AJM in Brussels Informs on the Situation of Journalists and Media in the Country

Representatives of the Association of Journalists of Macedonia (AJM) highlighted several key issues during their three-day visit to the European Parliament in Brussels. These included the current conditions, safety of journalists and media workers, impunity for attacks on journalists (especially online threats), politicians’ demeaning attitude towards media workers, and the need to establish a fund for media content pluralism.

Maja Jovanovska, AJM Vice President, and Milan Spirovski, Senior Researcher from the AJM office, met with high-level representatives of the European Parliament. They emphasized that newly adopted laws important for media workers, such as the Law on Civil Liability for Defamation and Insult and the Law on Amending the Criminal Code, are positive steps. However, they stressed that stagnation and regression in other processes crucial for media freedom must not be allowed.

During the visit, meetings were held with Frederik Swinen, Policy Officer for North Macedonia, and Ruben Vincent Robesom, Political Advisor. It was assessed that many challenges lie ahead regarding journalistic issues in the context of safety during the upcoming presidential and parliamentary elections. European institution representatives agreed to address some of these requests to advance media freedoms in Macedonia.

AJM’s visit was part of the regular activities of the regional “SafeJournalists” network, which represents over 8,200 media workers in the Western Balkans. Besides AJM, the network includes journalists’ associations from Serbia, Kosovo, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the journalists’ union from Montenegro.