Freedom and the Internet in Macedonia conference took place

The “Freedom and the Internet in Macedonia” conference, organized by Metamorphosis Foundation for Internet and Society, as part of the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Foundation Open Society Macedonia (FOSM) – was held at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MSU). #ФООМ25

The conference discussed the development of the Internet in the country, the challenges the online media community faces and their experiences and needs.

The topic of “The Free Flow of Information – A Prerequisite for an Open Society” was addressed by Bardhyl Jashari, the executive director of “Metamorphosis” and Santa Argirova, member of the FOSM Executive Board.

“At the beginning, the problem and the ‘fight’ were about access to the Internet and the small number of users. Now the fight is different, it’s about protection of privacy, fake news and hate speech”, Jashari said.

According to Argirova, the gap between generations using the Internet is still huge, and its main advantage is that it is open and works bidirectionally.

“With the Internet, every citizen has their own media outlet. Through the Internet, the right to free information is exercised and it is the perfect mirror of a society”, Argirova said.

Sofce Jovanovska, Chief of Staff of the Deputy President of the Government of the Republic of Macedonia in charge of economic affairs and coordination with the economic sectors, Jovan Kolov from Netcetera, Ognen Firfov, Director of Internal Audit at Makedonski Telekom, and Igor Trajkovski, founder and owner of Time.mk addressed the first panel discussion on the key moments in the development of the Internet in Macedonia.

“The Role of Online Media in the Fight for Freedom of Speech” was addressed by Branko Geroski, head of Plusinfo, Elida Zylbeari, editor of Portalb, Zoran Andonovski, editor of Meta News Agency and Nikola Gelevski, editor of Okno.

Emir Zulehic, editor of Raskrinkavanje.ba from Sarajevo, Tomislav Georgiev, a photojournalist, Natalija Milenkovska, a lawyer, and Zvezdan Georgievski from the Independent Trade Union of Journalists and Media Workers (SSNM) talked about “Plagiarism and Fake News – Threat to Professional Journalism”.

The even gallery is available here.

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