The video story about illegal forest logging on Jablanica, near the Albanian border, is the first award-winning journalistic work produced in response to the Council of Media Ethics of Macedonia’s call for “Facts and Disinformation about the Environment.”
For the benefit of the television program “Fragile Forests,” award-winning writers Aleksandar Metodiev and Suzana Mitseva trace the remnants of massive illegal tree cuttings. Guided through Jablanica’s mountain passes by local environmental activists, they warn that, in the absence of institutional action to halt illegal logging, nature will suffer irreversibly in their environment.
The second prize went to Mia correspondent Viktoria Dimitrova Jovanova for her article “Stip firefighters have over 70 interventions after the harvest ends.” The text discusses local farmers’ practice of burning stubble after harvest, despite assurances from agricultural experts that this is not a guarantee of higher quality soil, as is commonly believed, and poses a risk of burning the surrounding forests. Shtip firefighters were forced to raise all of their equipment 70 times in one season to deal with the consequences of burning sawdust, which usually results in significant environmental damage over a large radius.
Out of the 20 journalistic stories received, from 13 authors, the jury comprised of Biljana Georgievska, executive director of CMEM, Kiril Sotirovski – professor and dean of the Faculty of Forestry Sciences in Skopje and Vasko Magleshov – journalist, decided to praise three more journalists for dedicated monitoring of environmental topics: Vanja Micevska – MMS, Martin Pushevski – MRT and Svetlana Darudova – MIA.
The theme of CMEM’s call for journalistic awards, “Facts and Disinformation about the Environment,” corresponds to the annual motto of World Press Freedom Day, May 3, “Media for the Planet – Journalism Faced with an Environmental Crisis.”
By selecting this specific topic, CMEM hopes to encourage greater media and journalist commitment to the problems caused by the global climate crisis, as well as local neglect of the human environment. The Council of Media Ethics seeks to promote higher-quality, ethical, and responsible journalistic stories that will elicit action from the public and authorities to address issues that affect not only the well being of nature but also the health of people.
The awards were presented at the European House in Skopje, with the participation of the EU Ambassador to North Macedonia, David Geer, the UNESCO Regional Coordinator, Joshua Masarenti, as well as guest journalists and activists from several non-governmental organizations.
The CMEM journalism awards are implemented as part of the project supported by UNESCO and the European Union, “Building trust in the media of Southeast Europe: Supporting journalism as a common good.”