This week's meeting of deputies from the European Parliament and their Macedonian counterparts was dominated by the state of freedom of expression in Macedonia. The sensitive discussions follow the European Commission's strong criticism of media freedom in the country in its latest progress report published in November. The meetings of the joint parliamentary committee, which reviews Macedonia's progress towards EU accession twice a year, are meant to improve co-operation between the two sides. The country has been a candidate since 2005 but has still not started accession talks due to an ongoing name dispute with Greece.
The committee meetings are usually dedicated to discussions about Macedonia's reform efforts. This time, however, European deputies were more interested in an incident that had taken place in Macedonia the week before. MEPs asked for an explanation of the police raid of A1 TV station in the country's capital Skopje. The broadcaster is known to be critical of the government. There were reports that the freedom of movement of journalists working at the station was restricted and that violence was used. Greek deputy Anni Podimata held that the right to criticise the government was legitimate and had to be respected. She recalled that Macedonian prime minister Nikola Gruevski had qualified A1 and other media as "megaphones of the opposition" in October. She also said a TV presenter in Kanal 5 TV had publicly called for the physical elimination of people he considered "traitors" to the nation. Ms Podimata said the event was condemned by the International Federation of Journalists and wanted to know what the government was doing to address the problem.Vasko Naumovski, vice-president of the Macedonian government, was present at the session and gave his version of events. He said nobody was controlling A1 and that the targets of the raid conducted were companies with addresses in the same building. The companies were suspected of tax evasion and money laundering, he explained.
"The assistance of the police was given in response to a request by the financial police," said Mr Naumovski, adding that the police would have acted in the same way if the BBC or CNN had been in the same building. Representatives of the Macedonian opposition who were present at the commmittee did not agree with this explanation, contending that the broadcaster was also a target.Macedonian deputy Vlatko Gjorcev, a member of the governing conservative VMRO-DPMNE, tried to divert the focus of the discussion. He repeated insults to the EU ambassador to Macedonia, Erwan Fouere. In an opinion piece that had appeared in a Macedonian newspaper a few weeks earlier, Mr Gjorcev had attacked Mr Fouere. "Unfortunately, Fouere is not a promoter of European values but an ordinary ideological party megaphone ... He is not a totem nor protected deity but an ordinary bureaucrat. Our people are already fed up with him," Mr Gjorcev had written. During the committee session, Mr Gjorcev accused Mr Fouere of not being diplomatic and said that he was too involved in political life, sided with the opposition and was too present in the media. The co-president of the committee, German liberal MEP Jorgo Chatzimarkakis, closed the session saying he felt it his duty to defend the ambassador who speaks on behalf of the EU. Mr Chatzimarkakis strongly condemned Mr Gjorcev's words.
"This behaviour is contrary to the Vienna Convention for diplomats," said Mr Chatzimarkakis. "The country needs to protect the dignity and personality of diplomats. There's a big difference between attacking diplomats, especially diplomats who are trying to put your country on the path of integration. Instead of thanking them you attack them. I want to strongly condemn this behaviour."
Mr Chatzimarkakis added that the Macedonian prime minister had defended his party member Mr Gjorcev when he was confronted about the derogatory remarks about Mr Fouere. Aleksandar Spasenovski, Macedonian co-president of the committee, tried to defend his colleague on behalf of his party VMRO-DPMNE, saying that Mr Fouere had a positive role in Macedonia. Yesterday evening, however, the president of the Macedonian Parliament Trajko Veljanovski said he was convinced Mr Gjorcev acted to protect the interests of the Republic of Macedonia.
News source: waz.euobserver.com link: article
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