AJM: Journalists prevented from reporting on an event attended by Prime Minister Kovacevski

During today’s event in the area of the “Pekabesco” factory in Skopje, where the President of the Government of North Macedonia Dimitar Kovacevski was present, journalists Ljupce Zlatev and Predrag Kukic were prevented from attending the event and asking questions to the Prime Minister.

According to the information that reached ZNM from the fellow journalists present at the event, a person employed in the private security agency ROTE asked them for journalist credentials, which according to the testimony of the journalists, they showed them and emphasized that they had received an invitation from the Government for this event. The security, however, prevented them from entering the event, to carry out their journalistic task.

After the reactions of our fellow journalists about this incident, ZNM will submit a complaint to the Chamber of Private Security of the Republic of North Macedonia to clear up this incident for the ROTE security agency.

It is necessary to know that the members of the private security agencies must in no case limit the work of journalists and media workers who report because in this way the right to information of the citizens is denied.

We point out that the responsibility for such obstructions to the work of the journalistic teams lies with the organizer and the Government that invited the journalistic teams. That’s why we demand that the Government and the company Pekabesco conduct an internal investigation to prevent such incidents in the future.