Македонски
On July 16, 2013, at the Best Western Tourist Hotel in Skopje, the Media Development Centre held a meeting with representatives of the political parties represented in theAssembly of the Republic of Macedonia.
In the meeting, MDC discussed the provisions of the Election Code pertaining to the media coverage of electoral processes and the changes and amendments to the Election Code expected to take place in September 2013.
In addition to the representatives of the Media Development Centre, Toni Ristov, Maja Moračanin and Denko Skalovski from DOM party, Ristanka Lalčevska from the Liberal Party, Ilija Dimovski from VMRO-DPMNE, Vesna Bendevska and Renata Deskovska from SDSM also participated in the meeting.
An agreement was reached that changes to the Election Code and the by-laws on media coverage and political advertising were indeed necessary, and that as wide a debate as possible is necessary on those issues.
The participants in the meeting also discussed the recommendations of OSCE on the financing of election campaigns, donations, with the conclusion that an analysis of comparative experiences is needed, as well as analysis of past experiences in the Republic of Macedonia. The participants agreed that serios debate on the need for paid political advertising is long overdue.
The participants concluded that a wide public debate should be organized on the document that will be prepared by the Media Development Centre, accompanied with enhanced efforts to ensure the presence of all political parties, the media and other stake-holders and relevant actors.
The Minutes of the meeting (in Macedonian language) is attached to this article.
