In line with its efforts to protect the safety of journalists and take immediate action against any threat to media freedoms, the Public Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Macedonia (PPO) has launched an investigation after a voicemail to determine the identity and investigate criminal liability of several individuals who, through comments on the social network Facebook, made serious threats to the Kanal5 TV journalist and editor Aleksandar Vidinovski.
“The comments were published under the journalist’s video clip referring to illegally parked vehicles in front of the Embassy of the Republic of Bulgaria in Skopje and contained serious threats, hate speech, xenophobic messages and messages that incite national intolerance. Bearing in mind that in this specific case we are talking about a journalist and editor who performs an activity of public interest and professional tasks, the case has been submitted for competent action to the Skopje Public Prosecutor’s Office in order to take action to examine the indications for the possible existence of elements of a criminal offense for which he is being prosecuted ex officio,” the PPO pointed out.
