OSCE Demands Release of Jailed Journalist in Macedonia

The OSCE's media freedom representative on Saturday called for the immediate release of a journalist in Macedonia who was sentenced to prison for allegedly revealing the identity of a murder witness. 

Tomislav Kezarovski was arrested late on Friday after the appeals court in Skopje upheld a guilty verdict against him and ordered him back to prison to serve out a reduced two-year term.

In 2013 the journalist had been sentenced to four and a half years in jail for "unlawfully spreading information and revealing the name of a witness in a murder case" in an article written in 2008.

After a five-month detention, he had been under house arrest awaiting the verdict in his appeal.

The 57-nation Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said the arrest and the court's ruling were a serious setback for media freedom in the Balkan country.

"That Kezarovski has been further deprived of his freedom is unacceptable," the OSCE's representative on media freedom Dunja Mijatovic said in a statement.

"Imprisonment of journalists for what they say or write is unacceptable in democracy. The ruling to imprison Kezarovski sets a dangerous precedent for free media and investigative journalism," she said, adding that "Kezarovski should be released immediately."

The investigative journalist, who was first arrested in May, had pleaded not guilty at his trial.

The case relates to a murder investigation in 2008 when Macedonian police arrested three suspects, based on the testimony of a protected witness. The three were later released after the witness withdrew his statement, saying he had been threatened into making it by police.

Prosecutors accused Kezarovski of helping the defendants to identify the witness, making him vulnerable to pressure. 

Seven other people, including a former judge and ex-public prosecutor, were handed jail terms of one to five years for their alleged part in helping the defendants avoid trial.