Today at 14:00, the members of the ad hoc body will meet for the first time at the Agency for Audio and Audiovisual Media Services (AVMU), “Meta” has learned.
Ljubomir Kostovski, Cvetin Chilimanov and Slagjana Dimishkova will meet with the Director of the Agency, Zoran Trajkovski while Goran Trpenoski is still on vacation. There are meant to be five members of the ad hoc body, and this whole organization needs to be completed by August 23. The ad hoc body originally should be formed by August 19, however, due to the amendments made to the Electoral Code and the Law on the Media which were published in the Official Gazette four days late, the date for the formation of the ad hoc body were also prolonged by four days.
The fifth member, who will be selected after a consensus is reached by the remaining members, has to be of Albanian ethnicity.
Ljubomir Kostovski, the member proposed by the SDSM confirmed that their first meeting will take place today and that the selection of the fifth member will not be an easy choice.
“Goran Trpenoski is still on vacation, and we have not discussed a possible candidate for the fifth member of the ad hoc body. However, it will certainly be a difficult choice because of the varying perceptions regarding the different viewpoints concerning the media”, says Kostovski.
Goran Trpenoski was also proposed by the SDSM.
Cvetin Chilimanov, a member proposed by the ruling party, VMRO-DPMNE, also confirmed that today the members will be meeting for the first time.
“Today we will have our first meeting, and then we take it from there. We have to select a fifth member by August 23”, says Chilimanov.
Slagjana Dimishkova was also proposed by the VMRO-DPMNE.
The Director of AVMU, Zoran Trajchevski said when he first noted that none of the candidates had visited the Agency to date, he decided to schedule the first meeting. Trajchevski also confirmed that that the ad-hoc body has to be fully formed by August 23. He went on to say that preparations for the methodology for monitoring the media during the election campaign should be adopted at a session at the Agency on August 26.
“Even though the Electoral Code states that internet portals should be monitored as well, it is an impossibility. Not only are there so many portals, some do not even have a Chief Editor or a Director.
Therefore some portals may face a degree of punishment, possible fines, while others will not, and all because we cannot find the editor or the identity of the owner. This is the reason why we will have to employ this methodology whereby internet portals will not be monitored, just television”, said Trajchevski.