(RSF/IFEX) – On 26 September 2002, RSF condemned a night-time attack on the editor-in-chief of a radio station, which left him in critical condition in hospital. The organisation called for action to find and punish those responsible for the attack. Three armed men broke into the offices of Tumba radio station, in the Macedonian town […]
(RSF/IFEX) – On 26 September 2002, RSF condemned a night-time attack on the editor-in-chief of a radio station, which left him in critical condition in hospital. The organisation called for action to find and punish those responsible for the attack.
Three armed men broke into the offices of Tumba radio station, in the Macedonian town of Kumanovo, in the early hours of 24 September, and beat editor-in-chief Zoran Bozinovski with iron bars. He was taken to hospital in Skopje with serious head and hand injuries.
“Journalism has become a very dangerous profession to exercise in your country,” said RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard in a letter to outgoing Macedonian Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski. “We ask you to thoroughly investigate this serious episode and see to it that such thuggish practices do not tarnish the reputation of Macedonia,” Ménard added.
Bozinovski’s attackers also threatened Redzo Balic, the guest on the station’s late night programme, with their weapons. He and Bozinovski identified the attackers as members of the “Lions”, a special police unit set up in 2001 during fighting between Macedonian troops and Albanian rebels. The international community has been calling for the dissolution of the police unit.
Bozinovski had been investigating corruption involving the head of the Macedonian customs service, Dragan Daravelski, who is also a senior official in the VMRO-DPMNE, the main party in the outgoing coalition government, which was recently defeated in general elections.
