MTV have realized their mistake and will sanction the employee who made the mistake by broadcasting government-funded advertisements, says Dime Ratajkoski, chief editor of the first program service of the Macedonian Television Station. He told “Meta” after receiving advice and guidance from the Agency for Audio and Audiovisual Services on September 2, 2016, MTV will remove all advertisements funded by the Government of the Republic of Macedonia.
“The first program service of MTV on September 5, 2016, conducted a detailed investigation into the program, and concluded that the offense the ad hoc body spotted, is accurate”, said Ratajkovski.
He said, that two government advertisements had been broadcasted, “Macedonia employs” and “Explore Macedonia”, which aired before the third television diary on September 4, 2016.
“This was an error, made by negligence, despite written and oral orders given to staff. The person in charge, on their own accord, and without intention (as reported by the person in charge of the program) committed an offense, out of ignorance and because he was uninformed by his colleagues. In accordance with the regulations on disciplinary measures at MRT, all employees who commit such an offense will be adequately sanctioned. Please note, that after the Agency for Audio and Audiovisual Services notified us of the error, all government-funded advertisements were removed, and in the meantime, more checks will be made of all programs and advertisements so they same mistake will not occur again”, said Ratajkoski.
The ad-hoc body set up to monitor the media during the upcoming pre-election campaigning period, on Friday (September 9) made their first decision, or, to be more precise, they came up with a proposal for the imposition of a financial penalty for the Macedonian Radio Television (MRT ), in regards to government funded advertising.
“After the interim Commission for monitoring the media submitted a proposal for financial sanctions, the Agency of Audio and Audiovisual Media Services have filed an initiation of infringement proceedings for the court to impose sanctions – a warning will be issued to the First Television Program Service of Macedonian Radio Television. The violation is due to MRTV 1 during the period between September 2 and September 5, and contrary to Article 75, paragraph 4 of the Electoral Code, did broadcast advertisements that were funded by the Budget of the Republic of Macedonia”, read the statement issued by the Agency of Audio and Audiovisual Media Services.
According to the political agreement made by the four parties on September 2, 2016, until the end of the election campaign period, the editor responsible for the news programs on MTV is Santa Argirova. Her jurisdiction and duties are the ethical and proper reporting of the informative programs (TV news programs and the news). However, Dime Ratajkoski is chief editor of the first program service on the Macedonia Television Channel, therefore he is responsible for commercials as well other programs.
When the leader of the SDSM party, Zoran Zaev published some of the wiretapped conversations, what is now widely known as the Bomb “24”, one can hear the former Interior Minister, Gordana Jankuloska talking with the former Prime Minister, Nikola Gruevski and the former Cabinet Chief Martin Protoger discussing such matters.
