North Macedonia (formerly Macedonia)

The report explores the challenges faced by groups related to shrinking civic space, financial instability, disinformation, digital security risks, and rapid technological change.

Despite numerous activities aimed at increasing media literacy, citizens remain highly susceptible to disinformation and conspiracy theories.

The “Youth Media Lab” project aims to address North Macedonia’s problem with very low media literacy and widespread disinformation through workshops, trainings and a mentoring programme.

“Without decisive and coordinated action, the information manipulation industry will keep evolving, outpacing regulation and exploiting systemic vulnerabilities.”

IFEX member Metamorphosis’s “Cyber Shakes” events grew out of a determination to engage with young people in an informal setting and to understand their concerns about new technologies and their impact on the information ecosphere.

Metamorphosis summarises the discussion at a recent event on political advertising and online media during elections, and calls for greater transparency and oversight.

New research by SEENPM and partners documents a rise in attacks on journalists, and a decline in public trust in the media due to political influence over editorial policies.

In October, the Civil Court in Skopje ruled that ‘Investigative Reporting Laboratory’ (IRL) had defamed a businessman it named in a documentary about the impact of dirty oil on air pollution.

Journalist Ilinka Iljoska was threatened by employees of a state enterprise for public cleaning, after she photographed some of the garbage in a park near her home.

The AJM found that the frequency of attacks and threats against media workers increases in turbulent political situations, especially during elections. Moreover, impunity for attacks on journalists is prevalent, an issue that requires more serious commitment from law enforcement and judicial authorities:

Authorities will treat cases involving attacks on journalists in the same way as they treat assaults on police officers. There will also be new penalties for assaulting a journalist or a media worker, and online harassment will be criminalised.

Amid the resurgence of coronavirus cases in still-shuttered North Macedonia, the tourist seasons getting underway in nearby countries have been used to manipulate public opinion with disinformation and to inflate toxic nationalism.

The official told web journalist Meri Jordanovska that he would be “creating a funeral” for her; he told broadcast journalist Iskra Korovesovska that he knew where she lived, and that she should “run away” if she saw him on the street.

Macedonia’s state-owned news agency (MIA) suspended the prominent VMRO-DPMNE promoter Cvetin Chilimanov after he called for the rape of journalist Valerie Hopkins on Twitter.