SKOPJE, 27.03.2020 – The Association of Journalists of Macedonia strongly condemns the leader of political party GROM, Stevco Jakimovski for the insults and calls for violence against Gorazd Chomovski, a journalist of TV 24.
Jakimovski wrote a status on his Facebook page shortly after a part of Chomovski’s interview with the leader of VMRO-DPMNE, Kristijan Mickoski was published. He used insulting words, which are not appropriate for a politician and former mayor, insulted Chomovski and even rebuked Mickoski for not pulling the ears of the journalist and walk him out of the room.
We emphasize that it is especially dangerous for the safety of journalists to offend or threaten them, and it is not important whether the threats come from the heads of major or minor political parties. These calls for violence may motivate part of party membership to reach out to journalists’ safety, which is unacceptable in a democratic society.
At the same time, we remind that online threats to journalists are a crime, and AJM will submit a request to MOI Department of Cyber-crime and Digital Forensics to conduct an appropriate investigation.