Threats and insults to journalist Dzumadije Ibraimi

The Association of Journalists of Macedonia (AJM) condemns the severe discredits that were sent to AJM by TV Klan and refer to the journalist Xhumadije Ibraimi, which during the election period faced accusations from the candidate from the Alliance for Albanians for mayor in Tetovo, Vulnet Murseli.

Immediately after the end of the television debate, Murseli in the role of a guest and in the presence of several journalists and other people slandered our colleague Xhumadije Ibraimi by saying he was allegedly blackmailed with 10,000 euros in order for her to delete a certain post on Facebook. According to the journalist, the motives for spreading these lies are her previous announcements for a private laboratory, where in fact he asked the journalist to delete her public announcements. The event and the serious accusations happened at the beginning of the election campaign for the local elections 2021. Due to the fact that Vulnet Murseli is a direct participant in these elections, the editorial staff of TV Klan Macedonia and the journalist Dzumadije Ibraimi did not react at that moment in an attempt not to be misinterpreted by political parties.

AJM believes that such accusations without any evidence serve to damage the reputation of the journalist Xhumadije Ibraimi and are an attempt to discredit the work of journalists who were directly involved in informing the public during the election campaign.

Apart from this incident, the journalist from the same television Furkan Saliu submitted a complaint to AJM in which he points out that at yesterday’s press conference, after a previously asked question, the Minister of Foreign Affairs Bujar Osmani addressed him with a raised and threatening voice. According to Saliu, the way the message was conveyed, which happened after the event, was intended to intimidate him in order not to ask questions at future public events.

These events are the culmination of complaints sent to AJM by journalists who have been obstructed in their work or have received threats or insults. Last week, AJM also reacted to the verbal attacks on TV 21 journalist Salije Sadiku and Euronews Albania journalist Ferikan Arifi.

AJM instructs the aforementioned politicians to have greater cultural manners in public communication and relations with media workers because journalists serve to inform the public and not to meet someone’s party expectations. AJM will inform the representatives of the international community in detail about all these incidents with a request to closely monitor the situation with the rights of journalists.