European Parliament: Macedonia on the bottom for media freedom on the Balkans

Macedonia is the last place of the Western Balkans to respect media freedoms according to the Research Center of the European Parliament, which in May this year on its web site published a short report on the situation of freedom of speech in the Balkans.

In the report, there are several factors that influence for poor media climate in Macedonia, including failure to implement existing laws, the media is owned by persons close to the government, increased violence against journalists, politicization and corruption and the lack of political will to promote pluralism in the media. These are just some of the comments in the report.

At this briefing the European Parliament calls the accession countries to create a favorable climate for the work of the media, suitable for objective and accurate reporting.

It calls for a proactive role of professional organizations and self-regulatory bodies, immediate improving of the efficiency of the judicial system, political commitment and greater role of the civil society, which in the long run all together should contribute to improve the media climate.

In the report  the European parliamentary research center also refers to the research done by AJM within the project “Regional Platform of Western Balkan for advocacy of freedom of media and protection of journalists.”

AJM, May 11, 2017