Journalist Tomislav Kezarovski wrote on his Facebook profile: “October 23, 2013…Day of the journalistic uprising. A day when journalists raised their voices for freedom”. Exactly four years ago, hundreds of citizens, mainly journalists and citizen activists, were prevented by numerous members of the special police forces from protesting in front of the Museum of VMRO, for the punishment of journalist Tomislav Kezarovski.

Although the protest had been previously announced, the journalists and other activists were prevented from nearing the building of the Museum, first with the fences that were put up at all the accesses to that place, and then physically by the police officers, by stopping and shoving them with their shields and batons.

Those present at the protest expressed their repulsion from the attitude of the government towards the journalists by shouting out “Freedom, freedom”, “Police state!” and similar slogans. At the end of the protest, dressed in black and with their mouths closed, the journalists lit candles for the Macedonian journalism in front of the police cordon, while cameramen and photo reporters laid their cameras on the ground, expressing symbolically that the country is in media darkness.

Immediately after Kezarovski was arrested in May 2013, CIVIL – Center for Freedom strongly reacted against the decision to punish journalist Tomislav Kezarovski with a severe punishment of 4,5 years in prison, assessing that such a decision is shameful, brutal and shocking and is an inadmissible violation of human rights, and strikes a strong blow to the freedom of speech and the independence of the media in the country.

CIVIL then started an international campaign titled CLICK FOR FREEDOM, together with Reporters Without Borders – Germany, n-ost – Network for Reporting on Eastern Europe and the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network. In a joint reaction, these organizations assessed that Kezarovski’s arrest was with the purpose of intimidating him, but also all the other media as well. Badges with the slogan Je suis Kezharovski, Freedom for Kezarovski and other slogans were carried across the country. He became one of the symbols of the Macedonian journalistic uprising.

“Arresting a journalist because he is exercising his constitutional right to inform the public is not only illegal, but is also incompatible with the European standards”, and is “just another series of practices of the government with which it influences the freedom of the media in an extremely negative way”, was stated then by the four organizations.

Four years after the protests, Kezarovski is free, in Germany…

Dehran Muratov

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This project is financed by the European Union through the small grants program “Protecting Media Freedom and Freedom of Expression in the Western Balkans”, implemented by the Croatian Journalists Association, as part of the regional project “Western Balkan’s Regional Platform for Advocating Media Freedom and Journalists’ Safety”, implemented through a partnership of six regional journalist associations – Independent Journalists’ Association of Serbia, Association of Bosnia-Herzegovina Journalists, Croatian Journalists’ Association, Association of Journalists of Kosovo, Association of Journalists of Macedonia and the Trade Union of Media of Montenegro.