Skopje, 8 October 2025 – On 3 October 2025, the First-Instance Civil Court in Skopje issued a Ruling rejecting as unfounded the motion in the lawsuit filed by the political party of Levica against the Agency for Audio and Audiovisual Media Services (AVMU). The motion requested a temporary measure that would prohibit the Agency from distributing the Guidelines for Broadcasters for the 2025 Local Elections to commercial media outlets, and submitting the report on broadcast paid political advertising (PPA) to the State Election Commission (SEC), which uses that report as the basis for allocating and disbursing funds for PPA.
The Agency adopted the Guidelines with the sole purpose of providing clear and precise instructions to broadcasters on implementing Article 75-f Paragraph 1, of the Electoral Code, which regulates the allocation of airtime for paid political advertising. The content of the Guidelines is strictly bound by the provisions of the Electoral Code, which explicitly prescribes the number of PPA minutes, their distribution, and the entities among which they are allocated. The Agency has neither the authority nor the possibility to go beyond these limits, grant greater rights than those prescribed, or introduce rules different from those established by the Code.
Levica, as a parliamentary party with its own MP group, and is certainly well aware of the fact that the Electoral Code can only be amended in Parliament, where the MPs can submit a proposal to amend the same.
Despite being fully aware of these facts, Levica’s leader persistently and deliberately ignores them, using every available opportunity to verbally attack the Agency. In doing so, he resorts to highly vulgar, derogatory, and inappropriate language – unbecoming of a public figure and representative of a political party. This behavior has become a recognizable pattern: Levica’s leader used the same strategy of attacks during the previous elections, when the Constitutional Court dismissed initiatives he had filed against the Guidelines for Broadcasters for the 2024 Presidential and Parliamentary Elections.
Regardless of these ongoing and unfounded attacks, the Agency remains committed to its sole objective –consistent respect and implementation of the legal provisions.