Macedonian Journalists Lay Wreath at Govt HQ

Journalists, NGO activists and some former politicians joined the gesture of support for the journalist Borjan Jovanovski after a funeral wreath sent by an anonymous person arrived at his family home.

In a symbolic protest, the journalists delivered their own funeral wreath to the government, inscribed with the same words: "Final Greetings".

Some threw funeral flowers at the government building.

"We don't think that the government sent the wreath but the government and the institutions have allowed an atmosphere in which certain people dare to send death threats to those who think differently and write critically," the journalist Saska Cvetkovska told the rally.

 Ruling Party Accuses Opposition for the Death Threat The opposition VMRO DPMNE party on Wednesday accused the opposition Social Democrats, SDSM for orchestrating a scenario in which journalist Borjan Jovanov has received a death threat in the form of a funeral wreath, just to warm up the atmosphere for their today's press conference dedicated to media.

They find proof of their claim in the fact that the SDSM leader Zoran Zaev condemned the death threat against Jovanovski at today's press conference where the opposition presented recorded conversations showing the government's tight grip on media in the country.

"With today's press conference it was proven that all of this is part of their wider scenario for destabilization, defamation of state institutions through publishing of cut, fitted and glued material that are being presented in a manipulative context" the ruling party wrote in a press statement.

Jovanovski's colleague and co-editor at NOVA TV, where he works, Biljana Sekulovska, called on the authorities to provide police protection...