Free Speech Threatened in Macedonia, PEN Says

In a joint press statement, PEN International and Macedonian PEN said they felt "deeply concerned" by reports that Macedonian journalists have been subjected to widespread, unauthorized surveillance.

"Free expression, both public and private, is under increasing threat in Macedonia," the association wrote, calling on the Macedonian authorities "to immediately end all unauthorized blanket surveillance of journalists and others".

In February, the opposition Social Democrats accused Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski and the secret police chief, Saso Mijalkov, of orchestrating the illegal surveillance of over 20,000 people over four or more years in Macedonia.

The opposition has since released a series of tapes of wiretapped telephone conversations that point to government corruption. It says critics of the government, including journalists, judges, prosecutors, mayors and even the government's own ministers, have been eavesdropped.

Gruevski has rejected the allegations and has accused unnamed "foreign centres" of conspiring with the opposition to destabilize the country.

PEN International says the latest revelations of wiretapping confirm previousy expressed concerns about freedom of expression in the Balkan country.

"More than half of Macedonia's citizens were scared to openly express their opinions" and "almost two-thirds believed that they were being exposed to state surveillance" PEN said, citing a December 2014 survey.

"Journalists and activists, so often the focus of heavy-handed tactics aimed at crushing criticism of the government, are being pushed into self-censorship by this fear of surveillance" the association wrote.

The writers association also said that surveillance was not the only...