Skopje, 5 January 2023 (MIA) – The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) announced Thursday that upon a suggestion made by the Association of Journalists of Macedonia (AJM), it has decided to suspend its planned week-long campaign to promote the country’s OSCE Chairpersonship through web banners.

In a press release, the Ministry stated that the OSCE Chairpersonship is the largest foreign policy project with which North Macedonia will promote itself before the international public, but also a project that is significant for the overall internal political development of the country. At the same time, the Ministry pointed out that hiring an agency during the OSCE Chairpersonship is part of a regular procedure that has been done by every Chairperson of the organization, and the planned activities are not related to PR, but an organized approach to the challenges of strategic communication of the country in its role as Chair country of the largest regional security organization.

In addition to strategic communication, the Ministry added that the Agency’s engagement is mainly focused on the organization of the Ministerial Council, a complex project which entails the organized presence and activities of over 70 delegations from all over the world, which are expected to be led at the highest diplomatic level – the level of foreign ministers.

“As part of the beginning of the Chairpersonship, web banners were temporarily placed, which had an informative and educational nature and did not in any way promote the Ministry or its work. This is not contrary to the active legal practice and Article 102 of the Law on Audio and Audiovisual Media Services. Regardless of the legality, following a suggestion made by the AJM, the Ministry will suspend its planned week-long web banner campaign. In the interest of transparency, any possible future communication activities will be carried out in coordination with journalist associations and other representatives of the civil sector,” the MFA said in the press release.

Earlier on Thursday, the AJM reacted to reports that the MFA aims to spend around 100.000 euro for promotional activities related to the country’s OSCE Chairpersonship, for which it has signed an agreement with a private marketing company. “This expensive and selective way of buying media space through government campaigns cannot be seen as support for the media, but an attempt to corrupt them and, at the same time, promote political propaganda to the detriment of the public interest,” the Association said in a press release.

The Agency for Audio and Audiovisual Media Services also came out with a statement, saying that the Ministry’s decision to spend 100.000 euro on a campaign promoting the country’s OSCE Chairpersonship is contrary to the Law on Audio and Audiovisual Media Services and goes against Article 102 of the Law which states that budget funds cannot be used for marketing campaigns in private media outlets. ad/ba/