Stories from and

Unlivable Conditions in Macedonian Student Dorms Worsen

  17 September 2015

The Student Plenum, a grassroots movement fighting for the rights of university students in Macedonia, published new photos of the unlivable conditions that students in Macedonia's capital of Skopje live in. The movement has steadily been following the situation in the state-owned student dorms and has called on the state...

Macedonian Activist Ends Hunger Strike for Migrant Rights

On Saturday, June 20, human rights expert and activist Suad Missini ended the hunger strike he started six days prior in protest of inhumane treatment of migrants passing through Macedonia. Mr. Missini issued the following statement [links added]: While the effects of the changes of the Asylum Law are yet to...

Documenting the Systematic Decline of Women's Rights in Macedonia

  25 March 2015

Although southeast European countries are progressive in many other ways, the decline of women's reproductive rights in some Western Balkan countries has been a worrying trend. In Macedonia, several small protests have been held in recent years to demonstrate people's opposition to government involvement in determining public sentiment on issues...

Documenting Nationalistic Hate Speech in Macedonian Media

  26 August 2014

Human rights expert, activist, and blogger Žarko Trajanoski published a series of analyses about nationalistic, right-wing hate speech in Macedonian media, often veiled as “patriotic” speech. „Патриотскиот“ говор на омраза е препознатлив по намерата за разгорување, поттикнување, или оправдување на омраза кон внатрешните и надворешните „непријатели“. Во основата на ваквиот...

Macedonian Police Harass Journalists Covering Protests

  26 August 2014

Police harassment of media seems to have become a regular occurrence in Macedonia, which has included the detainment and sentencing of some journalists in the country. On August 25, 2014, Macedonian Nova TV journalists were harassed and “stopped from doing their jobs” by police officers while covering protests held in...

Artists Explore the ‘Melting Point’ of Art and Propaganda in Skopje

A not-for-profit, self-financed group of artists calling themselves Kooperacija (“Cooperation”, Macedonian slang for a general store in small villages) hosted an exhibition titled “Melting Point: Art as Anti-Hegemonic Propaganda” [en, mk, with photos] in Skopje recently. As reported [mk] by several news outlets that cover culture [mk], including Belgrade-based SEE...

Macedonian Medical Students Live in Medieval Conditions

Independent student magazine Izlez (Exit) published photo galleries originally posted by students Dena Miladinoska and Kristina Ivanova [mk] of the state-run dorm for medical students at the University of Saints Cyril and Methodius in Skopje. The students posted the photographs of the desolate living conditions in an attempt to incite...

Macedonian Blogger Warns About Resurgent Neo-Nazi Iconography

Commemorating Victory in Europe Day, Macedonian blog Anfas (“en face“) recently documenting images used by Facebook users to warn about resurgent fascism in a post titled “Images of shame – Current Macedonian Neo-Nazi Iconography”. The blogger also explained the importance of raising awareness of resurgent neo-Nazi iconography in Macedonia: Овој...

Fans in Skopje Gather to Exchange Football Stickers

  30 April 2014

Hundreds of people gathered on Sunday afternoon in a downtown park in Skopje to exchange stickers of the official Football FIFA World Cup album on April 28, 2014. In Macedonia, as in other countries of the former Yugoslavia, the tradition of collecting stickers is decades long, dating back at least...

Suspected Government #SelfieMacedonia Campaign Backfires

  21 March 2014

A Facebook campaign with the hashtag #SelfieMacedonia was launched in March 2014 and Macedonian social media users now suspect that the country's government is behind it all. Bouts of young social media users from Macedonia, individually or in groups, have been taking photos of themselves, typically called “selfies”, and sharing...

Macedonian Government to Introduce Internet Filtering

  18 March 2014

Airborne blog commented on the Macedonian government's plan to set up a new company to provide online betting and other gambling to residents of Macedonia: The plan will involve “disabling of betting/gambling online games on foreign web sites”. This blockade is set to last two years beginning in March 2014....

Activists Add Female Heroines to Wikipedia in Macedonian

  18 March 2014

The informal citizens’ group “Fight Like a Woman”, (@borisezenski), organized a mini marathon with the purpose of adding articles about notable women from Macedonia to Wikipedia in Macedonian to raise awareness about women's rights and gender equality. The campaign involved activists working within the site of International Women's Day celebrations...

Macedonian Students Campaign Against Unlivable Conditions in Dormitories

  11 March 2014

Macedonian students demanding better life conditions in public university dormitories published a blog entitled “Operacija studentski” [mk] (“Operation Dorm”) displaying photos of everyday life in the facilities and urging students to contribute. Many of the photos show highly inadequate living conditions in the student dormitories. The blog and photos have...

Macedonia's Strumica Carnival Continues 350-Year Tradition

The Strumica Carnival took place in Macedonia from March 1-3, 2014. This traditional celebration [mk] was first mentioned as early as 1670 by Ottoman travel writer Evliya Çelebi and this year was featured by NBC News in a report about twelve similar events around the world. Photo-activist Vanco Dzambaski shared...