The recent happenings with the detention of Bojan Jovanovski, manager of the 1TV is causing serious doubt of serious misuse by individuals of the media for personal gain, states the Association of Journalists (AJM).
“This development of the events related to 1TV represent a blow over the reputation of the professional journalism, and if there is no appropriate legal solution it can cause a decrease of the trust towards the journalists and the media in general. AJM is also expressing its concern about the situation of the journalists and the media workers that are employed by this television which may be fired as soon as the scandal is over. This may reflect negatively on the labor market in the media sector. May this situation be the last alarm for urgent implementation of the announced and promised reforms in the media sphere, including the whole of the media business, through the necessary monitoring over the ways media are financed and the ownership” states the press release.
AJM has called upon the government and the opposition, through the Parliament to find a mechanism for urgent deblocking of the parliamentary procedures through which the reforms should continue.
“We stress and remind that all deadlines for completing the MRT’s Program Council and the AAAVMS Council have been breached. These were the preconditions that would lead to the final creation of an ambient where the private media, just like the public service, can be able to function independently, in the interest of the public. We call upon the AAAVMS to implement urgent outstanding surveillance with the goal to determine whether the 1TV has violated the articles of the Law on Audio and Audio-Visual Media Services.
We demand from the Basic Public Prosecution in Skopje including the authorized institutions to start a quick and efficient investigation which will contribute to cast away the doubt among the general public that the institutions act selectively and not in the service of the citizens. The quick legal solution will have a great significance also for the future of the employed journalists and media workers at 1TV, states AJM’s press release.
