Selmani: No impunity for attacks against journalists


Journalist Naser Selmani called for an end to the years-long practice of impunity of attacks on journalists. The institutions, he said, have tolerated the practice for years, and in some cases they have even encouraged acts of violence against journalists.

Selmani, head of the Association of Journalists of Macedonia (AJM), signed a memorandum of cooperation with Ambassador Nina Suomalainen, head of the OSCE Mission to Skopje, to secure support to freedom of the media and safety of journalists.

“The positive circumstance is that the incumbent interior minister, Oliver Spasovski, and the new public prosecutor, Ljubomir Joveski, are aware about the problem involving the practice of impunity of violence against journalists and they are willing to join forces with us in order to put an end to this phenomenon that has been posing a risk to freedom of speech,” the journalist stated.

It’s important now to lay the foundations of an institutional mechanism for prevention and punishment of violence against journalists ‘to send a message that this kind of violence is unacceptable and intolerable,’ Selmani said.

According to Suomalainen, the signing of the agreement is a symbolic step for OSCE, because it marks the resumption of efforts aimed at improving freedom of the media after a hiatus of nearly a decade.