The Independent Labor Syndicate of Journalists and Media Workers (ISSMW), the Association of Journalists of Macedonia (AJM), and the Council of Media Ethics of Macedonia (CMEM) condemned, as they say, the inappropriate statements that were aimed at discrediting and which were followed by lawsuit threats towards the colleagues from the online medium “A1On” by the Director of the National Agency for European Educational Programmes and Mobility, Lidija Dimova.
“In the press release signed by Dimova and Zoran Zlatkovski, V.E.Z. Trade’s manager, that was published as a reaction to the article published by A1On under the title of “A Barbershop in Skopje has received 270.000 EUR from European Funds intended for education” has a tendency to discredit the article’s author and it tries to determine and evaluate journalistic standards, which is exclusively a work conducted by the professional journalistic community. It is unacceptable for state officials from a position of power to threaten with lawsuits and condemnation of journalists, since in almost all cases it is seen as pressure on the media and freedom of the press and an effort to impose censorship,” stressed the joint press release issued by AJM, CMEM, and ISSMW.
The press release stresses that the public figures, especially the elected and appointed officials are subject to public criticism and they should accept it as part of their work.
This article was produced within the framework of the project “Media Reform Observatory“, implemented by the Foundation for Internet and the Society “Metamorphosis”, with financial support by the Foundation “Open Society – Macedonia”.
The content is sole responsibility of its authors and in no way whatsoever could be understood as a representation of the views of the Foundation “Open Society – Macedonia”.
