Ljubomir Frckoski (on right), who last year was fined for slandering Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski, said Skopje mayor Trifun Kostovski, who is also a prominent local businessman, would be one of the donors in the fund.
“This form of self organizing appeared as a consequence of the government’s attempt to colonize the media which was a rude mistake”, Frckoski said at a round table organized by the local think thank “Platforma”, on Thursday.
In December the ruling centre-right VMRO DPMNE party informed media that all of its party members currently in state office are ordered to drop slander charges against journalists. This referred to 12 private lawsuits against dozens of journalists that were at the time in courts.
But the party decision came just week after its leader and Gruevski won a slander case against Frckoski ,who was ordered to pay a €32,000 fine.
This and other charges sparked public criticism that did not go unnoticed by the European Union.
In a recent interview for the local Makfax news agency, the EU ambassador to Macedonia, Erwan Fouere, mentioned freedom of the press as an important precondition for the country to move on towards EU membership.
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