North Macedonia / Europe & Central Asia

  
Election posters for Nikola Gruevski, of Macedonia's VMRO-DPMNE party, in Skopje in December. Gruevski, who is struggling to form a coalition government, accuses critical media of being foreign mercenaries. (AP/Boris Grdanoski)

In Macedonia, anti-press rhetoric leaves journalists feeling vulnerable

As the political crisis in Macedonia, triggered by allegations of mass surveillance by intelligence agencies, deepens the environment is increasingly unsafe for journalists who report critically on the ruling Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization-Democratic Party for Macedonian National Unity (VMRO-DPMNE) and its leader, Nikola Gruevski.

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Transcripts of alleged wiretap recordings are handed out in Skopje on February 27. Claims that journalists as well as ministers were under surveillance have highlighted press freedom conditions in Macedonia. (Reuters/Ognen Teofilovski)

Press apathy over Macedonia wiretaps is symptom of failing democracy

Journalists and professional press organizations were given just one day’s warning on February 25 that Zoran Zaev, leader of Macedonia’s opposition party the Social Democrats, would be revealing what he described as a “bomb”–conversations of journalists allegedly wiretapped by the government–at his weekly press conference.

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Hopes dashed again for more press freedom in Macedonia

On June 21, Macedonian journalists, intellectuals, artists, and free thinkers breathed a sigh of relief. The U.N. special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, Frank La Rue, visited Skopje and held one of the most straightforward and honest press conferences on the state of freedom of…

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Press freedom issues may keep Macedonia from EU

The European Union accession process has been hailed as the best tool in the arsenal of democracy promotion. By adhering to the acquis communautaire, the EU’s total body of legislation, and to the Copenhagen criteria that define the democratic nature of the EU, candidate countries are supposed to perfect their political transition before joining “the…

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