SKOPJE (North Macedonia), April 18 (SeeNews) – North Macedonia has climbed up 14 places to 95th spot in the latest freedom of press ranking of Reporters Without Borders, the international non-governmental organisation said on Thursday.
“Although the situation stabilised in 2018, the new government has yet to amend public broadcast media law, contrary to what it announced when it took power in 2017,” Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said in its 2019 World Press Freedom Index report.
According to RSF, North Macedonia's legislation on defamation and access to state-held information also need amending.
“A controversial amendment allowing the Electoral Commission to monitor the electronic media’s electoral coverage was passed without a debate or consultation in 2018, RSF noted, adding that the state broadcaster’s programming continues to serve the interests of the former ruling conservative party, the VMRO-DPMNE.
“It is also regrettable that senior government officials have an engrained tendency to threaten and insult journalists,” RSF said. It noted that progress has been made on journalists’ safety: the number of attacks on journalists in 2018 was just one third of the previous year’s figure.
“However, the culture of impunity is well-entrenched and only two of the 59 attacks reported in recent years have been investigated and solved. This falls far short of the level needed to discourage those responsible for these attacks,” the NGO said.
Published by RSF annually since 2002, the World Press Freedom Index measures the level of freedom available to journalists in 180 countries using the following criteria – pluralism, media independence, media environment and self-censorship, legislative environment, transparency, infrastructure, and abuses.