News

The center for change management and the Institute for human rights, today held the final conference for the project “Investigative journalism – safeguard of democracy and human rights”. The event took place in the Skopje Marriott Hotel.

The executive director of the Center for change management, Neda Maleska – Sachmaroska, opened the conference with the remark that the successful realization of this project is yet another confirmation of one of the key goals of the CCM, concerning the responsible, responsive and transparent governance.

“This is why we decided to support the investigative journalism, which is done in the interest of the public and the citizens. Journalism which will search for answers for the most difficult questions, will insist on responsibility and transparency from those in power and will also alarm for every irresponsible, unethical and dishonest action” – said Maleska – Sachmaroska.

The president of the Institute for human rights, Margarita Caca Nikolovska, spoke about the legal dilemmas concerning the right of freedom of expression and its importance for the investigative journalism, while Jaromir Levicek, head of section in the EU delegation and Paul Edwards, Deputy Head of mission in the British Embassy in Skopje, underlined the importance of the investigative journalism for the democratic processes in the countries.

According to these views, the work of the investigative journalists is constantly reminding the public about the responsibility of the authorities to the citizens.

As part of the conference, a presentation of the findings of the latest research concerning the professional standards in the media was also held. The data of this research was interpreted by the University professor, Jasna Bachovska – Nedik, the expert for public relations, Goce Pachemski, the University professor, Temelko Risteski and the lawyer Lazar Sandev.

The importance of the platform for dialogue and cooperation between the civil society organisations as well as the investigative stories their respective media conducted as a part of the project, were described in the comments of the journalists, Zoran Dimitrovski from Focus and Marina Kostova from Sakam da Kazam.