Macedonia today will mark the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists, with just one conviction of the total of 54 attacks against journalists in the last five years.
The punishment of six months of prison for Matija Kanikov, who at the protests of the movement “For a joint Macedonia” attacked the news crews of A1 On, is the first conviction with which a journalist attacker is punished with imprisonment, ending the several decades-long policy of impunity for attacks against journalists.
CIVIL – Center for Freedom once again, ahead of today’s marking of the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists, welcomes this decision of the court, as a clear message that the system must not tolerate violence against journalists. At the same time, such conviction has a positive influence also to increasing the security of journalists, which is the basic precondition for them to investigate and report freely, impartially and without fear.
The system has to show and prove that it is protecting the basic human rights and freedoms, such as freedom of speech!
In that sense, CIVIL encourages the institutions, and especially the Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office to continue to work in the direction of protecting journalists and media workers. This effort must not stop on one and the only conviction!
