Skopje 26 August 2016 – The Agency for Audio and Audiovisual Media Services reacts most sharply against the article titled “To Build a Case Against Me, They Even Play Nostradamus,” published in the DNEVNIK daily on 25 August 2016, as one more attempt at exerting pressure on the regulatory authority – and this, six months after the event to which it refers.
As is generally known, in March this year, the Agency published a Report based on the ad-hoc supervision of several editions of the Milenko Nedelkovski Show, in which it concluded that Kanal 5 TV had violated Article 48 of the Law on Audio and Audiovisual Media Services by making it possible for the author of the show to incite and spread discrimination, intolerance and hatred based on one’s sexual orientation. The Agency, as a regulatory authority, has no relations with the authors of the shows, but with the broadcasters that have editorial responsibility for each and every content they air. Consequently, in March, after having established the violation committed by Kanal 5 TV, the Agency requested the Commission for Protection Against Discrimination to take appropriate action against this media outlet.
Considering the above, the attempt to present the regulator’s implementation of its professional tasks as a personal war between the Director of the Agency and Mr. Milenko Nedelkovski is a lie and sensationalism. The content of the article, for its part, is a sequence of twisting facts and red herrings, striving to create an illusion that the regulator is inexpert and ignorant. We regret that DNEVNIK daily has allowed to become instrumentalized and that, although being aware of the content of the Agency’s Report, has published a one-sided text, in which it has not counterposed the facts – in which the Report abounds – to Mr. Nedelkovski’s statements. Had it done so, the readers would have been fully informed and would have known that none of the Agency’s claims was arbitrary. On the contrary, the entire chase against the regulatory authority is a result precisely of the attempt to cover the facts.
The relevant Supervision Report, as well as the information about the previous attempts to exert pressure relating to this case, are available on the Agency’s website www.avmu.mk .