Work underway to align national legislation in the area of social media with European
Skopje, 10 November 2022 (MIA) – North Macedonia’s legislation is 100-percent aligned with the European directive on audio and audiovisual media services. The section on social media remains, which is currently not covered by regulation, and which is governed by the amendments to the European directive dated December 2018, regarding which a draft version is being prepared and should be ready in October next year, head of the Agency for Audio and Audiovisual Media Services, Zoran Trajchevski, said Thursday.
“With the amended directive dated December 2018, Macedonia has to align the legislation and this covers several areas that are not currently part of the regulation. These are mostly video-sharing platforms and social networks, i.e. social media. In that regard, experts from EU member states that the EC has offered through the TAIEX project are already working in aligning the Macedonian media regulation with the amended directive on audio and audiovisual media services,” Trajchevski said in response to a reporter’s question in the context of EU reforms in the area od media after Thursday’s opening of a regional regulatory meeting marking the agency’s 25th anniversary.
He noted that the project started in September 2022 and should be completed in September next year, with a draft version of the Law on Media, the Law on the Agency for Audio and Audiovisual Media Services aligned with the amended directive, as well as with laws related to the media space. There is also the Electoral Code and other laws that are related with the media space.
“We expect to have a draft version next year in October that will continue into a governmental and parliamentary procedure of adoption. Thus, the legal regulation in the area of media will be fully aligned with the European regulation,” Trajchevski said.
EU member states, Croatia, Slovenia and Bulgaria, as well as countries in the region, Montenegro, Serbia, Kosovo, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina and North Macedonia, are participating in the regional conference in Skopje. The conference is focused on strengthening the independence of regulators and their role in societies in the development of democratic processes, as well as strengthening regional cooperation and joint performance in European institutions, with the aim of a more significant presence and visibility of the region in the EU and beyond within the regulatory EPRA platform that includes all the countries of Europe.
