ZNM: The decision of the Appeal in the case of Angjushev against IRL is shameful and damages free journalism

Photo: Free Press / Dragan Mitreski

The Council of the Skopje Court of Appeal overturned the verdict of the Basic Civil Court Skopje in favor of the journalists and returns to trial the case in which former Deputy Prime Minister Kocho Angjushev is suing Sashka Cvetkovska and the Investigative Reporter Laboratory (IRL).

The Association of Journalists of Macedonia considers that the decision of judges Gordana Gjorcheva, president of the council, Suad Aliu and Vlatko Samardziski, members of the council, is shameful and damages free journalism against colleagues from IRL.

It is important to point out that these types of lawsuits serve to cause intimidation and potential financial exhaustion of the sued journalists. We point out that usually the purpose of this type of lawsuit is not to protect personal reputation, but to harass the defendants in order to demotivate them or to refrain from public criticism. This type of lawsuits are known as strategic lawsuits for the prevention of public participation (SLAPP) and for them the Council of Europe creates recommendations to the member states on how to prevent them from violating the right to information of the citizens, according to ZNM.

They add that an additional problem in connection with this case is yesterday's gross attempt at public discredit by the Public Relations and Marketing Department of "Fero Invest" LLC Skopje, which in a statement to the media shared its interpretation of this court case.

In the announcement that was transmitted by several media, they put themselves in the role of a court, prejudge a future court decision, and using insults towards their colleague Cvetkovska, they say that she "abused her position as a journalist, which is a serious violation of the Law on Media and the basic journalistic principles". In this way, it can be interpreted that "Fero Invest" is putting additional pressure on the Basic Civil Court, which again has to act on Angjushev's private lawsuit against journalists, and secondly, an attempt is being made to influence the public in favor of the plaintiff to the detriment of the freedom of expression, says the reaction from ZNM.

The association reminds that IRL for this story received the first prize on the topic "Tackling air pollution - strengthening public awareness of the problems and possible solutions", chosen by the Association of Journalists of Macedonia and in cooperation with the United Nations Development Program ( UNDP).

Apart from this, on May 23, 2021, the Council of Honor at ZNM rejected Angjushev's petition for alleged violation of the journalist's code of ethics and stated that this story provided information and evidence available to the authors of the investigative story, which did not violate Article 1 and with the publication of the denial and the offer to record Angjushev's statement, there is no violation of Article 3 of the Code of Journalists of Macedonia, ZNM points out.

They announced that the European Federation of Journalists (EFN), where they are members, will be informed about this decision of the Appeal and will point out that it is about pressure through the court of free journalism. The Council for Ethics in the Media in Macedonia (SEMM) will also inform the Network of Independent Media Councils in Europe (AIPCE) about the case, where SEMM is a member.

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