Early in Zoran Zaev’s term in office the three best read newspapers – Dnevnik, Vest and Utrinski Vesnik – were shut down. The MPM publishing agency collapsed and its partial owner, businessman Jordan Orce Kamcev faced extortion attacks from close allies of Zoran Zaev which is now the focus of the Racket trial.

Republika weekly was also closed as the company faced pressure from the Government. The newly founded Nova TV which was setting new standards in broadcasting is no more, its owner Seat Kocan in prison under one of the politically driven trials initiated by the Zaev regime, through the Special Prosecutor Katica Janeva who is now charged with extorting money from Kamcev. More than a 100 journalists were left on the streets, writes daily Vecer in its round-up of the assaults on the media in these past several years.

The main TV stations faced similar attacks. Sitel TV’s parent company and political allies of its owner faced charges (again through Janeva).

Along with Kanal 5, the two largest TV stations changed their editors in chief, leading to significant changes in their editorial policy. In 2015, Zaev famously named Dnevnik, Sitel, Kanal 5, Alfa TV and the Macedonian public television as his political enemies. All of these, save Alfa, were closed, had their key editors replaced or changed their editorial policy. Meanwhile, the state owned MIA news agency was placed under a director who attends SDSM party events.

On the other side, a newly founded TV outlet – 1TV – which quickly hired some of the best known pro-SDSM party journalists, is now the subject of an investigation after it turned out that its owner Bojan Jovanovski – Boki 13 was using his clout in the SDSM party and Janeva’s Special Prosecutor’s Office for extortion.

In this environment, it has fellen to news sites to be the main sources of public information about the crimes and corruption of Zaev and his inner circle, including on the Racket trial where Boki 13 and Katica Janeva are now the main defendants. Aleksandar Mitovski, the editor of one such outlet – Infomax, is now sentenced to six months in prison, suspended over two years, for publishing the testimony of Kamcev that shows Zaev’s involvement in the extortion.

In a bizarre press conference yesterday, where the Infomax crew were prevented from attending by aggressive Zaev supporters, journalists from Alfa TV, the one remaining critical TV outlet, asked Zaev if he will come to their channel for a pre-election debate with opposition leader Hristijan Mickoski. Zaev turned to his jeering supporters for their opinion (a loud NOOO) and then said he won’t do it, hinting that Alfa is the next to face an investigation from his loyalists in the judiciary and hte police. The channel offered Zaev to come to the debate accompanied by the head of the financial police and the tax authority, who are frequently part of the investigations against Zaev’s political opponents.

How does Zaev know that a TV station will be placed under an investigation? He knows because he is the one ordering the investigations, writes Vecer, adding that in no other European country is the free press under this level of assault from the Government.