The four party-named members of the “ad-hoc“ monitoring body on the media and news coverage, established in view of the coming early elections, couldn't reach a deal on the fifth member of body. Two are the main candidates for the position, Sefer Tahiri and Daut Dauti, who seem to be the best fitted to be chosen due to their biography and professional background.
The International federation of Journalists called for an immediate and unconditional release of the journalist Zoran Bozinovski. In a letter addressed to the President of Macedonia, and to the Prosecutor's Office, the secretary and the president of the International federation of Jounralists denounced the prolonged pre-trial detention of Bozinovski, charged for spying and accused to be a member of an organized crime ring.
An exhibition organised by the Serbian Progressive Party of Prime Minister Vučić tries to counter criticism about censorship in the Serbian media. The effect, however, is that of a blacklist.
Initial analysis conducted by the Civic Alliance in the frame of the monitoring of the election campaign ahead of parliamentary elections in 2016 shows that 20% of the articles include veiled endorsements for specific political forces, with the newspapers Pobjeda and Dnevne Novine leading this trend.
Journalists express their firm opposition to the draft article projected to be introduced in the Justice Reform’s laws, aiming the block and punishment of media employees if suspected on presumed influence on special prosecutors.
Referring to changes of media laws, OSCE representative for media freedom Dunja Mijatovic sent a letter to Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic in which, among other things, she warns that the imposition of any general programming quotas represents a limitation of media freedom and of editorial policy.
In a letter adresses to Montenegro Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic, OSCE Representative for Freedom of the media Dunja Mijatovic said that the introduction of mechanisms to support pluralism is a positive step, but the proposal of the goevrnment needs to be revised so as to include several other issues.
The analysis recently published by MANS finds that most of the press is under the direct or indirect control of the government and the ruling party, while independent media face many difficulties. "The government gives subsidies and allocats advertising mainly to those media that support the ruling party, thereby distorting the market, while independent media are subjected to financial problems. In addition, numerous court cases still represent a significant burden to finance independent media", the report points out.
