Experienced investigative journalist, Goran Lefkov, is elected for the new president of the Center for Investigative Journalism SCOOP Macedonia. This decision was unanimously adopted within the regular election assembly of the organization, where, among other things, changes were made in the other management structures.
Lefkov is the third president of SCOOP Macedonia, an organization that since its foundation was led by Xhelal Neziri for two consecutive terms, while in the last four years it was headed by Zoran Ivanov.
New members of the board of founders for the first time are the famous journalists Kristina Atovska and Ivan Bojadziski, as well as the professor of journalism studies at the Faculty of Law in Skopje, Jasna Bachovska-Nedić.
Apart from Neziri and Ivanov, Zaklina Hadzi-Zafirova and Aleksandar Bojinovski, the two founders of investigative journalism in North Macedonia and co-founders of SKUP-Macedonia, also left the governing bodies.
Lefkov is a long-time investigative journalist and civil activist. He has been part of SCOOP Macedonia since its foundation in 2011, working on several influential investigative projects, such as the assets of political parties or the expenses of MPs and ministers. Lefkov was also involved in several regional and global initiatives related to investigative and scientific journalism. As a human rights activist, he received a verdict at the German Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe. Тogether with 6 other investigative journalists all over the world, he sued the German secret service BND, for a law related to wiretapping.
His challenge as president of SCOOP Macedonia is to continue developing the organization through quality, analytical and investigative journalism, thereby contributing to improving the quality of democracy in the country.
SCOOP Macedonia is a non-governmental and non-profit organization whose goal is to promote, support and encourage investigative journalism. Its task is to provide support to journalists in their daily work, to help them financially or professionally in promoting investigative journalism in the country and the region, as well as at the global level.
The existence of SCOOP Macedonia was made possible by the Danish Association for Investigative Journalism and the network of Centers for Investigative Journalism that are part of the Sarajevo-based Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project. At the same time, SCOOP Macedonia received support from other relevant organizations from all over the world active in the same area, with whom we have fruitful cooperation and from whom we received enormous support during the establishment of the center.
In the past years, the SCOOP project from Denmark with headquarters in Copenhagen, with the help of International Media Support, selflessly promotes investigative journalism in Macedonia, and the result is numerous investigative stories published both in local and national print and electronic media in the country. Encouraged by that fact, we would like to continue the mission with the new Center for Investigative Journalism SCOOP Macedonia, in partnership with all organizations active in the field of investigative journalism.
The goal of the Center for Investigative Journalism SCOOP Macedonia is to further promote and encourage the development of investigative journalism in Macedonia and beyond as an essential tool in the fight against organized crime and corruption, as well as strengthening democratic capacities and improving the professional qualities of journalism and the democratic atmosphere in the country in general.
