AJM and SSNM: The Skopje Court of Appeal’s Rejection of IRL’s Appeal Further Motivates Us to Stand Behind Investigative Journalism

The Association of Journalists of Macedonia (AJM) and the Independent Trade Union of Journalists and Media Workers (SSNM) express serious concern over judicial pressure on independent investigative journalism, following today’s decision by the Skopje Court of Appeal to reject the appeal submitted by the Investigative Reporting Lab (IRL).

At this stage, according to publicly available information, the decision on IRL’s appeal has been announced, while the reasoning has not yet been made public and is expected to follow in the written judgment.

We recall that this is a defamation and insult case in which the plaintiff is former Deputy Prime Minister and businessman Kocho Angjushev, while the defendants are IRL and its editor-in-chief Sashka Cvetkovska, in connection with the investigative documentary “Conspiracy Against the Air”, broadcast in 2021.

The first-instance ruling in this case was delivered in 2023, and at that time we also reacted publicly because the judgment failed to address the substance of the defamation claim concerning the former Deputy Prime Minister Angjushev in the programme “Conspiracy Against the Air”, aired in 2021 on Macedonian Radio Television. Instead, it sought to discredit the journalists and the non-profit media outlet IRL in order to justify the first-instance decision.

In the reasoning of that judgment — now upheld by the Court of Appeal — a dangerous and unprecedented precedent is set whereby the court and state institutions assume the authority to determine what constitutes a media outlet, who qualifies as a journalist, and who is allowed to engage in journalistic activity. SSNM and AJM believe that these arbitrary and superficial interpretations of the Media Law, as well as the Law on Associations and Foundations, primarily serve to mislead the public in order to justify this scandalous and unprecedented decision in North Macedonia’s judiciary.

AJM and SSNM reiterate that they will continue to stand firmly behind investigative journalism and will closely monitor the further course of the proceedings upon receipt of the written decision, including the use of all available legal remedies before higher domestic and international judicial instances.

We note that over a period of more than five years, AJM has provided free legal support, while both organizations have publicly monitored this case and highlighted its importance for freedom of expression, the public interest, and the protection of investigative journalism, including in the context of the risks posed by strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs).

Furthermore, this case has been registered and classified as a SLAPP case on the international Mapping Media Freedom (MMF) platform, and reactions condemning this practice — which is dangerous for media freedom in North Macedonia — were also issued by the International Federation of Journalists and the European Federation of Journalists, of which AJM and SSNM are members.