Condemnation of the attack on a journalist in Struga

The Association of Journalists of Macedonia strongly condemns the attack of the journalist Armand Braho, who works in the online media strugalajm.org. The attack happened earlier this week in Hotel “Drim” in Struga. According to the journalist’s statement, perpetrators from the political party Alliance for Albanians (AA) attacked him during the conference, to which he was duly invited.

AJM President Naser Selmani, urges the authorities to quickly investigate the case and punish the perpetrators. “If the new Government wants to send a clear message that it will not tolerate attacks on journalists, then it must investigate the case as soon as possible and bring the perpetrators to justice”, Selmani said.

This violent attack confirms the assessment from the AJM Report, according to which the attacks against journalists are mostly prompted by political parties.

According to our colleague Braho, the President of the political party AA, Zijadin Sela, before he left the conference in Struga, he said to the journalist: -“Go away from here and don’t come back, go to those who sent you and interview them”. After this, supporters of the AA started to harass the journalist, preventing him from transmitting the conference, and after the event, he was physically attacked.

Braho reported the attackers to the police. So far, one person has been summoned for questioning, after which the Ministry of Internal Affairs stated that they will raise appropriate charges for the criminal offense against the person, while they also work on the identification of the other perpetrators.