SKOPJE, 05.12.2016 Media Organization Onlimit the first of December in the Journalists Club organized a debate with journalists on the instrumentation of the media during the election campaign. The debate as panelists included representatives of journalists and media organizations such as AJM,  CMEM (Council of Media Ethics of Macedonia) and MMI (Macedonian Media Institute).

AJM President Naser Selmani said that the regime treats the media purely as a propaganda machinery for retaining power, not as a pillar of democracy. Selmani believes that every authoritarian government denies the role of media in a democratic society. “The media in Macedonia and during the election campaign did not fulfill their mission. Most of the media rather than to inform, distorted the truth and created a pink reality in which only the authorities believed in. These media instead of criticizing the weakneses of power, become its apologist and praise alleged achievements and instead of encouraging debate in society about important issues of the life of citizens, conducted a smear campaign and calculated with opponents, labeling them as domestic enemies and traitors, “said Selmani.
He recalled that the parties have ignored the proposals of the journalistic community and chose the wrong approach to solve the deep crisis in the media. “The ad hoc body and the “party” editor of MRT can not solve the crisis in the media. The parties instead of eliminating the reasons that have caused the crisis, deal with the consequences. Cosmetic changes to laws are not enough to make free and professional media, “said Selmani.

According to him, to improve the situation of press freedom will require strong political will from the new Macedonian government, which must show a commitment to respect fundamental democratic values, such as freedom of expression. “Vain is the hope that we will have free media if after December 11 we get a non-democratic government,” said Selmani.

Director of CMEM Marina Tuneva, talked about the importance of the media in reporting on the election campaign in compliance with the ethical standards of the profession reminding them of the obligation undertaken by signing the Charter of professional reporting during elections.

Director of MIM, Bijlana Petkovska said sanctions if media do not report according to professional ethics forced the media to give more space to the opposition and to stop the campaign against opponents. “The real matter was how the media will report when the election campaign is over” said Petkovski.

After the presentations by the panelists attending journalists gave their comments on the subject and asked ADDITIONAL issues relating to media freedom.

Skopje 05.12.2016

Association of Journalists of Macedonia

Sarajevo,01.12.2016.-Zastupnički dom Federalnog parlamenta usvojio je 8.11.2016. Deklaraciju kojom osuđuje govor mržnje te izražava spremnost na dodatni angažman u borbi protiv govora mržnje i poziva na angažman sve institucije radi sprečavanja i sankcioniranja. U uvodu Deklaracije naglašava se važnost i posebna potreba borbe protiv sve prisutnijeg govora mržnje kojim se širi, podstiče, promoviše i opravdava terorizam.

Usvojenom Deklaracijom se poziva na potrebu provođenja domaćih i međunarodnih dokumenata, kao što su Međunarodna konvencija o ukidanju svih oblika rasne diskriminacije, Međunarodni pakt o građanskim i političkim pravima, Preporuka Vijeća Evrope o govoru mržnje, Konvencija o kibernetičkom kriminalu te Dodatni protokol uz tu konvenciju.

Deklaracijom se pozivaju Mediji da se sveobuhvatno, interdisciplinarno i interaktivno bore protiv govora mržnje i maksimalno kontroliraju svoje sadržaje te onemoguće slučajeve zloupotrebe medijskog prostora za plasiranje govora mržnje, kao i da doprinesu upoznavanju javnosti o tome što je govor mržnje i kako se sankcionira. Posebno se ukazuje na rastući problem zloupotrebe interneta u svrhu širenja govora mržnje te na potrebu jačanja svijesti javnosti, civilnog društva i svih organa vlasti o krivičnim djelima počinjenim iz mržnje i primjerenim odgovorima na njih.

Pozvani su organi svih razina vlasti te nositelji javnih funkcija da se ustručavaju i bore protiv govora mržnje. Zastupnički dom ukazuje Deklaracijom na potrebnu dosljednu primjenu krivičnog zakonodavstva i eventaulno pooštravanje zakonskih odredbi o krivičnim djelima počinjenim iz mržnje. Tekst Deklaracije možete pročitati na linku:

Deklaracija o osudi govora mržnje Zastupničkog doma Parlamenta FBiH

PRISTINA, 30.11.216 – We express our opposition to the unacceptable actions of the justice system. Few days ago AJK asked the judge of the Basic Court of Pristina, Shasivar Hoti to review its decision that closed to the public and media of the trial in the case of former president of the Court of Appeal, Salih Mekaj.

But today this institution proved that it is not interested to respect the principles of transparency. Neither has the judge Shadije Gerguri taken into consideration our rejection when she decided to try a number of suspected doctors in the so-called cases “Stents”. The reasoning that the hall is small and has a large number of defendant’s it represents flimsy and unsustainable excuses for journalists in the country.

AJK had called on two judges of the cases in question as well as the Basic Court to take immediate action by ensuring transparent justice. Lack of transparency in justice creates room for speculation and motivates internal whistle blowers to leak documents from the court. Moreover, these decisions will encourage other accused seeking closure of the hearings. So, the Basic Court has created precedent for concealing from the public the alleged criminal actions of senior officials. AJK is also deeply disappointed with the prosecutors who rather than asking the public to witness the work of the prosecution, they agreed with the interests of the accused.

30.11.2016

ZAGREB, November 26 2016. – Parliament Media Committee had its session on Friday dedicated to threats and attacks against journalists. Committee members reached the conclusion that it was necessary to provide political and legal support to stop violence against journalists, but some of them expressed their opinion that journalists themselves were partly responsible for those attacks.

The session was called because hate speech and violence against journalists had escalated. The session was participated by representatives of professional organizations, police and other state institutions.
According the police information, reported by Zvonimir Vnučec, acting police director, 78 attacks against journalists, all directly or indirectly connected to their work, have been recorded since 2010. 50 of them were qualified as crimes, 10 as misdemeanors, 5 are still under process of qualification and in 13 any element of criminal act was found.

Police data show that escalation started in 2014, when number of attacks was doubled, and culminated in 2015, when it became tripled. Following this year’s data it is evident that number of attacks has resumed 2014’s level.
From total of 50 crimes there were 46 threats, 2 serious bodily harms, 1 attempted grand larceny and 1 bullying behavior. Perpetrators were identified in 35 cases and police director Vnučec found it to be good result.

”Attackers must be punished”

Nenad Stazić, SDP Committee member, did not agree. He expressed his belief that violence against journalists and generally speaking could be stopped only by more efficient work of state institutions. ”I would like to know what happened after those investigations? And what do we do to discourage those attackers? They can be discouraged only by court procedures. If there is legislation problem, we should change laws”, said Stazić.

Goran Beus Richenberg, HNS member, said that radical hate speech was encouraged by politics, as vulgarities entered public discurs. If in the Parliament or in other state institutions defamation and offence are used in discussions, bad message is sent to the public.”

Saša Leković, CJA president, in his introduction said that some politicians accept and even encourage violence and they are supported, unfortunately, by some journalists as well. He found that ”it was the highest time for the Parliament to discuss threats and attacks against journalists”.

”Journalists (even) themselves are to be blamed ”

Katja Kušec, HNiP president, estimated that lately ”there had been more freedom then ever, but also more unverified facts, journalistic bad work and spins”.

Some Committee members found that violence should be clearly condemned but that journalists should take part of responsibility. That opinion had been expressed even before by former Minister of culture Zlatko Hasanbegović, Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović and Prime Minister Andrej Plenković, who just two days ago, at the occasion of day of remembrance of pro-Radio 101 protest said that ”for spoken and written words all should be responsible”.

The most radical opinion was one of Stevo Culej, HDZ member, who said that Saša Leković’s introductory speech sounded like „proMilošević’s Gebbelslike speech back from 1990 and 1991 that caused Homeland War as he in his speech dealt with Ustashas and produced that atmosphere regardless of SOA’s (Croatian Security and Intelligence Agency) report on Chetnics in our society.”

Goran Dodig, HDS member, explained that journalists encourage aggression and then become its victims. Vladimir Lulić, CJA secretary general, responded to that and said it was the same reasoning that blamed female for being raped because she had short skirt.

Ema Tarabochia

Sarajevo, 22.11.2016.-Upravni odbor Udruženja/udruge BH novinari i Linija za pomoć novinarima zahtijevaju od nadležnih sigurnosnih i policijskih agencija u Bosni i Hercegovini da hitno istraže kontinuirane pritiske, prijetnje i ugrožavanje sigurnosti blogera i novinara Slobodna Vaskovića iz Banja Luke, koji je prije dva dana obavijestio javnost kako napušta BiH zbog straha za vlastiti život.

Državna agencija za istrage i zaštitu (SIPA), Ministarstvo sigurnosti BiH i Ministarstvo unutrašnjih poslova Republike Srpske moraju sa dužnom pažnjom, političkom nepristrasnošću i temeljito istražiti prijetnje koje su Slobodanu Vaskoviću, kako on tvrdi, upućivali najviši dužnosnici i članovi Saveza nezavisnih socijaldemokrata (SNDS).

UO BH novinara istovremeno upozorava na učestalost prijetnji i ugrožavanja sigurnosti novinara koji iznose kritičke stavove o osjetljivim temama iz oblasti političkog, ekonomskog, vjerskog i društvenog života u BiH. Bloger Slobodan Vasković je treća osoba koja je morala napustiti ovu državu zbog kršenja prava na slobodu izražavanja, nesigurnosti i nezaštićenosti. Istovremeno, Linija za pomoć novinarima bilježi da je u period od 2006. do 2016. godine, prema novinarima počinjeno više od 70 krivičnih djela a samo njih 20% su riješeni u korist novinara i sa sankcijama za počinitelje. Više od 45% napada i prijetnji nikada nisu istraženi ili su “arhivirani” zbog navodne nemogućnosti utvrđivanja idetiteta počinitelja.

Zbog toga UO BH novinara još jednom javno zahtijeva da SIPA, Ministarstvo sigurnosti BiH i Ministarstvo unutrašnjih poslova RS hitno provjere navode o prijetnjama Slobodanu Vaskoviću, a prema osobama za koje se utvrdi da su upućivale prijetnje poduzmu zakonom propisane sankcije.