Committee to Protect Journalists - Macedonia

Attacks on the Press 2007: Europe and Central Asia Snapshots

2008-02-05T16:24:50Z

Attacks and developments throughout the region

Attacks on the Press 2006: Europe Snapshots

2007-02-05T16:33:58Z

Attacks & Developments Throughout the Region

Attacks on the Press 2006: Europe and Central Asia Snapshots

2007-02-05T15:08:00Z

Attacks on the Press 2002: The Hague

2003-03-31T17:06:30Z

December 11

Jonathan C. Randal, The Washington Post

The U.N. International War Crimes Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague (ICTY) ruled to limit compelled testimony from war correspondents. The decision, announced at the tribunal's Appeals Chamber, came in response to the appeal by former Washington Post reporter Jonathan C. Randal, who had been subpoenaed to testify in the case of former Bosnian-Serb housing minister Radoslav Brdjanin, who is facing charges of genocide because of his alleged role in the persecution and expulsion of more than 100,000 non-Serbs during the Bosnian war. The subpoena against Randal was set aside, and he is no longer required to testify.

Attacks on the Press 2002: Kyrgystan

2003-03-31T17:05:15Z

Emboldened by the growing number of U.S. troops in the country, President Askar Akayev has used the threat of international terrorism as an excuse to curb political dissent and suppress the independent and opposition media in Kyrgyzstan. Compliant courts often issue exorbitant damage awards in politically motivated libel suits, driving even the country's most prominent newspapers to the brink of bankruptcy.

Attacks on the Press 2002: Macedonia

2003-03-31T17:04:55Z

Lingering political instability, pervasive official corruption, and interethnic tension kept Macedonia on edge in 2002. Sporadic clashes between the Macedonian government and ethnic Albanian rebels continued despite a peace accord signed in August 2001 to end the country's short-lived civil war, which began in January 2001. As a result, independent journalism remains a tenuous and risky profession there.

Attacks on the Press 2002: Slovenia

2003-03-31T17:02:20Z

Press freedom is generally respected in Slovenia, but journalists investigating sensitive issues continue to face occasional intimidation or pressure in retaliation for their coverage.

Attacks on the Press 2002: United Kingdom

2003-03-31T17:00:45Z

Press freedom is generally respected in the United Kingdom, but CPJ was alarmed by a legal case in which Interbrew, a Belgium-based brewing group, and the British Financial Services Authority (FSA), a banking and investment watchdog agency, demanded that several U.K. media outlets turn over documents that had been leaked to them. The case threatened to erode the media's ability to protect sources, and to deter whistle-blowers from talking with the press.

Government targets media ahead of parliamentary elections

2002-09-06T16:00:00Z

New York, September 6, 2002—The Interior Ministry of Macedonia announced today that it is filing criminal libel charges against Marjan Djurovski, a journalist with the weekly magazine Start, which is based in the Macedonian capital, Skopje. The ministry also stated that additional steps would be taken against other local journalists.

According to the Interior Ministry, the charges were in response to an article by Djurovski in today's issue of Start (www.start.com.mk) claiming that the government was prepared to start a war to delay the September 15 parliamentary elections.

Attacks on the Press 2001: Europe & Central Asia

2002-03-26T17:11:50Z

The exhilarating prospect of broad press freedoms that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union a decade ago has faded dramatically in much of the post-communist world. A considerable decline in press freedom conditions in Russia during the last year, along with the stranglehold authoritarian leaders have imposed on media in Central Asia, the Caucasus, Ukraine, Belarus, and Moldova, has put journalists on the defensive across the region.

Attacks on the Press 2001: Macedonia

2002-03-26T17:05:25Z

Fighting between the Macedonian government and ethnic Albanian rebels seeking increased civil liberties escalated throughout the year, pushing the country to the edge of civil war. Unprofessional reporting and outright hate speech by both ethnic Macedonian and ethnic Albanian journalists played a central role in radicalizing their respective communities and polarizing the political atmosphere.

Attacks on the Press 2000: Europe & Central Asia Analysis

2001-03-19T17:10:25Z

POLITICAL REFORMS AND ECONOMIC GROWTH, along with the advent of democratic governments in Croatia and Serbia, brightened the security prospects for journalists in Central Europe and the Balkans. In contrast, Russian's new government imposed press restrictions, and authoritarian regimes entrenched themselves in other countries of the former Soviet Union, particularly in Central Asia, further threatening the independent press.

CPJ confirmed that in 2000, five journalists were killed as a result of their reporting in Europe and Central Asia. In Russia, two journalists were killed in Chechnya, and one in Moscow. (CPJ could not confirm the motives for the killings of four other journalists in Russia during the year.) In Ukraine, the disappearance and murder of Internet journalist Georgy Gongadze highlighted the extreme vulnerability of independent journalists in that country. And in a rare Western European case, a Spanish journalist was killed in response to his coverage of the Basque separatist group ETA.

Attacks on the Press 2000: Macedonia

2001-03-19T17:04:45Z

MACEDONIAN MEDIA ARE DIVIDED ALONG THE SAME ETHNIC LINES that define the country as a whole. At times in 2000, local press coverage of disruptions in the fragile balance between the country's two main ethnic groups-majority ethnic Macedonians and minority ethnic Albanians-was reminiscent of the verbal wars that preceded the violent dissolution of the former Yugoslavia. A proposed Albanian-language university, in particular, sparked heated debate about how much autonomy the ethnic Albanian community should be granted and how politically centralized the country should be.

Attacks on the Press 1999: 1999 Death Toll: Listed by Country

2000-03-22T17:10:15Z

[Click here for full list of documented cases]

At its most fundamental level, the job of a journalist is to bear witness. In 1999, journalists in Sierra Leone witnessed rebels' atrocities against civilians in the streets of Freetown. In the Balkans, journalists watched ethnic Albanians fleeing the deadly menace of Serbian police and paramilitaries. In Indonesia, they recorded the violence of Indonesian-backed militias against supporters of political independence. Some who wrote about what they witnessed ended up dying because of the stories they told.