The sessions held: in Skopje – within the Week of Media Literacy, in October 2023, then in Bitola – in the European House in March this year and in Shtip – at the University “Goce Delchev” in June 2024, were attended by a large number of journalists, civil activists, students, high school students and professors. The sessions were thematic and covered media literacy, violations of the Journalists’ Code, the dangers of “copy-paste” journalism (rewriting entire texts without citing the source), and the media’s role in spreading hate speech through social media comments.
The public sessions of the CMEM Complaints Commission were an opportunity for the attendees to ask a series of questions to the members of the Complaints Commission, to exchange experiences, but also to point out problems faced by local journalists – most often pressures from local political and business powers and obstacles in providing timely information.
The public sessions of the Complaints Commission during 2023/24 were made possible with financial support from UNESCO, within the regional project “Building trust in the media of Southeast Europe: supporting journalism as a public good.”. This project involves the Councils of Ethics in the Western Balkans – Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Albania, Kosovo, and North Macedonia – as well as the Council of Turkey, in order to raise awareness throughout the region about the importance of quality and responsible journalism as one of the fundamental pillars of a democratic society.