NEWS OF THE DAY: Parliament adopts decision for declaring nationwide state of crisis until June 30
The Parliament of the Republic of North Macedonia, at the 25th session today, with 61 votes “for” and without “against” and “abstained” adopted the decision for declaring a nationwide state of crisis until June 30, 2021. The session was not attended by opposition MPs.
The decision is to allow a six-month extension of the one-month state of crisis due to the situation with the coronavirus, which is in effect since the 20th last month, with a government decision, and at the request of the Security Council.
The period of the state of crisis on the territory of the country, due to protection of the public health in conditions of the existence of the Covid-19 pandemic and for preventing its greater spread that endangers the health of the population, is no longer than 30 days.
STATEMENT OF THE DAY: Zabrcanec: The government, with its entire capacity, will stand in defence of the integrity of journalists
“An initiative has been launched, there is already proactivity by the Ministry of Justice, consultations are running with media associations, Minister Maricic called on journalists represented through their associations, unions, to be actively involved in these talks with the purpose of amending the Criminal Code, in order to protect journalists, namely, to stop the impunity when it concerns attacks on journalists. We have entered that procedure, and as soon as the debate ends the change to the Criminal Code will take place, that is, it implies changes in certain more serious crimes, certainly if the act has been carried out against a journalist, the point is for the punishments to be stricter when it comes to attacks against journalists” – stated Marjan Zabrcanec, National Coordinator for Strategic Communications, in Studio 10 on Television 24.
He stated that the government has never had, nor will it have the intention to silence the journalists, on the contrary, the intentions is to stand on their side.
“I do not think that the tendency or intention is to silence the journalists, or to talk less about such cases, on the contrary, this show and the fact that this issue is always raised, and that prime ministers are commenting these cases, and that the government is calling on the prosecutor’s offices to take action, and because the MOI has already acted proves the opposite. We will stand with our entire capacity in defence of the integrity of journalists, we have done this many times until now, we are prepared to continue doing so because this society can move forward as it has been moving forward in these three years, but only if we have journalists free from pressures, especially centers of power”, stated Zabrcanec.
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FLASH NEWS
The main message is for people to be patient when it comes to going outside, not to go out in this period if there is no special need to do so. People should not group alongside stands. During the upcoming holidays, celebrations, New Year’s Eve, citizens should stay with their family, because we have seen that mini clusters come from places where there are more people from more families, said today Minister of Health Venko Filipce.
MPs with 61 votes “for” and without any against or abstained at today’s session elected Izhet Memeti and Ljupco Ivanovski as members of the Council of Public Prosecutors.
This past year, as a nation, we have gone through the biggest ordeal that not even our eldest citizens can remember going through. We paid a huge price, more than 2,100 of our fellow citizens have lost their lives, many families have been left devastated forever, said President Stevo Pendarovski at the beginning of his annual address in Parliament.
The new concept for primary education, with which several subjects are integrated in one subject, with history no longer being studied as a separate subject, but as part of social studies, was explained by Minister of Education and Science Mila Carovska as changes that are in accordance with the developed countries where there is integration of natural and social studies. She denies that the merging of history with other subjects is due to the current dispute with Bulgaria and the denial of the Bulgarian side of our history.
Minister of Economy Kreshnik Bekteshi today stated that there are considerations for additional measures that would be in the direction of supporting the hospitality sector following the announced decision for shortening the working hours until 6.00 pm.
translation: N. Cvetkovska
