Tag: Media Reform Observatory

The Director of the Macedonian Radio and Television (MRT) Marjan Cvetkovski and the Director of the Bulgarian National Television (BNT) Emil Koshlukov yesterday signed the Memorandum for Understanding, which obliges both national broadcasting services to a reciprocal exchange of television production products. MRT and BNT will be exchanging news, children, entertainment, cultural and educational programs, MRT informed. The Macedonian Radio-Television...

Through the Program for the support of print media, the Government of North Macedonia has provided financial aid for some of the media outlets. "The financial aid has been approved to those print media outlets that have met all of the obligations towards the state and the employees for 2019. In accordance with the 2020 state budget, the print media...

The Association of Journalists of Macedonia (AJM), the Macedonian Independent Syndicate of Journalists and Media Workers (MISJM), and the Council of Media Ethics of Macedonia (CMEM), and the Macedonian Institute for Media (MIM) voiced their opposition to the possible amendments of Article 102 of the Law for Audio and Audiovisual Media Services, that would allow public institutions to advertise...

North Macedonia's Prime Minister Zoran Zaev is expecting bolder steps from the Association of Journalists of Macedonia (AJM) in the fight against disinformation and its spread in the media. These not only spread hatred, but also have a detrimental effect on the honor and dignity of individuals and also damage country's interests and wreck or derail its strategies. "From what...

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...

Citizens, journalists, NGOs and all other requesters of public information in North Macedonia still mostly complain to the Agency for Protection of the Right to Free Access to Public Information about the silence of the administration. Even 163 of a total of 222 applications submitted to the Agency during the first six months of 2020 are about the failure...

The Basic Criminal Court Skopje has declared Macedonian Radio's First channel, but also the director of Macedonian Radio and Television, Marjan Cvetkovski, guilty for violation of the election silence. The court passed a sentence with fines for JRP MRT 1 in the amount of 1.800 EUR, including 200 EUR fine for Marjan Cvetkovski, who is held responsible, states the...

Media reforms in North Macedonia were very low on the agenda of policy and decision makers in the first quarter of 2020, states the report titled "Monitoring of Media Reform Process and the Work of AVMS and MRT" by the Media Development Center. COVID-19 pushed out the issue of media reforms from the agenda and an exception from this...

The numerous debates and talk-shows were mainly used by the participants as platforms for mutual personal criticism, note OSCE/ODIHR's observers in their report regarding the monitoring of national broadcasters during the election process in North Macedonia. The preliminary report also states that the newscasts of all national broadcasters monitored by the ODIHR SEAM provided superficial coverage of the campaign activities,...

The Government of North Macedonia condemned the attacks with hate speech on journalist Tanja Milevska, MIA's correspondent from Brussels, or any other journalist and citizen. "The Government strongly supports the freedom of speech and free press and has a zero-tolerance for intimidation and threats directed at journalists. Safe reporting and freedom of thought, speech, and action in the media are...

The media and the self-regulation, the threats and lawsuits that the journalists face, the fake news, media literacy, and the financial support for the media are all present in the electoral manifestos of two of the biggest political parties that will be participating in North Macedonia's parliamentary elections on the 15th of July. In VMRO-DPMNE's electoral manifesto titled "Renewal of...

Last week, the Ministry of Information Society and Administration (MISA) approved the new systematization of job positions at the Macedonian Radio Television (MRT), proposed by MRT's Program Council. The Program Council's Vice President, Vedat Memedalija, said that the new systematization was signed by MISA's State Secretary, Adem Avziu and it plans an increase of new employees in the public...

The Government has three conditions under which it will fully subsidize the social security contributions for the employees at various media outlets, television, radio broadcasters, printed media, and Internet portals. This was stressed at today's press conference by the Deputy Vice Prime Minister for European Affairs Bujar Osmani and the Minister for Communications, Accountability, and Transparency, Robert Popovski. The first condition...

During yesterday's session, the Government adopted a Decree to subsidize the social security contributions for media employees. The Decree determines the conditions, the ways, and the procedures for covering the social security contributions for media employees who worked and reported about the COVID-19 situation during the state of emergency i.e. during June, July, and August 2020, informed the Government's...

The Independent Syndicate of Journalists and Media Workers (SSNM) considers that a package with measures to help Macedonian media is more than necessary and that it must provide a guarantee that this aid will be received directly by the employees that were hit by the COVID-19 crisis. SSNM has three propositions. The first one is lifting the obligation to pay...

At the end of April, three journalists from North Macedonia - Nataša Stojanovska, Dušica Mrgja and Goran Trpenoski, victims of the violent storming of the Macedonian Parliament on 27 April 2017, filed a private lawsuit against the state for a violation of the right to freedom of expression and compensation for non-pecuniary damage. The lawsuit was filed as a sign...

The Association of Journalists of Macedonia (AJM) and the Macedonian Independent Syndicate of Journalists and Media Workers (SSNM) expressed their concern about the situation of local and regional broadcasters, who announced they will go on strike by stopping the program temporarily. "This decision by local and regional broadcasters comes after the Government's decree from the 30th of May 2020, according...

The Government of North Macedonia will provide financial aid for all broadcasters with money from the COVID19 Crisis Relief Fund in order to help them cover their expenses i.e. fees for the year 2020 towards the operator of the digital terrestrial multiplex, informs the Ministry of Information Society and Administration (MISA). The total sum planned for this purpose is 31.732.390,00...

Peter Vanhoutte, the main mediator in the political parties talks during the so-called Przhino Process, which led to the Przhino Agreement, visited Skopje again. In this interview he speaks about one segment of the Przhino Process, namely the media reforms, and gives his appraisal. Are you familiar with the course of the media reforms over the past 3 years and...

The US State Department in its latest Human Rights Report cites the findings obtained from the periodic report on the status of media reforms that was developed within the framework of the "Media Reform Observatory" project implemented by the Foundation for Internet and Society "Metamorphosis", "Agora" and the Platform for Investigative Journalism and Analysis (PINA), "Prepared by Metamorphosis Foundation, Agora,...