REPORTS
Legislative Affairs & Government Oversight
Freedom of the Press
Law & Order
Police Violence & Arbitrariness
Verbal and physical assault on journalists by police officers
On 11 January 2023, the Journalists Union of Macedonia and Thrace (ESIEM-Th) denounced the obstruction of journalists at work by the police authorities during the coverage of a political protest in support of a prisoner on hunger and thirst strike in Thessaloniki on 4 January 2023.
According to the report in Mapping Media Freedom, “Police created a security perimeter to prevent journalists from documenting their actions to break up the protestors. Multiple photojournalists and reporters from different Greek media attended to cover the protest and the police action, with multiple videos published online. Footage shows that as media workers tried to film the riot police as they detained protesters, several officers become verbally and physically violent towards them. According to eyewitness accounts and media reporting, at least eight journalists were physically assaulted or obstructed by the police. A video recording from the events shows police officers in riot gear shouting at journalists and pushing them violently. No injuries were reported”.
The incident was recorded as a “threat” and a “violation of media freedom” by the Mapping Media Freedom reporting mechanism, which is an initiative of the European Centre for Press & Media Freedom – ECPMF.
Under the rule of law, individual rights are protected, as well as freedom of the press. Journalists have the right to exercise their profession freely and independently, without censorship, and without disproportionate and unjustified restrictions, in order to fully inform the public on issues of major public interest.
Despite the guarantee of freedom of the press under Article 14 para. 2 of the Constitution, in the case in question, the police authorities allegedly verbally and physically attacked journalists, which far from facilitating, made it essentially impossible for the journalists to cover an issue of public interest.
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