A conference on decriminalization of slander and offence

For the right of free expression!
 

The fines for slander and offence will stop being part of the Macedonian criminal law soon. The changes in the Criminal law for erasing the prison sentence for …and offence will be initiated soon. This was announced by the Minister of Justice, Meri Mladenovska – Gjorgievska at the International Conference dedicated to the decriminalization of these criminal acts, organized by the Macedonian Institute for Media and the Macedonian Journalists’ Association and supported by OSCE, which took place on 10 and 11 February in Skopje. Participants at this conference were journalists and media experts from Southeastern Europe and Central Asia, as well as professors from the western European countries. According to the data from the Ministry of Justice, in the period between 2003 and 2005, there were 454 criminal procedures on slander and offence, 94 of which were solved. 126 of them were against journalists and media.

According to Frederick Grass from the Council of Europe, the prison sentence should be removed from the criminal law, provided these criminal acts are transferred to the citizens’ law.

Roland Blass from OSCE, representative from media freedom, also stood for decriminalization. “It is not easy to work as a journalist, if you know that one mistake can send you to prison. Half of the 55 countries – members of OSCE have decriminalized the …and the offence”, said Blass.

Zoran Ivanov, MIA Director, thinks that the freedom in expressing needs to have a certain limit. “In some societies, which we appreciate as democratic, that limit is placed very high, and in the totalitarian ones it is very placed low. The restrictions are necessary in order to protect the reputation of a certain person, group of people, religion or nation”.

 

M.K.