School gyms: promises stronger than realization

author: Zaklina Hadzi-Zafirova Grey walls and overgrown grass. This is the picture to which residents of Skopje suburb Cento have already got used to while passing by the primary school “Krste Misirkov”, where ten years ago a new school gym was supposed to be built. But instead of a new building, which was announced by all previous governments, pupils and children of this suburb have to be satisfied with...

Zaklina Hadzi-Zafirova of SCOOP Macedonia receives a certificate of recognition for investigation on a topic of exceptional public interest

Today MIM awarded the prizes from the competition “Nikola Mladenov” for best investigative stories in 2014. First-prize winner is Ljubisha Arsic for the series of investigative articles on “Secret passport factory” published in the weekly “Fokus”. Second-prize winner is Sonja Kolevska-Delevska for the series of investigative articles on “Raping juveniles in the correctional center “Tetovo”, published in the daily newspaper “Vest”. Third-prize winners are journalists Vlado Apostolov, Saska Cvetkovska...

Zaev himself is a bomb

Slowly but surely a critical mass is being created for radical changes. The government is barely standing on its last legs. And the institutions will soon have to feel different setting. They will more resist yesterday’s inviolable patrons. Even within the ruling party situation is chaotic. There is no one who would like to appear in front of the cameras. False hope still inspires journalists of Goebbelsian media who...

Resignation, what is it?

The tragic end of the nine-year girl from Veles, whose request for surgery was stuck in bureaucratic labyrinths, encountered an avalanche of citizens’ reactions – protests, sharp criticism from experts and various associations, and logically it resulted in demands for resignations in the Ministry of Health and the Health Insurance Fund. However, past experiences have shown that Macedonia has a “shy” trend for withdrawal from office as a moral...

In the toxic Kingdom of Jugohrom

Author: Xhelal Neziri   When in 2005 the new Law on Environment was passed, it was believed that Macedonia would finally begin to solve the enormous pollution. Even after 10 years the country, facing bad economic indicators and high unemployment, is facing the same problem. During this decade the government put forward several deadlines for setting environmental filters for the biggest polluters, but only a small part of them...

The air and soil in Veles permanently “rich” with metals

author: Bojan Shashevski   Air, soil and vegetables in Veles are completely contaminated with toxic metals! The recent research of the prominent professor Trajche Stafilov’s team from the Institute of Chemistry has shown devastating results – people around the closed lead and zinc smelter and the unprotected dump breathe air that is over 10 times more polluted than allowed, and eat vegetables rich with heavy metals. The results confirm...

MPs’ travel expenses are for a year

On her profile on the social network Facebook MP Silvana Boneva stated that it was not true that the expenses the online magazine “Inbox 7” had written about were for a year, but for two years. The documents show that all expenses were paid for the first 11 months of 2014. Some of these costs were incurred in 2013 (from May to December 2013 and paid in 2014). That...