SKOPJE, 16.12.2019 – The Association of Journalists of Macedonia condemns the behavior of Constitutional Court staff who treated inappropriately and in a non-European way the journalistic teams who wanted to attend today’s meeting between the President of the Constitutional Court, Sali Murati and EU Ambassador to Skopje, Samuel Zhbogar.
Although the media were duly invited to attend the meeting, journalists were only allowed to shoot shortly at the meeting room and were then expelled from the courthouse.
Although there is a room reserved for journalists and media at the Constitutional Court, the court employees shamelessly sent reporters out of the building and informed them that statements about the meeting could only be taken outside the building.
This incident is unacceptable when we know that the Constitutional Court is the institution that should be the main defender of freedom of speech in the country. We urge the Court in the future to provide decent conditions for the work of journalists and not set a negative example in the society about the relations between institutions and journalists.