Tension in Macedonia after police raid opposition TV station

Fri, 26 Nov 2010

Skopje - Macedonian opposition and ruling nationalists traded accusations late Thursday in the wake of a raid on a private television channel, local reports said Friday.

Police and tax inspectors raided the television station A1 and other businesses registered at the same address. A massive police presence was visible in front of the building on Friday morning, the Makfaks news agency said.

The raid began Thursday evening, with police blocking the entrance and barring anybody from entering or leaving. Journalists complained of being identified by officers and prevented from doing their job.

A crowd of more than 1,000 opposition leaders, activists and supporters quickly gathered in the street to protest the raid.

The opposition Social Democrats (SDSM) urged support for A1, insisting that the raid had been used to put pressure on the pro- opposition station and was an "introduction to a totalitarian regime."

The ruling nationalist VMRO-DPMNE party retorted by accusing SDSM of "blocking tax inspectors" and warning that "it is not good if there is a trend to hide murky businesses behind a media."

"Media and political parties should not front for any murky dealings," a spokesman, Ilija Dimovski said late Thursday. The interior ministry was expected to make a statement on A1 later Friday.

Two decades after breaking away from former Yugoslavia, Macedonia remains plagued by poverty, corruption and tensions between the majority Slavic population and minority Albanians.

VMRO won its second consecutive parliamentary election in 2008 in elections marred by violence.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/355288,raid-opposition-tv-station.html.