Reaction to MISA for the strike of regional and local media

This morning, a letter was sent to the Ministry of Information Society and Administration (MISA) requesting the establishment of a dialogue with the representatives of regional and local media.

In this letter, the Association of Journalists of Macedonia (AJM) expresses its concern about the ignorant attitude of the competent institutions towards the regional and local media, which have been on strike for some time with a partial interruption of their program. Their protest began with the shutdown of the 30-minute program on April 26 this year, and the impetus for such a step is the difficult economic and existential situation in which they have been for a long time.

The communication indicates that a serious dialogue is needed between MISA and the representatives of the Association Media Objective. Otherwise, there is a risk of additional damage to the information of the citizens on topics that are of local public interest. Also, the need to create an independent national fund to support quality media projects of public interest is emphasized once again, a statement that was previously promoted by other journalists and media associations.

Support for the establishment of such a mechanism was given by the representatives of the six regional centers of AJM at the meeting held on April 20th. Only such mechanisms would enable raising the quality of the program of local and regional broadcasters and would most directly help journalism, creating quality media content, and would indirectly contribute to improving the economic situation of journalists and media workers.

We remind you that due to the difficult economic situation of these media in recent years, 11 televisions and seven radios have been closed and only one new broadcaster has been opened.