Skopje, 20 January 2023 (MIA) – It is important that we have professional media, and that the politicians don’t meddle or comment publicly on their work, but of course they have a right to defend their positions, said Minister of Foreign Affairs Bujar Osmani when asked to comment on the statements of DUI Leader Ali Ahmeti and Prime Minister Dimitar Kovachevski at a press conference Friday.

“Regarding the specific statements I think they were made clear. Firstly, Ahmeti’s statement was taken out of context, because the media were only mentioned as places where such actions were noticed. The conclusion was that Ahmeti on two TV channels saw phone-in shows where such sentiments about the citizens of another ethnic community were expressed, as a result of the polarization of politics,” said Osmani, adding that PM Kovachevski expressed a similar position on this issue.

However, according to Osmani, politicians still have to state their truth and position if they are unfoundedly attacked.

“You should understand us too, when we want to explain what we are doing because the position of the citizens is important to us. We exist for them; we work for them and it’s important to us that the work we do is correctly reported. Even the tiniest mistake should be examined, but I ask that there is accurate reporting of what I do,” said Osmani.

In that context he noted that some media outlets published that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had some kind of a report about the misuse of vehicles for private reasons, adding that such a report does not exist in the Ministry.

“This is being reported and I didn’t give my staff permission to deny it, because I don’t want the institutions to enter into a public argument with the media and the State Commission for Prevention of Corruption,” said Osmani.

Asked to comment on OSCE’s position on the statements by Ahmeti and Kovachevski, Osmani said that the freedom of media and speech are some of the basic commitments of the Organization.

“OSCE has a special institution, which is the representative on freedom of the media, as an autonomous institution that observes whether the member states fulfill the OSCE commitments in the area of media freedom and we will do this as well, because our primary focus is OSCE’s influence on societies and people,” said Osmani. ad/nn/