Called by Public Revenue Police (PRO) inspectors, the financial police entered the building housing a few firms of Velija Ramkovski and the studio of A1 television on Thursday night. A1 accused the police of trying to stop the airing of their program. A1 journalists Borjan Jovanovsk and Biljana Sekulovska opened the studio of A2 television appealing to the Macedonian citizens to defend freedom of speech and democracy in Macedonia in which, according to them, fascist dictatorship ruled. The Ministry of the Interior issued an official announcement that the police acted at the request of the Public Revenue Office and that they had a court warrant for the intervention.
The Interior Ministry said that A1 was not among the firms for whose financial performance the financial police had been issued a court warrant for audit. The primary activity of the firms whose financial operations should be audited is trade in food and other products. The Interior Ministry appealed to journalists not to be deceived and manipulated, and not to act in breach of their code of conduct, defending financial interests of firms that have nothing to do with the media.
PRO Director Goran Trajkovski said in his interview with Kanal 5 that six PRO inspectors had been held hostage in A1 by midnight.
“What is happening tonight is regular audit of firms. Six firms are being audited by the PRO for which there is also a court warrant issued this afternoon. Six PRO inspectors have been practically held hostage for more than 12 hours. They are denied access to the offices of the firms that should be audited. One of these firms holds the Macedonian record of denying audit considering that the PRO inspectors had been appealing for access for 16 months,” Trajkovski told Kanal 5.
Interior Ministry Spokesman Ivo Kotevski said that provocation and violence could not be ruled out. The PRO should left to do its job, he said. He also explained that the A1 journalists were not denied access to the television and were only asked for IDs.
The director Public Revenue Office, Goran Trajkovski, told Kanal 5, Sitel, and Deutche Welle this morning that there were serious suspicions that the owner of A1 television, Velija Ramkovski managed to unlawfully transfer abroad 7.5 million euros through a few firms housed in the same building and with the same entrance. In the meantime, in the open studio of A2 television, politicians from the Macedonian opposition started to gather. In the course of the 3-hour live program, representatives of SDSM, MPs, former president Radmila Sekerinska, current vice president Gordan Georgiev, MP Igor Ivanovski, Tito Petkovski from NSDP, Slobodan Ugrinovski from Tito’s Left Forces, the representatives of the NGO Citizens for European Macedonia, Zarko Trajanovski and Vladimir Milcin, Andrej Zernovski from LDP and Imer Selmani from Demokracia e Re voiced their positions to, as they said, the undemocratic act that attempted to silence an opposition medium like A1. A1 journalist Borjan Jovanovski called on President Gjorge Ivanov to come and defend the television.
Outside the studio of A1 television there was heavy police security and a few journalists complained the police officers were violent and did not let them do their job. A1 journalists say the PRO inspectors had all the condition to perform audit and there was no need of police intervention.
The Assistant Minister at the Sector for Internal Control of the Interior Ministry, Vojce Zafirovski, explained to Kanal 5, Sitel, MRTV and other media that police were present in a large number because the PRO inspectors were denied conditions to do their job properly. He says the police officers that intervened were trained by international standards. If someone reports that the police used excessive force or violated human rights, internal control will be carried out.
Supporters of opposition SDSM responded to the journalists’ appeal. Carrying banners saying “Down with the Government” and party flags they assembled outside the television. However, the controversial owner of A1 television, Velija Ramkovski, did not show up and did not stand up in defense of his media house.
Under other governments in Macedonia too, the financial police tried to audit Ramkovski’s firms. All attempts have so far failed and at all times they were presented to the public as government incursion into a democratic medium house.
A number of professors and other public figures that were asked for an opinion over a phone participated in the debate on Kanal 5 television. Professor Biljana Vankovska said this was an abuse of a medium to promote political stands and provoke unrest. Professor Pande Lazarovski believes that Macedonia showed it was a democratic country in which there are institutions which have to be provided with conditions for doing their job and that no one, not even Ramkovski, has the right to abuse his medium for obstructing their work. Other persons appeared in the show too, saying A1 television continued airing its program and that if this had truly been an attempt to shut down a medium then its program would have be terminated and a whole series of opposition politicians and NGOs would not have had a chance for self-promotion.
A number of small televisions opened their studios in which people phoned to express their opinion on the event outside A1 television.
Experts believe that the police acted professionally and that the assessment to deny journalists access to the television was accurate considering that it helped prevent escalation of the situation. United for Macedonia leader Ljube Boskoski responded to A1 journalist Jovanovski’s open invitation for taking part in the live debate too. No citizens gathered at the city square though.
At about 11 pm the police and citizens outside A1 left the place, while A1 continued its regular program. A1 television is airing its regular program today as well.
