Prime Minister Zoran Zaev wrote a Facebook post in support of journalist Branko Geroski, after an activist of his SDSM party threatened to throw him in the Vardar river.

Geroski, once a strong supporter of Zaev who recently parted ways with SDSM, has been publishing a series of reports accusing the ruling party of running a racketeering ring operating through a pro-Government media outlet. These revelations, Geroski said, prompted numerous subtle and not so subtle threats against him, such as the latest one.

Freedom of speech is irrevocable an dI will not allow that this basic human right is threatened, Zaev wrote after Geroski visited the SDSM party HQ this morning to see for himself it it’s true that the person who threatened him works there as a security guard.

The man, identified as Borce Ginoski, was not there, but Geroski’s Plusinfo news site published his pictures with a number of SDSM officials and informed that he was an election observer appointed by the SDSM party. The media regulator AVMU also condemned the threat aimed at Geroski.

The revelations published by Geroski are aimed against a “top official of a ruling party” and a media owner who, Geroski says, were abusing SDSM’s position to extract money from business owners, opposition officials under threat of arrest and SDSM mayors. Geroski concealed the names of those involved, but they are easy to identify by his readers.