The achievements in the domain of strengthening media freedoms after the fall of the regime are evident, but are accompanied with a string of weaknesses and challenges, stressed the organization for human rights and freedoms Civil.
“The weaknesses and challenges are also a consequence of trends with a wider regional and global character, but a major part of those are of subjective nature. On a global level, the coronavirus pandemic caused tectonic movements in the sphere of freedom of speech and informing. The measures for fighting the pandemic worldwide have endangered the human rights and freedoms especially in parts of the world where they already represented a serious challenge” said Civil.
They stress that the consequences of limiting rights and freedoms in order to stop the coronavirus spread are yet be felt worldwide.
“Additionally, a deep recession that is already shaking the world will contribute to additional erosion of respecting human rights and freedoms, and along with it the limitation of the right for freedom of speech and informing. Parallel to the pandemic, an infodemic also was spreading at an even greater speed. In the past period, on basis of a longstanding monitoring, Civil has concluded several times and has alarmed the general public that the infodemics did not pass by Macedonia. At the same time, false news, disinformation and hate speech are choice of weapons by certain political parties and centers of political and criminal underground, which goal is to undermine the citizens’ trust in the country’s health system and the institutions in general. The media play a major role in the distribution of these hybrid threats against democracy” concludes the organization.
Another major problem is the impunity for the attacks against professional media and media workers.
“The fired up speech on social networks mostly results from the media production by certain political, business and criminal structures in this country. The lack of appropriate response by relevant institutions is encouraging these centers to strengthen their destructive activities. It jeopardizes the public interest, and all professional media workers are put into danger. The media workers face with a large number of challenges out of which the most evident is their low wages which is a consequence of the economic situation in the country and wider, and also due to a lack of stimulating of professional media standards”
