Macedonian journalist jailed for 4½ years

http://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2013/oct/22/press-freedom-macedonia

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Macedonian journalist Tomislav Kezarovski was yesterday sentenced to four-and-a-half years in jail for revealing the identity of a murder witness.

The charge concerned an article Kezarovski wrote for the magazine Reporter 92 in 2008 about a "protected" witness due to give avoidance against three people charged with murdering a man.

In February this year, the witness claimed he had falsely testified against the defendants because he had been threatened by the police.

The defendants had claimed all along that a police inspector had framed them for the murder.

But prosecutors at Kezarovski's trial in Skopje claimed his article allowed the murder trial defendants to discover the identity of the protected witness and influenced him to change his testimony.<br /> <br />Kezarovski, who pleaded not guilty, has appealed against his conviction. But he has spent five months in jail awaiting trial and was remanded in custody pending the appeal.

The sentence has alarmed press freedom bodies. Dunja Mijatovic, of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, said: "I am appalled by the sentence. The verdict has serious consequences for free expression and media freedom.

"Criminal prosecution of reporters for their journalistic activities violates the fundamental human right to free expression."

Her response was echoed by the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders. It issued a statement condemning the jail sentence:

"By prosecuting Kezarovski five years after these articles were published, the judicial authorities acted with a zeal that was both incomprehensible and disturbing. We reiterate our call for Kezarovski's immediate release."

Kezarovski, in saying that his article "highlighted the problems in the judicial procedures and criticised the activities of the interior ministry", implied that he was being convicted for criticising the judicial system rather that identifying a questionable witness.

At the time of his arrest, he was investigating the death of a fellow journalist Nikola Mladenov, founder of the organisation Fokus.

<em>Sources:</em> Balkan Insight/Reporters Without Borders

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