Dragan Antonovski, the director of the publicly ran Macedonian Information Agency, participated at a debate organized by the ruling SDSM party, in violation of the obligation of MIA to remain unbiased and open to all political sides.

Antonovski is a political appointee, who took over MIA shortly after SDSM’s power grab in 2017. He participated in a debate along with Government official Marjan Zabrcanec and SDSM party Vice President Kosta Petrov. Ironically, the event was about media freedom.

MIA, which Antonovski is trying to rename into the “Media News Agency” to keep it in line with the imposed Prespa treaty, is fully owned by the Government but is required to report even-handedly and without political bias. Antonovski was known for going to work in a shirt with the logo of the Special Prosecutor’s Office, which, until it was dismantled amid a series of corruption scandals, acted as the prosecutorial arm of SDSM.