Skopje, 26 March 2024 (MIA) - Journalist often face serious risks, especially during more sensitive periods, such as elections, and this year we have two election cycles - presidential and parliamentary. Local surveys based on statistics from the past 10 years show that media workers are four times more likely to be physically assaulted and receive threats in an election year, compared to other years, Association of Journalists of Macedonia (AJM) Executive Director, Dragan Sekulovski, told an event on greater safety and protection of journalists and media workers, which was held at the Journalists' Club on Tuesday.

According to Sekulovski, cooperation with the Ministry of Interior and the Public Prosecutor's Office in the past year has been professional in terms of swift communication and response on their part as competent institutions that act against threats and attacks against journalists and media workers, except for online threats.

Of a total of five registered threats and assaults against journalists and media workers in 2023, two cases of physical assault have ended with a conviction, and three other are still under court proceedings.

Sekulovski said law enforcement still lacks capacity to act in terms of online attacks and threats, although recently more than five complaints have been filed to the Department of Computer Crime and Digital Forensics at the Ministry of Interior.

"Although with a reduced intensity compared to 2017 for example, unfortunately, in the past year we have also witnessed cases of journalists being subject to harassment, intimidation, and violence in the course of their work. Such incidents of threats and attacks, not only threaten the lives and well-being of journalists, but also undermine the integrity of our democratic processes and reduce public trust in institutions. Therefore, AJM has been actively working in terms of SLAPP suits. These lawsuits do not serve to obtain justice, rather to intimidate and increase legal costs, or simply to exhaust defendants, in this case journalists - in order to demotivate or discourage public criticism. To the Council of Europe, they are known as strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPP). When initiated by politicians and public officials, these lawsuits can cause self-censorship among journalists, and thus violate citizens' right to information," Sekulovski stressed.

AJM President Mladen Chadikovski called on party leaders and other officials to exclude journalists from their speeches when addressing supporters. Because, he clarified, if politicians speaking at a rally or making a media statement say something about a male or female journalist in an attempt to discredit them, their supporters will then publicly hurl insults to said media workers.

Journalist Eva Gjakova spoke about her experience of an assault and then attempts by some people at persuading not to report the incident to the police. 

"The institutions in our case were swift and professional," she noted, adding that everyone should feel safe doing their job.

Ministry of Interior spokesperson Toni Angelovski urged for reporting attacks on media workers as soon as possible. 

Public Prosecutor Dejan Petrevski spoke about the importance of legislative changes and their implementation. ssh/nn/

Photo: MIA