Stip welcomed us calm, sunny and windy, as if it did not touch the arrests and the political fair in Skopje. Elderly, seated on the benches, and the terraces of cafes filled with young people.

FREE MEDIA FOR FREE SOCIETY

The setting up of the Free Media Free Society stand prompted a lot of attention.

CIVILS distributed the “Free Society”

The citizen (s) interested in approaching the stand. “Civilians, what’s new?” They ask us. A citizen takes a sample from the Free Society Newsletter and waves her friend on the benches saying “CIVIL is here, come to ask them personally!” CIVIL’s info stands are often used as an opportunity for people to share their own troubles, to ask for advice, to share information or to express their opinion on a topic …

Info stand of the project “Free Media for a Free Society”

With the early sunset, it becomes even colder, but the activities do not subsist. Part of the team retains the square and talks to the citizens and citizens. Members, supporters and observers of CIVIL came to discuss our next steps. One part of the team goes to other locations, after tasks related to other projects.

FROM UNDERSTANDING TO DEFENSE

Through a survey between the citizen (s), issues of freedom of expression and whether the media were free, one could see that the changes slowly, a little uncertain, but tangentially occur at the local level.

Interview with Vojo Manevski, director of TV Iris

In the meantime, in communication with local media, the CIVIL journalist interviewed the owners, editors and journalists, as well as with civil activists in order to identify, understand and defend freedom in the media.

Through this communication and video interviews carried out by CIVIL Media, as part of the project From Understanding to Defense, the challenges, as well as the needs of media workers for the release of the still captured media space, were emphasized.

CITIZEN OBJECTIVE

In the afternoon, the young Stipians and the citizens from Stip became acquainted with the role of citizen journalism and its influence not only in the media sphere, but in the adoption of the teachings and changes at the local and national level.

Theoretical part of the civic journalism workshop

For the third year already, the project “Civil Lenses” enables all citizens and citizens independently, with a photograph or video record, to report and inform about the problems they face in their everyday life.

At the two-hour workshop, the participants had many examples that pointed to the real situation in Stip and the problems of the citizens and citizens that have yet to be addressed.

CIVIL continues with the field activities throughout Macedonia, inviting the media, activists and representatives of the civil society to get acquainted with the activities of the organization and actively participate in them.

CIVILS are always active and available for cooperation and communication, because: “All weather conditions are suitable for activism”.

Biljana Jordanovska

photos: Biljana Jordanovska, Goran Naumovski

This project is funded by the European Union through the small grants programme “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, carried out through partnership of six regional journalists’ associations – Independent Journalists’ Association of Serbia (IJAS), Association of BH Journalists (BHJ), Croatian Journalists’ Association (CJA), Association of Journalists of Kosovo (AJK), Association of Journalists of Macedonia (AJM) and the Trade Union of Media of Montenegro (TUMM).