Mavrovo

Threats, insults and gender-based violence draw little response

Threats to journalist safety remain one of the greatest challenges to media freedom in the Balkans.

In the online environment, this issue is only exacerbated, as demonstrated by the cases BIRN has documented in the reporting period.

The Balkans are covered by a cold wave, including the coastal strip of the Adriatic Sea in Croatia. Snow fell in Rome, and the Colosseum was closed.

The bad weather in the neighboring countries has created problems at the border points. The situation at the border with Greece and with Macedonia is the most serious.

Several hundred protesters in western Macedonia - outraged by an 11-day power outage in the depths of winter - blocked electricians from the power company from leaving the region until they fixed the problem.

Media reports said they threatened to destroy local facilities of the power company, EVN, after which police were dispatched to the scene.

Macedonia's Vice Prime Minister and Finance Minister, Zoran Stavreski, has denied environmentalists' claims that the coat of the planned dam in the Mavrovo national park may soar from the originally planned sum of €85 to almost €200 million.

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