fbpx

 

 

About ICS

The Institute of Communication Studies is a leading research organization in the field of journalism and media studies, public relations and corporate communications. Our mission is to contribute towards strengthening of Macedonian democracy by working with media, civil society and public institutions, educating a critical public that will ask for greater transparency and accountability through engagement in the policy creation process.

_____________

Image Alt

News

Throughout the month of September, the RDN monitoring team has detected a range of hateful narratives and discourse. During this month there has been a rise in hate speech including ethnic discrimination and xenophobia towards various ethnic communities as well as instances of homophobia and anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric across all six Western Balkan states.

The procedures for granting concessions for exploiting mineral resources are insufficiently transparent for the inhabitants of the local communities, the excavation of sand and gravel from rivers and lakes is allowed only for business purposes, and the treatment of tailings dams as places that are potentially the most dangerous in mining complexes is not sufficiently regulated.

State inspectorates with environmental competencies merely adhere to the prescribed legal minimum for informing the public and do not provide sufficiently substantial information about their work and the complaints submitted by citizens. They do not make public presentations of the semi-annual reports on the achieved results every six months. This is shown by the assessment of transparency and accountability of environmental inspectorates made by CED Florozon, in collaboration with the Institute of Communication Studies as part of the "Clear it Up" campaign. The assessment refers to the State Inspectorate of Environment (SEI), the State Inspectorate for Forestry and Hunting (SIFH), the