The Importance of Crisis Communications as a Part of the Crisis Management System Through the Prism of the Conflict in 2001 in the Republic of Macedonia

Abstract

In today's developed media environment, in conditions of crisis there is a great danger of rapid undermining of public confidence in state institutions in charge of crisis management. Therefore, organizing and implementing effective crisis communication is essential for the crisis management process. In our history as an independent state, the military conflict in 2001, is remembered as the biggest political-military crisis that our country faced. At that time, the institutions in charge of security in the country faced a new challenge that required a systematic, professional and extremely careful approach to solving - crisis management and crisis communication as an integral part of it. Because of this, the purpose of research of this paper is to study crisis communication and determine its importance in crisis management, through the prism of the 2001 conflict in the Republic of Macedonia. To achieve the goal of the research, the research methodology included collecting, systematizing, analyzing and presenting the available data and information in the paper, through a logically justified, rounded and scientifically based approach. The scientific research is in fact an empirical, exploratory and quantitative research of the set scientific problem and scientific hypotheses, in the form of a survey. The results of the research indicate the readiness of the state bodies for crisis communication, the engagement of professionally trained persons for crisis communication, the challenges in crisis communication, especially the lack of legal regulations as a challenge in crisis communication. Furthermore, the influence of the international community in crisis communication and interethnic tensions, the objectivity of the media and state institutions, as well as the level of transparency and, finally, lessons learned and the level of their implementation. The conclusions drawn from the analysis of the results and the set theoretical framework of the work, indicate that in general, the state bodies in the Republic of Macedonia were almost completely unprepared for the realization of effective crisis communication in 2001, and that the involvement of the international community in crisis communication with its experts in order to reduce the existing tensions, especially in the crisis regions in the country, but also to pave the way for a peaceful resolution of the crisis. Regarding the objectivity in informing the domestic and international media, it is concluded that the opinion on the partial objectivity prevails, as a general picture of their informing, but at the same time this is influenced by the lack of developed and professional public relations system in the state bodies, which would work to address these effects of biased media coverage, further increases the potential for crisis escalation. The opinion of the respondents that the state bodies did not make full use of the potential from the experiences in 2001, except for the institutional improvements in the direction of establishing the public relations system at the level of state institutions, and by appointing public relations experts, justifies the applicability of the results and the field of research, and opens space for systematic improvement in crisis communication. In addition to this, the events that took place in May 2015, in the neighborhood "Diva Naselba" in Kumanovo, which had put the Macedonian state authorities to the test in terms of crisis management and crisis communication again, indicated the importance and need for constant development of the crisis management system and crisis communication as part of it.