Macedonian story on media donations awarded
The research story “The ownership structure and the media donations for the political parties as a source of corruption in the media in Macedonia” produced with the support of the South East European Media Observatory Project received a special award at the Media Forum held from 13 to 15 in November 2014 in Podgorica, Montenegro. This article by Macedonian journalist Sase Dimovski showed that media were the largest sponsor of political parties in Macedonia by various methods, including via donations during the latest election campaign. The story also revealed important information about off-shore companies connected to media owners.
“This award means a lot to me, and it gives me encouragement to continue my research on such topics which are considered as forbidden by our media, mainly because of their ownership structure and their relations with the political parties” – says the journalist Dimovski.
The award named “Miodrag Vukmanovic” is granted for contribution to professional journalism. Altogether 132 stories by journalists from the whole region competed for this prize. The first award was given to Boshtjan Videmshek from the Slovenian daily “Delo” for his coverage of recent crisis in the Middle East, including his reports from Gaza and Syria.
