The MAI association of publishers filed a protest with the Culture Ministry over its annual program of subsidies, that heavily favors Albanian language publishers. Led by the ethnic Albanian Alternative party, the Ministry is paying significantly more to Albanian language publishers than to Macedonian ones, MAI says. Additionally, it has given 20 percent of the funds to individual publishers who haven’t even registered a company, which has often led to fraud and abuse of funds.

The discretionary right of the Minister to award grants has undermined the role of the commissions that normally select the grantees. MAI deeply regrets the situation the Culture Ministry is in and expects that it will listen to our arguments, the association said.