. The respondents - editors - were asked to choose three bleak and three light events.

The respondents included editors of A1 TV, Alsat M TV, Kanal 5, Telma TV, Nasa TV, Radio Kanal 77, daily newspapers Dnevnik, Vest, Utrinski Vesnik, Vreme, Vecer, Nova Makedonija and Biznis, weekly newspapers Forum, Fokus, Kapital, and Globus.