TV 24 files criminal complaint against AAVMU director Zoran Trajchevski, seeks probe into alleged misuse of funds

TV 24 has filed a criminal complaint against Zoran Trajchevski, director of the Agency for Audio and Audiovisual Media Services (AAVMU), alleging a series of unlawful acts that span several years and requesting a prosecutor-led probe into further offences including criminal organization.

The complaint lists suspicions of a continued criminal offense, abuse of official position and authority, negligent performance of duties, and acts that have prevented, limited or distorted competition. The station's legal team also asked investigators to examine possible crimes that are prosecuted ex officio.

In a passage quoted from the complaint the authors write: "There is reasonable suspicion that over an extended period, especially in the 2018–2026 period, the accused Zoran Trajchevski, in his capacity as director of the Agency for Audio and Audiovisual Media Services, together with other, as yet unknown, official and responsible persons at AAVMU, through a number of temporally and functionally connected official actions, decisions and public procurements, used the powers of the independent regulator in a manner that allowed the competencies of the regulatory body AAVMU established by the AAVMU Law to be carried out by external private legal entities—commercial companies."

Courts, studies and denied access to national multiplex

The complaint refers to rulings by the Administrative Court and the Higher Administrative Court that judged certain studies to be inappropriate because they were prepared by a company registered as a marketing agency rather than as a legal entity established for market and public-opinion research. According to TV 24, AAVMU did not respect those rulings, and the broadcaster suffered concrete harm: its requests to move to national-level broadcasting via the digital terrestrial multiplex were rejected, depriving parts of the country of access to TV 24's programming.

Attorney Ljupcho Dokuzov commented on the case: "Given that Article 70 of the Law on Audio and Audiovisual Media Services explicitly states that the agency shall prepare studies on the justification for announcing a public call, the legal team of Television 24 Vesti filed a criminal complaint because in recent years the Agency commissioned studies from external private companies on the basis of which the requests of Television 24 Vesti to switch to broadcasting via the digital terrestrial multiplex were subsequently rejected. We believe there are reasonable grounds to suspect a series of criminal offenses by the responsible persons in the Agency, since sums measured in millions of denars have been paid from the Agency's account to these external companies for which there is no legal basis. We expect the Public Prosecutor's Office and the competent courts to answer the question: if the law had not been changed, how was it possible for the agency to commission studies in the past and today to prepare them itself."

The complaint stresses Article 70 of the law, arguing the legislature did not foresee that the Agency "would purchase", "would commission" or "would obtain" a study from a third party; rather, when frequencies or capacities are free, the agency itself must prepare the study that determines whether a public call is justified. Contrary to that statutory wording, procurement records show the Agency repeatedly entrusted the preparation of entire studies to an external private legal entity, MARKET VISION DOOEL Skopje.

According to the complaint, official payment records show AAVMU transferred sums to MARKET VISION DOOEL Skopje between 2018 and 2023 as follows:

• 2018 — MARKET VISION DOOEL: 353,410 den.
• 2020 — MARKET VISION DOOEL: 413,000 den.
• 2022 — MARKET VISION DOOEL: 595,900 den.
• 2023 — MARKET VISION DOOEL: 702,100 den.

The report lists totals as: 1,749,500 den. and 2,064,410 den.

"The submitter believes that there are grounds for suspicion that by paying private legal entities to perform activities that represent an essential part of the statutory competence of the independent regulator, property damage was caused to AAVMU, and the private entity that prepared them obtained property benefit, and interested parties also suffered harm from these actions. The exact amount of the damage should be determined by the Public Prosecutor's Office by obtaining invoices, payment orders, bank statements, accounting cards and notices of executed contracts both in the field of television and in the field of radio frequency allocations," the complaint adds.

TV 24's legal team says the agency's most recent 2026 study, a document signed by the director and presented as produced by AAVMU, confirms many of the allegations in the criminal complaint about financial irregularities that harmed the Agency's budget. Investigative authorities have been asked to collect contracts, bank records and other accounting documentation referenced in the filing.

Photo: press material from the event