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  CONTACT GROUP ON KOSOVO MEETS IN LONDON

The international Contact Group on Kosovo will convene today for a meeting on a level of political directors of the EU foreign ministers.
The meeting will focus on "the next steps of the Security Council relating Martti Ahtisaari's plan on Kosovo and resolving of the province's future status".
The Contact Group meeting had been originally scheduled for last week, but was delayed due to the funeral of the former Russian President Boris Yeltsin.
It will now take place in London, instead of Berlin as initially planned.
According to diplomatic sources, the participants will make a bid to bring closer the evidently discordant stands of some Western countries and Russia on the Ahtisaari's plan, which proposes supervised independence of Kosovo.

 PROJECT FOR PREQUALIFICATION OF ARM STAFF FOR CIVIC PROFESSIONS

A ceremony on the occasion of launching the Project for professional prequalification of commissioned and non-commissioned officers of ARM for civic jobs, will take place in Skopje today.
The project is realized in the frameworks of the FAN Programme, aimed at returning of the military staff into the civic life.
"The project is executed under support of the Kingdom of Norway. Its goal is to enable ARM members who are leaving ARM as a results of the ongoing defense reforms to acquire skills and qualifications to help them get new jobs in the civic structures", Defense Ministry's announcement says.
Liljana Steriova, the State Secretary with the Defense Ministry, Gjorgji Martinovski, the President of "St. Cyril and Methodius" University, Milan Kosevski, the manager of the FAN Project, Colonel Gjorgji Mitrinovski, as well as the Norway's Ambassador to Macedonia, Carl Wibye, and representatives of the Norwegian Defense Ministry are expected to attend the event.		  
     
     
     
 

 

  
     
     
     
 

 

  
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 NEWS

  WORLD PRESS FREEDOM DAY

Press freedom and one of its greatest threats, violence against journalists is the theme of this year's World Press Freedom Day, held annually on 3 May.
More than 400 journalists and participants from around the world will converge today in Medellín, Colombia, hometown of the journalist Guillermo Cano, to award the tenth UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize.
In 1986, Cano was assassinated in front of his newspaper office's exit in Bogotá and his killers are still at large.
According to World Association of Newspapers (WAN), 110 journalists and media workers were murdered last year.
16 of them were killed in Iraq, 2 in Afghanistan, Russia, Indonesia and Mexico each, and one in Brazil, China, Ghana, Haiti, Peru, Philippines, Somalia, Turkey and Zimbabwe.
2006 was the bloodiest of the past nine years, WAN's report says. As many as 58 journalists were killed in 2005, 72 in 2004, 53 in 2003, 46 in 2002, 60 in 2001, 53 in 2000, 70 in 1999 and 28 in 1008.
Macedonian legal framework contains most of the basic laws protecting freedom of the press and of expression, and government representatives generally respect these rights.
The study "Freedom of the Press 2007", released today by Freedom House on the occasion of Free Media Day, May 3, shows that media in Macedonia are partly free.
In January 2006, the parliament approved a freedom of information law that required government agencies to release information so long as the public interest is greater than any harm that might result. The law gave some protection to whistleblowers, limiting punishments for public employees who reported corruption or a significant threat to human health or the environment, the report says.
The parliament in May 2006 passed legislation that eliminated imprisonment as a penalty for libel and defamation. Nevertheless, investigative journalist Zoran Bozinovski was sentenced that month to three months in jail for defamation in a December 2003 newspaper article. He spent several days behind bars in November before being released, reportedly as a result of intervention by the European Union. Bozinovski, who still faced the possibility of a retrial as well as numerous other pending libel cases, had been physically attacked in the past for his reporting.
While the number of libel and defamation cases are of particular concern to press freedom advocates, Macedonian journalists have been relatively free from physical harassment and abuse since 2001.
Nonetheless, most of the country’s numerous and diverse private media outlets are tied to political or business interests that influence their content, and the state-owned media tend to support government positions, Freedom House says in the report.
Macedonia has a high density of media outlets for its population, including five private nationwide television broadcasters, more than 50 local stations, some 160 radio stations, and nearly 20 newspapers. The resulting competition for advertising revenue and audiences has led to low pay, small staffs, and a general lack of professionalism.
Observers have noted the prevalence of speculative reporting and anonymous sources.
Minority-language media have relied primarily on foreign aid, which has not proven to be sustainable. There are no major state-controlled print media, but private ownership is concentrated, with the German group WAZ owning the three major dailies.
Even though the government does not place any restrictions on access to the internet, its usage remains relatively low, at just under 20 percent of the population, owing to lack of access and high prices, Freedom House said in its annual report.
Press freedom suffered continued global decline in 2006, with particularly troubling trends evident in Asia, the former Soviet Union and Latin America. A major study of the state of media freedom released today by Freedom House also warned of a growing effort to place restrictions on internet freedom by censoring, harassing, or shutting down sites that provide alternate sources of political commentary.