The Steering Committee of the action “Freedom of expression and freedom of the media in North Macedonia” held its third (hybrid) meeting to tackle achieved results and discuss forthcoming activities with all involved partners and Beneficiaries. The meeting organised in the framework of the joint European Union and Council of Europe Horizontal Facility II programme, gathered key representatives from the Council of Europe Programme Office in Skopje, the EU Delegation in Skopje and representatives from all the key partner institutions under EU / CoE joint action “Freedom of expression and freedom of the media in North Macedonia” (JUFREX).
Lejla Dervisagic, Head of Operations of the Council of Europe Programme Office in Skopje, opened the meeting by pointing out the important work done through this action towards European standards on freedom of expression. She expressed her support to the action’s team and the Council of Europe’s commitment to support the upcoming activities and respond to the needs of the beneficiaries and partners.
Aleksandra Bogdanovska, Senior Project Officer of the Freedom of expression and freedom of the media in North Macedonia” (JUFREX), shortly presented the implemented activities and the upcoming activities until the end of this action. She also emphasised the importance of the collaboration among the action and all of its partners and Beneficiaries in terms of successfully implementing the activities and achieving the planned goals.
Partners under each component of the action, i.e. representatives from the Academy for Judges and Public Prosecutors, the Bar Association, the Agency for Audio and Audiovisual Media Services, as well as representatives from the civil sector – the Association of Journalists of Macedonia and the Faculty of Law “Iustinianus Primus” in Skopje presented the completed activities in the past year and the impact achieved through the continuous cooperation with the JUFREX action in general.
In this meeting, once again it was confirmed that JUFREX, with the support from the EU Delegation in North Macedonia, remains dedicated to address the needs and requirements of its partners concerning freedom of expression as one of the key human rights in a democratic society in the upcoming future as well.
The action “Freedom of expression and freedom of the media in North Macedonia” is part of the joint European Union and the Council of Europe programme “Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Turkey 2019-2022”.
