Stories from Quick Reads and Albanian
Macedonia 2014 Elections Quick Reference Guide
April 2014 is election season in Macedonia, casting votes for a new president and a new parliament. This short article lists the basic information and online resources.
“Manipulative” Coverage of Macedonia's Media Law
“Practice indicates that responsible and ethical journalism is never the result of state legislation and regulations, but of the voluntary compliance with the code created by the media community itself.” This statement from the Guide on Ethics in Journalism [mk] opens Žarko Trajanoski's analysis [en] of the “manipulations” by Macedonia's...
Shedding Light on Macedonia's “Black Monday”
In order to shed light on the events of Dec. 24, 2012, when journalists and opposition MPs were thrown out of the Macedonian Parliament [en, es, mk], Foundation Open Society Institute Macedonia (@fosim) published a study entitled “Black Monday” [.pdf: en, mk, sq], with testimonies of witnesses and participants and...
Tax Holiday for Albanian Youth?
THREE YEAR TAX LIFT FOR EMPLOYED YOUTH In a significant boost to youth employment, the government will decide during the coming weeks about the lifting of taxes (social security, health and personal income tax) and expenses of new trainings of those employed in the private sector. We keep our promises! The...
Macedonia: Nude Art Twitter Calendar for Charity
Twelve Macedonian women – regular Twitter users – took part in a humanitarian project organized by @IlinaBookbox, two photographers and one designer via the hashtag #ТвитерКалендар (Macedonian for ‘Twitter Calendar’). The resulting nude art calendar was donated to anti-cancer association Borka [wallpapers available via mk, mk, sq]. The original photos...
Macedonia: Documenting Online Protest Against Censorship
On October 9, nearly 200 Macedonian websites participated in a day-long blackout, protesting the censorship-inducing provisions [mk, en, sq] that the Government “sneaked in” within the Draft Law on Civic Liability for Defamation, presented as approved by the EU and COE. Activists from Free Software Macedonia, who provided the JavaScript...
Macedonia: Skopje Zoo Improvements Continue
Vasil Buraliev blogged [mk] about further improvements of the Skopje Zoo, noted in 2010 by Global Voices [en, mk, sq, nl, zh, zh, es].
Macedonia: Insult and Defamation Bill May Encourage Censorship
On September 27, Metamorphosis: Foundation for Internet and Society issued a statement [en; mk; sq] on the draft law on civil liability for insult and defamation and its sections related to online communication, urging the Parliament of the Republic of Macedonia to reject the adoption of the law in its...
Syria: Reflections from the Balkans
Macedonian non-profit outlet Diversity Media published an article/podcast [mk, sq] about the Balkan states’ reactions to the situation in Syria, featuring a statement by GV Author Ruslan Trad (among others, including the Macedonian politician Stojan Andov [en, mk], who served as the Yugoslav Ambassador to Iraq in 1987-1991).
Kosovo: Prizren Comic Book & Cartoon Festival
Macedonian artist Vesna Nichevska-Saravinova blogged about her participation in the Prizren Comics Festival, organized by the Kosovo Comic Book Artist Association, Xhennet Comics [sq]. Four out of 15 featured artists at the festival were from Macedonia, Eddie Rebel reports [mk], alongside colleagues from Italy, Turkey, Cyprus, France, Kosovo, Bulgaria, and...
Macedonia: Crowdsourcing Against Gender-Based Violence
Ushahidi blog's current “Deployment of the Week” selection [en, mk] is React! Be Safe! (“Реагираj!”), an online platform against gender-based violence in public spaces [en, mk, sq], launched by the think-tank Reactor, initially covering the Skopje municipalities of Centar and Čair.
Macedonia: ‘Be a News Blogger’ Awards Announced
Diversity Media Production, a non-profit organization whose goal is to advance journalism, freedom of speech and democracy in Macedonia, has announced [en, mk, sq] the winners of the competition for young news bloggers: Novica Nakov, Fatlume Dervishi, and the authors of MK Demokratija blog – Monika Petrovska and Maja Peroska.
Macedonia, Greece, Turkey: Bridging the Divides Through Multilingual Reporting
Two recent initiatives by civic-minded journalists added value to the e-content in local languages from Macedonia and nearby countries: Diversity Media is offering news analysis through text and audio podcasts in Macedonian and Albanian, and Balkon3.com is enabling “peeking over the neighbors’ fence” in Macedonian, Turkish, Greek, and English. The...
