In a brief report on the state of media freedom in Macedonia, Reporters Without Borders note that “senior government officials continued to threaten and insult media outlets, while cyber-harassment and verbal attacks against journalists increased on social media”.

All this served to reinforce the well-entrenched culture of impunity, the report finds.

It also notes that the Government is moving to end the ban on public funding of private media, which it campaigned to support, and is met with resistance from journalist organizations who warn this will lead to clientelism.

The organization ranked Macedonia 90th in the world in terms of media freedom, two places better than in 2020.