At the time of this writing, the current president of Kosovo is suspected of war crimes during the Kosovo conflict in the former Yugoslavia.indictmentand in Poland.presidential electionis done,floodhas had a negative impact on various regions of Eastern Europe. Eastern Europe is constantly inundated with "news. But how much coverage does the region receive in the Japanese media? This article explores the coverage of Eastern Europe in detail.

Presidential candidate signs in Poland (Photo: MOs810/Wikimedia [CC BY-SA 4.0])

Historical Background of Eastern Europe

To begin with, there is no uniform definition of the countries included in the region of Eastern Europe. Some limit the region of Eastern Europe to the former Soviet Union countries west of Russia, while others take a broader view. In this article,member states of the UN Security CouncilEastern Europe is defined as the countries included in the Eastern European grouping of This will be from Russia in the east and north to the Czech Republic in the west and Albania and Armenia/Azerbaijan in the south (*).(1).

Until the end of the Cold War, many countries, such as Ukraine, Belarus, the Baltic States, and Georgia, were not independent but part of the Soviet Union. Other Eastern European countries, such as Romania, Hungary, and Poland, were also independent, but were included in the Soviet sphere of influence. The exception among them was the former Yugoslavia, which, although a socialist country, was not directly influenced by the Soviet Union.

As the Soviet Union weakened and the end of the Cold War approached, some Soviet republics demanded independence and large demonstrations took place. After the effects of these phenomena and the fall of the Berlin Wall, 1991The Soviet Union was dissolved in 1949.

So how did Eastern European countries change after the Cold War? Most Eastern European countries that had operated a planned economy introduced a market economy system. The breakup of the Soviet Union and its sphere of influence caused the already weak industrial base to collapse, and poverty and inequality skyrocketed. It took 10Many countries took several years. Also,2004Eastern Europe in 2006.8Countries (Slovenia, Slovakia, Hungary, Choko, Poland and Baltic States) The European Union (EUTo.participationIn addition, in 2007, the company was able to obtain a total of $3.5 billion in sales. In addition, the 2007Bulgari and Romania in 2006,2013Croatia also in 2006.EU and, as a result, the economies and laws of the Eastern European countries have become more and more competitive with otherEUcountries and integrated. However,GDPFrom the perspective of the "Mere Old Man," Western European countries were wealthier than Eastern European countries, and many people became migrant workers or emigrated in search of a better life. In fact,1990Since the year2012Until the year 2000, about2,000allhave migrated from Eastern Europe mainly to Western Europe and the United States. In addition to this, the high migration rate in Eastern Europe has resulted in a declining birth rate and an aging birthrate problem. For example, Bulgaria now hasThe country with the world's largest population declineThe first is.

Even after the Cold War, Eastern Europe experienced a variety of security-related problems. For example, Independence from the former Soviet Union triggered armed conflicts in Azerbaijan Armenia, Georgia, and other former Soviet states. In addition, the Chechen Republic of Russia sought to secede from Russia,1994Since the year1996The first Chechen conflict, which lasted until 1949, and1999Since the year2009A second Chechen conflict occurred until 1949. Also,1991After the breakup of Yugoslavia in 1949, Bosnia and Croatia declared their independence, and a violent armed conflict broke out between the two countries.1995It lasted until 1949.Furthermore, Kosovo also sought secession from Serbia, and in 1998Since the year1999The Kosovo conflict lasted until 1949, and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) military intervention in the country led to a de facto state of independence. This conflict with Serbia, which still does not recognize its independence to this day.confrontationThis is connected to the In addition to Kosovo, there are still unresolved territorial issues in Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Moldova. Also,2014The Ukrainian Revolution of 1949 led to Russian intervention in the Crimean Peninsula, which was consequently merged into Russia. As a result, theConflict also in eastern Ukrainebroke out and continues to this day.

Ukrainian tanks (Photo: Drop of Light/Shutterstock.com)

2015Since 2006, many refugees and immigrants from the Middle East, North Africa, and other parts of the world have been traveling to Western Europe and through Eastern European countries. This has been a contributing factor to the anti-immigrant position ofHungaryand ... andPolandThe right-wing political movement in the United States has been active, and the EU and therelationshipThe impact on the  In these countries, including Russia, powerful regimes have become prominent and subject to criticism.

Countries of Eastern Europe in the press and their contents

Let us now look at how the Japanese media reports on Eastern Europe based on actual data. As data, the Asahi Shimbun's 3Annual (2017Year - to2019(year) in Eastern Europe.23Surveyed media reports on the countries (*2)I tried to do the following. First, the number of characters per country ((*3)and the following graphs show the ranking of the volume of news coverage for each country. Russia (36%), Ukraine (26.1%), Poland (7.9%) is Eastern Europe's top reporting source.3countries, and together they account for7accounted for 10% of the total. On the other hand,14The amount of coverage in each country is1%It is less than or equal to the following. Besides, over the period analyzed,10of countries1The average amount of coverage per year is1less than an articleThe first two articles were in Additionally, articles on Montenegro and Moldova were 2017Since the year2019It has never been reported by the year 2000.

The top three trends in this survey, where several countries are reported in one article, areThis is seen in some countries. For example,42 of articles containing UkraineThe percentages included Russia.The article is particularly concerned with the conflict in eastern Ukraine, with much coverage of Ukraine and Russia and others involved in that conflict.

Nor were Eastern European countries the only countries found in the articles. There were also countries outside the region that received more coverage than Eastern European countries in the coverage of Eastern Europe. In particular, the United States and Japan are located in Eastern Europe21It is reported more frequently than in other countries. In terms of the number of words, the U.S. has the largest number of words in the overall news coverage.8.6%and President Donald Trump and President Vladimir Putin.There have been many articles in the press about the meeting of the Ukraine.81For the article in question,26of the U.S., and most of the articles were about the impeachment investigation of President Trump, rather than the situation in Ukraine.2019In 2006, President Trump was accused of breaking the law by pressuring the Ukrainian president to dig up damaging information about political rivals, which was widely covered in the West. Also, in an article on Russia (114)33The U.S. was featured in an article in the Japan in the overall amount of coverage.4.8%and many of the articles are about the negotiations on the Northern Territories issue between Japan and Russia, and the Emperor's visits to Hungary and Poland are also reported.

So what was the content of the news coverage like? The graph below shows the amount of coverage per topic on Eastern Europe in terms of the number of words (*4).

As can be seen from the graph, the percentage of articles on politics is 59.01 TP3Tand it is clear that it is extremely common. In fact,1The second largest, Russia's78%s articles are about politics. For example, many articles are about the conflict in eastern Ukraine and the meeting between President Putin and President Trump. Next to politics, the war/conflict category accounted for the largest volume of overall coverage.11.0%accounted for the The most reported2Articles from the two countries, Russia and Ukraine, were particularly numerous regarding the conflict in eastern Ukraine. Second, the category of incidents was the most common for all8.7%The company's sales accounted for3It is in the second place. Many of its articles are about President Trump'simpeachment investigationThe following is a brief overview.

We did not include coverage of sports in this analysis, but if we had, coverage of Eastern Europe would have been included.It rises to a quarter of the total. Much of this is due to the2018It was the coverage of the World Cup soccer matches held in 2006. In some countries, coverage of sports exceeded all other coverage of politics, economics, and events. For example,15 sports-related articles in the press about Croatia.There were cases, but apart from those1Only one case remains.

Eastern European countries not reported

In the survey period 2017Since the year2019What are some of the events in Eastern Europe that have not been reported in the Asahi Shimbun until 2006? Among many, we would like to look at a few examples in Eastern European countries.

3 of this study.Over the years, Romania experienced great political turmoil.2017In 1949, a new decree was submitted to Congress to protect politicians and bureaucrats from corruption detection. The public reacted greatly against this,2017Since the year2019Until the year 2000, about40(at sentence-end, falling tone) indicates a confident conclusiondemonstrationwere held. The largest of those demonstrations was the 2017counter for years (following a number in the hito-futa-mi counting system)2month5The event took place on April 1, and was attended by about5010,000 people participated. As a result of the demonstration, the proposed new decree was withdrawn and the Minister of Justice who submitted the decree resigned. This protest demonstration was not the only one of its kind in Romania.corruption problemhas been the focus of attention by the world's media. However, 3 of this surveyOver the years, these events have not been reported once in the Asahi Shimbun. In addition, in Moldova2019No party was able to win an absolute majority in the elections in 2006, and subsequent negotiations failed to produce an agreement on a coalition government. As a result, Moldovaconstitutional crisisThe company fell into the following situation. Furthermore,2019 In response to the passage of a confrontation bill on religion in Montenegro in 2006, a largeprotest demonstrationwas done, and this issue was2020As of 2006, it remains unresolved. Both with regard to Moldova and with regard to Montenegro.3It was not reported in the year.

Protests against corruption in Romania (Mihai Petre/Wikimedia commons [CC BY-SA 4.0])

During the same period, the Balkan region of Eastern Europe also experienced various problems, including the 1998counter for years (following a number in the hito-futa-mi counting system)~1999Because of the unresolved Kosovo conflict of 1949, conflicts regarding territorial and military issues continue. For example,2018counter for years (following a number in the hito-futa-mi counting system)6In May, the "Serbia" was established in the northern part of Kosovo, which has a large Serbian population, and the southern part of Serbia, which has a large Albanian population, was established as Kosovo territory.exchange of territorieswas proposed to the President of Serbia, but the President of Kosovo rejected the proposal, causing political tensions to rise again between the two countries. Also in 2018counter for years (following a number in the hito-futa-mi counting system)12In May, Kosovo wasarmyand suggested that the issue would create a UN SecurityThe meeting of the Security Council was heavily debated between Kosovo and Serbia. These events were2017Since the year2019It was not reported in the Asahi Shimbun until 2006.

Unreported events were not all political frictions and conflicts. For example, there have been various moves by the Estonian government to put governance online (e-government), which is at the forefront of the world. For several years,Government ServicesThere have been many technological developments, such as the digitization of the majority of The use of onlinesmart IDfrom 10% to 35% of residents who useincreaseThe company has been working on this project for the past two years. Furthermore, the 2017 In 2006, Estonia became the first country in the world to establish aData EmbassyIt was reported that the data embassy opens a Specifically, this data embassy will store copies of the most sensitive and confidential data, and if the nation is the target of a cyber attack, the data will not be lost because the information is backed up at the data embassy. In addition to e-government, there were other technology-related developments. For example, in 2019, Estonia's capitalself-driving busoperations. The Asahi Shimbun reported on Estonia's cyber defense and digitization of business in two short articles, but did not report on the above events.

E-Estonia (EU2017EE Estonian Presidency/Wikimedia commons [CC BY 2.0])

Past GNVs to compare the amount of coverage(at sentence-end, falling tone) indicates a confident conclusionsurveyshows that there is little coverage of Eastern Europe and a large disparity in reporting compared to Western Europe. There is also a large bias in reporting on Eastern Europe, with the image of "Eastern Europe" being primarily "Russia" and "Ukraine. Various events and phenomena are taking place in Eastern European countries, including political conflicts among and within nations, large-scale demonstrations, and the development of e-government that can be emulated. However, readers of the Asahi Shimbun are not privy to many of them. Is this a good thing? Improvements in reporting on Eastern Europe are needed.

note 1:Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Russian Federation, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Ukraine.

*2: ".In "Monzo II Visual", paper: international page, publisher selected [Tokyo], period: 2017Year - to2019The year is the condition of the survey. All articles were selected with a central theme of Eastern European countries, and the number of articles and words were calculated.It does not include articles on sports.

*3:1If it was more than one country, the number of letters was divided according to the number of countries reported.

*4Category.2If it is one, the amount of characters2The project was divided into sections.

Writer: Adriana Nicolaie

Graphics by Adriana Nicolaie, Yow Shuning

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