Media Freedom Day

Journalist warn with silence

May the 3rd is the day when journalists mark the basic principles of the press freedom, evaluate its freedom throughout the world, pay tribute to the journalists who lost their lives doing their job. This year, the media freedom day was marked under the motto “Five minutes of loud silence” and the Macedonian Association of Journalists marked it under the motto “Five-minute silence for the violently silenced journalism!”. The Macedonian Association of Journalists emphasized the fact that over 500 journalists were killed in the last decade, and that most of the perpetrators are still free. Last year, 71 journalists were killed and 15 others so far this year. The Macedonian Association of Journalists called its members and all journalists and media workers for a five-minute silence from 11:55 to 12:00 and in the central news programmes, in the electronic media in order to … all those who stand in the way of the free flow of information and to pay tribute to their dead colleagues. All media in Macedonia answered the call. The TV screens were empty for five minutes; the radios either stopped their programme or read the proclamation of the Macedonian Association of Journalists. The daily newspapers published texts on that occasion and a special page prepared by the Association which read that Macedonia is not on the black list of killed journalists, and that luckily, in Macedonia the journalists don’t get killed. However, they are constantly trying to shut them up.

“We may not be famous for the black record of murders, but we are definitely famous for the record numbers of court cases and sentences against journalists for what they do, that is, for doing their job, their writing. Because of that, we cannot say that there is a complete freedom of the public informing in our country. Reporting cannot be killed by killing and maltreating of journalists. There is always a journalist who will spread the truth no matter how cruel it is!”, was the message from the Journalists’ Association .