The Trade Union of Journalists and Media Workers (SSNM) think that the decision of the Appellate Court to reduce instead of overturn the prison sentence of our colleague Tomislav Kezharovski is unjust. We strongly believe that he is innocent. The justice would have been done if Kezharovski had been freed from all charges and if all those responsible for the hell the journalist has been going through during the past two years for the sole reason of having been doing his job were brought to the face of justice.

We repeat, Kezharovski is innocent and he should have been freed a long time ago!

For almost two years now, Kezho is carrying the cross of defending the integrity of Macedonian journalism, of not succumbing, not revealing his source, not agreeing to turn a lie into truth. Therefore, his sentence is a sentence for us all. The verdict for Kezharovski is a verdict for journalism as a guardian of the public interest and democracy, as opposed to the opportunism and conformism of the propaganda in service of the Government.