“We demand Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski, Interior Minister Gordana Jankulovska and the Director of the Security and Intelligence Service Sasho Mijalkov to resign. Regardless of who ordered wiretapping, the authorities failed to protect us,” responded the Association of Journalists of Macedonia (AJM).
AJM reaction follows after the press conference of Zoran Zaev, on which the leader of the opposition SDSM announced that about a hundred of journalists were tapped and monitored by, according to Zaev, UBK.
– They are obliged to prevent such massive violation of constitutional rights and freedoms of citizens. Their departure from office will help resolve the whole case – said Naser Selmani, president of AJM.
Selmani said that so far there were doubts that the Government corrupts media with public money, which finally received confirmation through the published audio recordings of telephone conversations between officials and editors of televisions.
– Tapping journalists corrupts media system in Macedonia and present it as completely corrupt and totally dependent on politics. We witnessed that the most influential media do not inform, but that they are means to manipulate citizens. This abuse must stop and should be sanctioned. The only way out of this absurd situation is establishing a new media system and new control mechanisms of the political system, which will ensure the independence and freedom of the media and prevent their future misuse by politics and business – said Selmani.
