Skopje, 19 March 2025 – The Agency for Audio and Audiovisual Media Services wishes to remind the media to adhere to the highest professional and ethical standards while reporting on the funerals of the victims of the tragic fire in Kochani.
Reporting should not contain sensationalism, the personal pain and grief of the families, relatives and loved ones of the deceased must be respected and care should be taken not to contribute to further increasing the distress. The requests by the residents of Kochani, who addressed the Agency directly yesterday, and were also disseminated via the social networks, appealing that media workers should stay away during the funerals and not use drones to make footages, seek the same. Media outlets should be careful when taking – and especially when airing – footages and photographs, in order to allow the families and the parents to say goodbye to their deceased loved ones with dignity and respect.
In general, these days the media have shown a high level of professionalism. There have been several cases of broadcasting movies and series with entertainment content, for which the Agency received complaints, and this is why we wish to point out that broadcasters should pay more attention when creating the programme schedule. At the same time, it is important that the classical music broadcasted is appropriate for days of mourning.
In addition, we appeal to the media to provide the necessary support to their media workers who have been exposed to intense stress and, consequently, to health risks in the past few days while performing their work duties.