The Association of Journalists of Macedonia (AJM) reacts to the unprofessional attitude and violation of journalists’ rights in three separate cases this past week, which were reported to us by fellow journalists from TV Uskana, Kumanovonews, and Focus.

Namely, in the first case, we are talking about a journalist from Television Uskana from Kicevo who wanted to record a feature in a primary school, was obstructed in his work in a rude way by the director of the school in the village of Pirok, Municipality of Bogovinje.

In the second case, a journalist from the online portal Kumanovonews, while writing a text about a communal problem, a water supply network failure in the municipality of Kumanovo, seeking information and details from the owner of a construction company in a telephone conversation the journalist faced various curses, aggressive speech, insults such as and threats by the owner of the construction company.

The AJM informed the Ministry of the Interior and the BPPO about these two cases and requested a quick and timely response to prevent potential future such cases.

In the context of the third case, on April 16, 2023, after receiving a report from the journalist Frosina Fakova from Focus, AJM sent a formal urgency to the Ministry of Internal Affairs in which it demanded that the person who threatened her with lawsuits followed by the obscene speech of her colleague Fakova, to be called for an interview at the police station. Earlier, from AJM, they were also informed by the Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office about this case. This attitude of the person towards the journalist followed the publication of a text in the last issue of the weekly “Focus”, which was related to the kidnapping of a person a year ago.

We remind you that journalists and media workers are the window to the public in this sensitive pre-election period, and we firmly stand in defense of their dignity as well as their safety.

We point out that such incidents to our colleagues must stop and at the same time we encourage them to report them so that we can react loudly and show support and solidarity.