AJM: Condemnation of the threats to journalists and media workers of TV Kanal 5

The Association of Journalists of Macedonia (AJM) strongly reacts and condemns the threat to journalists and media workers from TV Kanal 5, which was sent by a person on the social network Facebook.

More specifically, an inappropriate comment with a threat was sent to a post by Kanal 5 on Facebook from a profile named Robert Elbanasov. Such comments can cause fear among journalists and media workers and threaten their safety by inciting violence.

According to Criminal Law, whoever promotes or incites hatred, discrimination, or violence in public against any person or group is a criminal offense. It will be punished with imprisonment from one to ten years.

We also point out that these threats are criminal acts for which there is positive judicial practice and for which AJM 2020 received a court case before the Basic Criminal Court for threats to journalists published on social media.

AJM submitted a report to the Department of Computer Crime and Digital Forensics about this threat and asked the Ministry of Internal Affairs authorities to take immediate measures, for which we were informed that an investigation is currently being conducted and action is being taken.