Journalists' association urges police to act on threats against columnist Erol Rizaov
The journalists’ association says Facebook comments to the columnist include calls for violence and ethnic insults, and asks police to secure electronic evidence.
The Association of Journalists of Macedonia (AJM) has urged the Ministry of Internal Affairs to investigate threatening and ethnically charged comments posted on the official Facebook page of columnist Erol Rizaov.
In an urgent request to police, the AJM said several comments include explicit calls for physical harm and death. The association highlighted examples of the language used on the social network, including passages that, translated from Macedonian, read: 'Will someone be found to deal with this garbage — to cut him like a kamаta to settle it?' and 'Isn't there anyone to resolve Erol in an express way?!'. The AJM also said some messages contained ethnic insults directed at Rizaov.
The association asked the Ministry of Internal Affairs to immediately secure and preserve electronic evidence, identify the people behind the profiles and determine whether the posts contain elements of criminal offenses such as threats, incitement to violence or hate speech. AJM urged that, if such elements are found, "the case be forwarded without delay to the competent public prosecutor's office."
AJM warns online threats remain a serious problem
"Threats against journalists because of their work are a serious blow to freedom of expression and must not be ignored. It is of utmost importance that institutions respond in time and prevent threats from escalating into violence," the association said in its statement.
AJM recently presented its annual report, "Indicators for the State of Media Freedom and Journalists' Safety Index 2025," which notes improved institutional responses in some cases of physical attacks but identifies online threats, hate speech, public discreditation, economic insecurity and insufficient progress against impunity as persistent challenges. The association stressed that online attacks on journalists often go unpunished and that female journalists are increasingly targeted with sexist harassment.
Photo: press material from the event
