Macedonia's wiretapping scandal - The Listening Post (Feature) скачать в хорошем качестве

Macedonia's wiretapping scandal - The Listening Post (Feature)

Macedonia is a small country of just two million, but the government there has been dealing with a big media story - a political crisis that has revealed a lot about its media. Three months ago, the leader of the main opposition party accused the government in Skopje of an illegal surveillance programme: the phone tapping of up to 20,000 people, including more than 100 journalists, over a four-year period. Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski denies the allegations and says the recordings are fabricated, even though some of his top ministers resigned in early May, as well as his intelligence chief. Initially, the state-owned broadcaster MRT and a number of other media outlets took the government at its word, choosing not to air or publish the tapes until their authenticity was verified by the courts. The opposition says that MRT has turned into a mouthpiece for the government - refusing to have the opposition leader Zoran Zaev on air, a claim which MRT denies. All of this is happening as Macedonia seeks to join the European Union - and EU officials in Brussels are watching the developments closely. The Listening Post's Flo Phillips reports on what the opposition in Skopje calls "The Truth about Macedonia."