VMRO-DPMNE spokesperson Dimche Arsovski stressed that there is a classic media darkness in Macedonia and the situation in the Reporters Without Borders report on the situation with the media in Macedonia is assessed as it is – that it is bad, that government officials are still they threaten the journalists, i.e. they try to stifle them and not to talk about the crime that is happening in front of their eyes.
Arsovski says the coronavirus pandemic in Macedonia is still being abused to limit the ability of many media outlets to ask questions and attend in order to hide the government’s inability to fight the pandemic.
“What worries me the most, but also everyone else, is the repression by the government, ie the threats, the lawsuits and in a way the threats against the families of the journalists. We still have fresh examples of media editors for whom a process was and is being conducted, such as the editor of Infomax Mitovski. It is the editor who was sentenced to probation for allegedly revealing an official secret. However, it is still a condemnation and an attempt to intimidate him, so that he does not later publish about the government’s crime. That is one of the reasons why we are listed so badly on the list. I would like to mention the editor of Lider, for whom a process for a similar act is currently underway, which is also the most zealous in publishing crimes, and the instruments and apparatus of the government and SDSM want to intimidate him,” said Arsovski.
