North Macedonia (formerly Macedonia)

Populist, nationalist politicians in Central and Eastern Europe are launching attacks on civil society; the aim is to silence criticism and undermine pro-democracy, anti-corruption groups that hold governments to account.

RSF condemns the many attacks against Macedonian journalists at demonstrations in the capital Skopje and provincial cities in recent weeks and urges the authorities to shed light on the violence.

Macedonian ruling party leader and former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski has pledged to ‘cleanse’ Macedonia’s long-embattled civil society sector.

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) and the Association of Journalists of Macedonia (AJM) strongly condemn the attack on journalist Sashe Ivanovski by the Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs, Mr Vladimir Peshevski, on 15 July.

“Policing demonstrations can be difficult, but beating people certainly isn’t acceptable crowd control,” said Lydia Gall, Balkans and Eastern Europe researcher at Human Rights Watch. “And beating a journalist covering a protest is not just unlawful, but an indefensible attack on press freedom.”

The Vienna-based South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO) is deeply concerned over recent attacks and threats against journalists in Croatia and the Republic of Macedonia/Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, as well as the case of a Serbian journalist denied entry to Russia.

PEN International and Macedonian PEN are deeply concerned by the recent revelations that the Macedonian state has reportedly been subjecting its journalists and various state institutions to mass, unauthorised surveillance.

Metamorphosis, the IFEX member from Macedonia, expressed grave concern about the publicly announced allegations of mass and unauthorized surveillance of citizens, performed through criminal association and official misconduct in state institutions and/or influential corporations.

Kezarovksi has been in detention and then under house arrest since 28 May 2013 for an article he wrote in 2008 in which he allegedly revealed the identity of a witness in a murder case.

Macedonian authorities must ensure that all the “absurd” charges against the journalist Tomislav Kezarovski are dropped so that justice and freedom of expression can prevail. This is the stance issued by the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) ahead of Kezarovski’s case hearing at the Macedonian court of appeal […]

Media freedom suffered another blow in Macedonia when the appellate court confirmed that Fokus magazine must pay almost ten thousand euros to a high government official for defamation.

Following the arrest of a journalist on espionage charges, the heads of Macedonia’s journalist association and trade union explain the decline of the country’s media freedom

A group calling for the release of Tomislav Kezarovski notes that his four-and-a-half year jail term – for revealing the first name of a protected witness – is unprecedented in European jurisprudence.

Tomislav Kezarovski was handed a lengthy prison sentence for revealing a protected witness’s identity in a 2008 murder case, even though the witness recently testified that he had given false evidence.

Writers in Prison Committee Chair Marian Botsford Fraser writes to the Macedonian Minister of Justice regarding the prolonged pre-trial detention of Macedonian investigative journalist Tomislav Kezarovski.

The Ministry of Transport and Communication has presented two draft laws that would provide a new legal framework for media regulation in Macedonia; there are concerns that these laws could be used to silence critical reports in the media.