Journalists who protested in downtown Skopje, accused the Government of creating “the largest PR operation in the country” that tries to do the job of the free press by issuing bland statements and avoiding answers to the actual questions. The ZNM association of journalists and the SSNM union gathered a group of their colleagues before the Government building to state their demands.

Our first demand is that we see the negative trend of humiliating speech from politicians toward us end. We want an end to the aggressive state PR. The institutions need to open and we will help them improve their work. We need to support our colleagues in the interior, not just in the local media, said ZNM head Mladen Cadikovski.

In one of the more serious violations of freedom of the press, Republika and a group of other critical news outlets were not given accreditation to report from the honoring of Goce Delcev, which was an important event. DUI party leader Ali Ahmeti and then Prime Minister Kovacevski insulted two critical TV stations, Alfa and Telma, and then Economy Minister Kreshnik Bekteshi tried to put a group of journalists “in their place” during a press conference.