Macedonia Journalists Protest Against Politician's Threats

Journalists from almost all media outlets in Macedonia and NGO representatives protested on Monday in front of the government in Skopje, demanding tough sanctions for a politician who recently abused the head of the journalists' union, ZNM, Naser Selmani.

"We are not afraid of them!" Selmani told the protest, which was organized by the Independent Trade Union of Journalists and Media Workers, SSNM.

"The government has a duty to supress bullies," Selmani said, adding that after fall last year of the government led by the right-wing VMRO DPMNE party, "journalists will not allow another new regime" - this time led by the main ruling Social Democrats.

The controversy began last week when Bekir Asani, a senior official from the ethnic Albanian junior ruling party, the Democratic Union for Integration, DUI, caused an incident as the police attempted to remove his illegally parked car in Skopje.

As tow truck workers tried to pick up his vehicle, Asani verbally abused a female police officer.

After some media reported that he physically attacked her, the police officer denied this. She later told the Police Minister, Oliver Spasovski, that she was only verbaly attacked and that she had hurt herself by bumping by mistake into the tow truck.

Commenting on the incident, Selmani had written on Facebook that the rule of law "had succumbed to a bully" - expressing the widespread suspicion about the police officer's story, and that she might have been forced to downplay the attack against her.

After his post, Selmani received a threatening message on Facebook from Asani's brother, which many have claimed originated from Asani himself.

The case was reported to the police but...