Journalism branch closed in northern Macedonia

This has influenced the decision to close the journalism branch and be cured with law school.

This news has concerned media professionals, who at a conference in Skopje, concluded that this trend is a consequence of the country's overall media freedom situation and society's perception of journalists.

At the “Media and Democraticisation conference in the Western Balkans, organised by the Kosovar Institute for Media and Communications, in co-operation with BIRC, supported by Western Balkan Fund, panelists from Northern Macedonia and Kosovo underlined the need for empowering investigative journalism and protecting journalists.

Zana Trajkovska from the Institute of Communication Studies expressed concern about the failure to evolve adequate studies in the field of journalism, referring to the fact that most news produced, separately for TV, is mainly protocol meetings.

“It is imperative to advance journalism studies. Even when I was a student, we have a better study program, where we learned that press releases are not news, but they can serve a starting point. This profession is vital to the democratisation of society, so we all have to engage in this goal”, she said.

Panelists from Northern Macedonia and Kosovo, introducing the current, legal and challenges to make journalism in this part of the Western Balkans, stressed the need for powers not to determine the media agenda and prevent media management and censorship control.

Disturbing was also the growing autocence of journalists who are facing political and economic pressure.