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, and the Platform for Investigative Journalism and Analysis (PINA), a periodic report on the status of media reforms published on March 6 found that media reforms progressed with differing paces and quality, and most were only partially fulfilled”,states the State Department report.
The “Media Reform Observatory” reported on the period from 1 October to 31 December, 2017, on the four pillars of the urgent reform priorities identified the following key findings: public service broadcasting reforms – started, but unfulfilled, government ads – partially fulfilled, access to information of public character – partially fulfilled, and defamation and insult – completely unfulfilled.
In the report, the State Department, among other things, states that there has been progress in the media and the judiciary, however, a number of important issues such as corruption are still to be addressed. From there, they emphasize the politicization that remains at a level of the public administration.
Regarding the justice system, it was concluded that five judges allowed the policy to directly interfere in the judiciary. These are the president of the Supreme Court – Jovo Vangelovski, former member of the Judicial Council, Aleksandra Zafirovska, the judge of the Criminal Court Sofia Lalicik, Svetlana Kostova from the Higher Administrative Court, and the former president of the Criminal Court, Vladimir Pancevski.
Featured photo by tom.arthur via flikr, CC BY-NC-SA.
