The Association of Journalists of Macedonia demands that Greek authorities put an end to the practice of selecting the events that it deems appropriate to be covered by Macedonian media and journalists, depending on their own agreement with those events.
ZNM protests the events of last weekend, when a group of Macedonian reporters was prevented to report from the celebration of St. Elias Day by Macedonians living in Greece, in the village of Ovcarani, near Lerin.
The Association finds the practice of subjecting journalists to random searches, as well as decision to allow them into Greece as private citizens, after they left their equipment in Macedonia, as totally unacceptable.
“The cradle of democracy should not fear information and allow only strictly controlled information to leave the country, i.e. information that fall in line with the expectations of the Greek Government and institutions”, says ZNM, adding that Greek reporters and journalists have always been allowed to cover events taking place in Macedonia.
The events of the last weekend should not be allowed to take place again, especially at this time of sensitive and strained relations between the two countries, burdened by the dispute over the name of the country and the identity of the people that live in Macedonia.
“The free flow of information has to exist. Any other approach takes us back to a different age and paints a very negative picture of the levels of democracy and freedom of information in a given country”, says ZNM, demanding from Greece to allow for full observation of principle of freedom of information.
