We are not surprised by the government’s attempt to establish party control over the media in Macedonia and we are following with concern the process of amending the Law on Audio and Audiovisual Media Services initiated by a group of MPs, the Macedonian Association of Journalists (MAJ) said in a statement on Wednesday.
This proposal requires the election of members of the Program Council in MRT and in the Council of the Agency for Audio and Audiovisual Media Services (AVMS) in the Assembly of the Republic of Macedonia to be with 61 MPs, i.e. majority of votes from the total number of MPs, instead of two-thirds the majority, as regulated by the existing regulations,” reads the statement of the journalists’ association.
That the government wants full partisanship of MRTV and AVMS, is stated in the continuation of the reaction of MAJ, shows the fact that extremely non-transparent, without a decision of the Parliament, MPs from the ruling majority independently decided to cancel the previous competition for MRTV Council members and AVMS.
