Journalists from the Western Balkans face a hostile environment that impedes their ability to do critical reporting, according to a new report by the NGO “Human Rights Watch” for the Western Balkans.
The report says more than a year after “Human Rights Watch” documented impediments to media freedom in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Kosovo, Montenegro, and Macedonia, governments in the region and European Union institutions have failed to take concrete action to address the issue.
“There is little evidence of political will from governments to improve the climate for media freedom. Some journalists face prosecution on dubious criminal charges, and governments grant and withhold advertising revenues in an effort to dampen critical reporting and curb media independence”, said the report.
The organization concluded that in Macedonia and elsewhere in the region, the government used its advertising as a tool to exert pressure.
The report quotes the Association of Journalists in Macedonia (ZNM) when they said that the government has not identified suspects in any of the 30 attacks on journalists the Association registered in the past four years.
“However, the government has arrested several journalists, often in questionable circumstances. In 2013, the Macedonian authorities accused Zoran Bozinovski, author of a critical blog, Burevesnik, of being part of a spy ring on behalf of an unnamed foreign government. At Macedonia’s request, he was arrested in Serbia, held there for 10 months, and then released without charge. In May 2016, Bozinovski was re-arrested in Serbia and extradited to Skopje, Macedonia, where he is detained at this writing charged with alleged espionage, blackmail, and criminal activity,” as was reported by “Human Rights Watch.”
The organization is reporting that this has been happening during the major political crisis with huge anti government protests and the Human Rights Watch have stressed that one of the reasons for the crisis was the wiretapping scandal that broke in 2015 “revealing that the authorities had targeted at least 100 journalists for illegal surveillance”.
“Police have beaten journalists on a number of occasions. In one example, in April 2016, the ZNM and the journalists’ union protested after the police beat a journalist and four photojournalists at an anti-government rally. The journalists were all carrying official media accreditation”, stated the end of the report.
