Sackings and Media Closures Alarm Macedonian Journalists

The protest march, organised by the Journalist's Union, was held at five minutes to noon, indicating that free media was seriously under threat in Macedonia.

The union on Friday urged members to protest following news that two journalists had been sacked from the Utrinski Vesnik daily after taking part in a strike last week against announced layoffs.

“This protest is for our colleagues who have been forced or have been deceived into signing their resignation notices when they were employed, who have been laid off over night without the right to enter their newsrooms, for those who work for months without wages,” said Tamara Causidis, the head of Journalist’s Union of Macedonia.

“We are against all attempts at making our protest political. This is a protest of solidarity for all of our colleagues whose workers rights are being violated,” said Naser Selmani, the head of Macedonia’s Journalist’s Association, which also supported the protest.

Meanwhile, dailies Vreme, Spic and Koha e Re printed their last edition on Friday leaving more than 150 people without jobs.

The dailies say the government is behind their closure. The newspapers allegedly owe one million euros in unpaid taxes. The revenue office last week closed their accounts, which left them with no means to pay wages and basic printing costs.

The dailies came out last week in a slim version and only in black and white. “But even this is impossible from now on,” Kole Casule, editor of Vreme, said.

“Every freedom-loving person in this country should understand that our fate today can be someone else’s tomorrow,” the editor of Spic, Branko Geroski, said.

The country’s most prominent national TV station,  A1 said it too may close soon for the same reasons. The TV  announced on Sunday that it will air only brief news bulletins as it is no longer able to produce news and all of its journalists are on forced leave.

Macedonia's main journalists' union on Friday urged members to protest following news that two journalists were sacked from the Utrinski Vesnik daily after having taken part in a protest strike last week against announced staff lay-offs.

The management has not commented on the reasons for the sackings. But the union said it suspected it was part of a growing crack-down on journalists and media seen as critical of Nikola Gruevski's centre-right government.

This is “a terrifying message”, which shows that “any attempt to show discontent or just speak out publicly can result in a swift reaction”, the head of the union, Tamara Causidis, said.

Last Sunday, the daily newspaper, owned by Germany’s WAZ, came out with a slimmed down edition after 40 journalists down tools, opposing announced lay-offs.

The daily is one of three in the country owned by WAZ and is the only one of the three with a critical political attitude.

The government has denied being behind the closure of the critically oriented media houses.

But the controversy over media freedom in Macedonia has grown since the end of last year when police and financial inspectors swarmed into the offices of the country’s most prominent TV station, A1, which is also critical of the government.

Shortly after, in December, police detained A1's owner, Velija Ramkovski, on suspicion of serious financial crimes. The trial against him is ongoing.