Indicators on the Level of Media Freedom and Journalists' Safety In

Indicators on the level of media freedom and journalists’ safety in Macedonia Project Goals and Research Methodology [ 1 ] Indicators on the level of media freedom and journalists’ safety in Macedonia Authors: Besim Nebiu, Naser Selmani, Dragan Sekulovski, Deniz Sulejman September 2018 Indicators on the level of media freedom and journalists’ safety in Macedonia September 2018 Published by: Association of Journalists of Macedonia Gradski zid blok 13, 1000 Skopje, Republic of Macedonia Phone: +389 (0) 2 3298-139 Fax: +389 (0) 2 3116-447 www.znm.org.mk Authors: Besim Nebiu, Naser Selmani, Dragan Sekulovski, Deniz Sulejman Translation in English: Kristina Naceva This publication has been produced with the financial assistance of the European Union. The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of the Independent Journalists’ Association of Serbia and its authors, and can in no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of the European Union. [ 4 ] Indicators on the level of media freedom and journalists’ safety in Macedonia Table of Contents Project Goals and Research Methodology .......7 C. Journalists’ security and statistics on impunity .........................33 Summary ...................................8 C.1.1. Attacks against journalists A. Legal protection of media freedom .......... 15 and other threats ...........................34 A.1. Does national law provide guarantees C.1.2. Murder of journalists and cases of media freedom and are they effectively in the last 15-20 years .......................36 implemented in practice? .................... 16 C.1.3. Pressure towards media, A.2. Does laws on libel cause effect of media and guild organizations ...............36 intimidation at journalists? .................... 19 C.2.1. Do state institutions and political actors A.3. Is there sufficient legal protection for act appropriately to protect journalists? ........37 political pluralism in the media before and during the election campaigns? ..............20 C.2.2. Are there specific mechanisms through which attacks on journalists are followed? .....38 A.4. Are the freedom of journalistic work and association guaranteed by law and is the C.2.3. Are attacks against journalists law enforced? .............................. 21 recognized by government institutions? .......39 A.5. What is the level of legal protection C.2.4. Are there documents within the for journalistic sources? .....................23 police or military that serve as guide in case of violation of the rights of journalists? .........39 A.6. What is the level of protection of the right to access to information? ............23 C.2.5. Do state institutions cooperate with the organizations on journalists on security issues? ..........................39 B. The position of journalists in the C.2.6. What is the last case of illegal editorial office, professional ethics and wiretapping and monitoring of journalists and level of censorship ...........................25 how do state institutions deal with this? ........39 B.1. Is the economic situation of journalists C.3. How does the judiciary handle issues misused in order to limit their freedom? .......26 related to violence against journalists? ........40 B.2. What is the level of editorial C.3.1. Are there specific institutions independence from media owners dealing with investigations when journalists’ and management bodies? ...................28 rights are violated? ......................... 41 B.3. What is the level of Editorial C.3.2. Are investigations effective independence of journalists in PBS? ..........29 in cases where journalists are intimidated and attacked? ................... 41 B.4. What is the level of editorial independence of journalists in the non-profit sector? .........29 B.5. How much freedom do journalists have in the news production process? .............30 Project Goals and Research Methodology [ 5 ] Indicators on the level of media freedom and journalists’ safety in Macedonia Project Goals and Research Methodology [ 7 ] Macedonia Summary This report presents the findings of the research con- A. Legal protection of media freedom ducted within the regional project Western Balkans Regional Platform for Advocating Media Freedom and A slight improvement is evident with respect to free- Journalists’ Safety, which is implemented by the nation- dom of the media in 2018 in Macedonia, but serious al journalists’ associations in Bosnia and Herzegovina, systemic reforms that will create favorable environ- Kosovo, Macedonia, Serbia and a trade union in Mon- ment for smooth development of the media and de- tenegro. This report is a follow up of the baseline study velopment of professional journalism are still lacking. on legislation, socio-economic and political situation with respect to freedom of media and security of jour- The Constitution of Macedonia guarantees freedom of nalists, which identified the key challenges and recom- the media; however, such guarantees are not entire- mendations for associations of journalists and other ly and precisely reflected in the laws and by-laws. A 1 stakeholders . The main goal of the third research was non-implementation or their selective implementation to identify new developments and compare the cur- is serious problem. The new government, established rent state of media freedom and security of journalists in June 2017 pledged to improve the state of freedom with the situation established in 2016 and 2017. of speech and freedom of information by improving the media legislation. None of the promised legal proj- This research study was conducted by Besim Nebiu, ects were adopted in the Assembly. Naser Selmani, Dragan Sekulovski and Deniz Sule- jman following the common methodology of all five Only the amendments to the Law on Audio and Au- countries. The set of different qualitative and quantita- diovisual Media Services are in advanced phase, but tive methods was used for data collection and analysis: the adoption of the law is blocked by the opposition in the Parliament by submitting over 60 amendments and Qualitative Documents Analysis (QDA) of: re- extending the debate to the Commission for Transport search studies and analyses produced by oth- and Communications. er research organisations, academia, NGOs, individual researchers etc.; official documents Other laws, such as the Law on Civil Liability for Insult produced by public institutions (legal acts, by- and Defamation, the Law on Free Access to Public In- laws, strategies, annual reports, minutes from formation, and the establishment of model for subsidiz- meetings, press releases) and media coverage ing print media, are still at early stage. In principle, with (texts, articles, news reports and other pub- these changes, the Government claims it wants to har- lished materials). monize the defamation law with European standards and facilitate access to public information. Qualitative interviews with 19 individuals (journalists, lawyers, media experts, representatives The amendments to the Law on AAMS were mostly in of public institutions and NGO’s). line with the journalistic and media community. How- ever, the differences regarding the financing model of Official statistical data requested from public the Macedonian Radio Television remained. Journal- institutions including municipalities and/or col- ists and media organizations insist one percent of the lected from available websites or other pub- budget, which is about 30 million euros, annually to be lished sources. allocated from the state budget for financing the public service. The government rejects this proposal with ex- planation that there is no money, and in the meantime changed the model for financing of MRT, presenting the measure as temporary until new amendments to the law on AAMS were adopted. It is compromise solu- tion for a scale increase in the percentage of the budget to finance MRT, which in 2020 should reach up to one percent from the state budget. (Section A.1) The public broadcasting service, the Macedonian Ra- dio Television has no institutional autonomy due to po- liticized governing bodies and the absence of sustain- able funding. In 2017, the Government halved MRT’s budget by presenting it as interim measure, while the governing bodies in MRT are still related to the previ- 1 Association of Journalists of Macedonia, Indicators on the level of media ous government. freedom and journalists’ safety 2016 -Macedonia, (Skopje: AJM, 2016). http:// safejournalists.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Full-MK-ENG-Digital.pdf [ 8 ] Indicators on the level of media freedom and journalists’ safety in Macedonia At the stage of drafting the amendments to the Law number of lawsuits against journalists has been drasti- on AAMS, the government tried to regulate journalistic cally reduced. At that time there were over 300 lawsuits standards by law. But, under the pressure of the jour- against journalists before the criminal court, while this nalist community, gave up the intention to sanction eth- year before the Civil Court are about 30 active cases. ical standards in media reporting. There is tendency to Interviewed journalists believe that authorities less and improve the work of the Agency for Media, which in the less used defamation lawsuits to press critical journal- past year is more active and its attitudes towards me- ism. Government representatives of Democratic Union dia problems are closer to the attitudes of professional for Integration are exception as are still raising lawsuits media organizations, especially

Load more