Media and journalists organizations in a meeting with President Ivanov

Representatives of five journalists and media organizations today met with the President of Republic of Macedonia, Gjorge Ivanov.

The focus of the meeting was the possibility of resuming talks on media reforms before the election.

The five organisations expressed their view that until there are no media reforms, there will be no conditions for free and credible elections in Macedonia.

The representatives of the organisations informed the President that during the next week they will submit an initiative for amendments to the Law on audio and audiovisual media services to the members of Parliament, as an introduction to the comprehensive and thorough reforms in the media system.

The purpose of the changes to the law is to secure an independent and professional regulator, institutional autonomy and editorial independence of MRT, and reducing the liabilities and high fines on private media. Also, it is necessary to ban government advertising.

The five organizations pointed out that to create conditions for fair and democratic elections, in addition to changing the law,  full implementation is also needed .

President Ivanov expressed readiness to assist in the process and asked for a list of priority topics to which he can contribute.

Association of Journalists of Macedonia (AJM);

Independent Trade Union of Journalists (ITUJ);

Council of Media Ethics (CMEM);

Macedonian Institute of Media (MIM);

Institute of Communication Studies (ICS).

25 March 2016