North Macedonia: is freedom of speech at risk?

Translated by Irene Cecchi

The North Macedonia’s government has been heavily criticized for the amendment of a law that stops the ban on state sponsored advertising campaigns on private media. Many journalists and ONGs are afraid this may lead to the reintroduction of a tighter control on the media by the state and, as a consequence, reduce the freedom of expression, going backwards.

The amendments of the law

On February 28th, the Macedonian parliament backed the modification of the art.102 of the Law on audio and audiovisual services allowing again the government and the cities to handle ad campaigns about state issues, founded with public money, on private media (TV and radio).

This change has been approved with 78 votes out of 120. The amendment was backed both by the current party in office, the Social Democratic Union, and by the opposition; it was signed in March by the current President Stevo Pendarovski. This practice was banned by this same government in 2017. Moreover, according to the new rules, only 0.1% of state taxes can be used for these campaigns: in 2023, the total amount reached 2.3 millions. The themes of the campaigns considered state’s affairs will be determined by a commission, whose representatives come from the ruling party and from the opposition too, under the control of the Ministry of Society and Information that will handle the fundings destined for these campaigns.

Critics and implications

The new amendment worried many journalists and ONGs that consider it a restriction of the freedom of expression. The North Macedonian Journalists’ Association (ZNM), the Independent Union of Journalists and Media workers (SSNM) and other organizations condemned this change with a joint declaration. In fact, the fear is that the media will end up depending on state’s fundings, compromising the freedom of press since it can lead to self-censorship or biased information. In addition, it can cause a preference or “punishment” of some media by the government based on the kind of content sponsored, mining the independent press and the potential critics to the ruling party. In the declaration, journalists stated: “It is time to create a fund for media pluralism in order to support [...] the production of diversified programs, in contrast with the State advertising that is a mean of political influence and control”, adding that this change benefits the ruling party and reduce the opinion diversity in the media.

At the moment, North Macedonia is 36th in the rankings of freedom of press globally.

Precedents and new elections

This amendment raises even more criticism if we consider all the events of the last few years. In fact, the ban of state’s campaigns on private media was first approved in 2017 by the Social Democratic party, stating that the practice is “a crime”. That’s the same party that promoted the stop on this ban in 2024. The 2017 choice was taken as a consequence of the fact that the previous government –with Nikola Gruevski as Prime minister from 2006 to 2016 after winning four times– spent more than 26 thousand euros in 7 years destined to sponsor state ads on private media. These campaigns showed to be a powerful mean to strengthen their power and control over the spread of information. This is why Gruevski was heavily criticized by independent media that denounced his use of the media to indirectly corrupt the population. Today, Gruevski lives in Hungary as a political refugee in order to avoid charges for corruption in North Macedonia. The amendment has been introduced during the period of elections, with the second round on May 4th. Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova, the candidate of the right-wing opposition party VMRO DPMNE, won this last round, defeating the former President Pendarovski, candidate of a more pro-European party.

The amendment was presented to the parliament in November 2023 following an accelerated procedure reserved for the reforms needed to be in line with the EU.

Relations with the European Union

One of the justifications that are given for the amendment is that it would approach the Country to the European standards, a fundamental step towards the entrance in the Union. North Macedonia is in fact an official candidate but the EU access negotiations only started in 2020 because of a dispute with Greece regarding the name “Macedonia” first, and then Bulgaria delayed it until 2022 due to language and identity matters. Anyways, it is thought that the EU issue is only an excuse for the amendment since it would not benefit the population but only politics, as said by the former Minister of Foreign Affairs Nikola Dimitrov. It is fundamental for the future of North Macedonia that its freedom of press doesn’t regress, both for its people’s sake and for the admission process in the European Union.

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