UNESCO: Stop the Galicica ski-center and highway plans

UNESCO has published the report on the extent of conservation in areas declared as World Heritage Sites, Ohrid condition is regarded as vulnerable and the main reason for the possible degradation are the envisaged infrastructure projects. Macedonia has two years to save its only World Heritage Site. SCOOP has already warned of this in its two documentaries “The Lake facing destruction, institutions only think of profit” and “Lake Ohrid...

Cardboard for Curtains: Life in Macedonia’s Hospitals

April. For many it’s the best time of year, when people wake from a cold and long winter. For others, such as nurse Hava Sait Nexhip, it means the beginning of an annual, months-long water shortage at the medical campus outside Skopje where she has worked for eight years. “Each April till September we don’t have water,” Sait Nexhip says, though she can offer no explanation. “But this year...

Why do same companies win state tenders?

author: Goran Lefkov   Transmet. A company which has built its rise and spread with public tenders. And in the past 5 years there were 11 like these, tenders higher than 1 million Euros, with a total amount of over 56 million Euros. The largest of them is worth 38 million Euros obtained in 2013 by ELEM. The tender was for coal excavation from the landslide of the mine...

THE LAKE OF OHRID UNDER THREAT OF URBANISATION

author: Goran Lefkov But this hotel is not the only attempt for urbanization and destruction of the lake. “The adoption of the Law on Tourism Development Zones in 2012 provides this type of zones to be zones of public interest. Which means procedures and all documents relating to its implementation or enforcement in a faster or shortened procedure. The main condition to be able to create a tourism development...

THE OLDEST LAKE IN EUROPE IN SERIOUS DANGER

author: Goran Lefkov With the oldest and deepest lake in Europe, Ohrid is the most attractive destination for foreign tourists. With its natural beauty and cultural and historical monuments, Ohrid is known as the pearl of the Balkans. The nature has painstakingly been creating Ohrid’s beauty for millions of years. Dozens of endemic species that can be found only here and nowhere else in the world live in the...

SCOOP INVESTIGATION: OFFICIAL VEHICLES FOR PRIVATE PURPOSES

author: Goran Lefkov   Inspired by this case, the journalistic team of SCOOP began to investigate the use, that is misuse of official vehicles. SCOOP sent a request under free access to public information to the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy. SCOOP editorial staff received a reply containing the report on executive extraordinary inventory of the fleet in September 2016. It said that during the extraordinary inventory of...

International Whistleblower Day loudly celebrated in Skopje

– Special Public Prosecutor’s Office (SJO) has continuously been pointing to the need for adoption of Law on Whistleblower Protection as under the current law we cannot offer adequate protection to all who want to cooperate with us in that direction. Citizens rarely decide to indicate a corrupt business and crime due to the fear they have of the consequences of such activity. Therefore we need to encourage them...

Skopje Hosts International Whistleblower Day – March 24

SKOPJE – Drawing attention to the need to preserve free speech and media rights in Macedonia, the first annual International Whistleblower Day will be held in Skopje on March 24, 2017. The event is in partnership with Free Speech Day Macedonia.   This all-day event at MKC Club features a meet-and-greet with whistleblowers, speeches by activists, a press conference, citizen speak-up, and live music with the Crossroad Blues Band.  ...