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Macedonian Sports Journalist Protests Harassment

Categories: Eastern & Central Europe, Western Europe, North Macedonia, Spain, Citizen Media, Freedom of Speech, Human Rights, Media & Journalism, Sport

Ticket for 2013 World Men's Handball Championship for Barcelona, Spain [1]

A ticket for the 2013 World Men's Handball Championship from Filevski's blog. Photo used with permission.

A prominent Macedonian sports journalist Igor Filevski [2], who works as a correspondent from Spain, announced [3] [mk] on his blog that he will no longer cover Macedonian sports in order to protest the silence of his colleagues and relevant institutions, who have been patiently ignoring the harassment inflicted on him for daring to cover the malfunctions within the Macedonian Handball Federation, including nepotism and a recent hushed-up scandal of disorganized transportation of the National Team [4] [mk] to the World Men's Championship [5] in Seville and Barcelona.

Filevski points out [6] [mk] that in the past few weeks he has received death threats from officials online [7] [mk] and by the Macedonian delegation members at the event. The only two expressions of concern so far came from the Association of Journalists [en [8], mk [9], sq [10]] and activist & media expert Petrit Saracini [11], who wrote [12] [mk] that the “democratic” silence instead of public outcry and resignations illustrates the state of media freedom in the country, resulting from the implementation of the right-wing “rebirth” on all pores of society since 2006.