New Hearing over Extortion Case Held

The trial over the Extortion case proceeded on Friday with the testimony of journalist Hristijan Banevski, a former employee at 1TV, the TV house owned and managed by Extortion prime suspect Bojan Jovanovski. Banevski revealed before the court that the journalists in 1TV were given directions by Jovanovski related to the editing policy of the medium, what they can and cannot write and report about etc. “In one occasion, Jovanovski insisted that I point it out in several occasions during broadcasts that we are to send samples of bottled water from all producers in Macedonia to laboratory analyses. After a while, bottled water producer Pelisterka became a sponsor of 1TV. I was also instructed to do an article about a meat processing factory from Veles, and when I contacted its owner, he yelled at me saying that the employees of 1TV are mere extorters. I was deeply offended, and when I asked Jovanovski for the truth, he just told me that this TV station needs some source of existence. Later on, I was suspended for a month after I published certain details about the Empire case and businessman Orce Kamcev, details which Jovanovski insisted that I keep quiet about,” Banevski said. The trial for the Extortion case is to proceed next Friday, on 3 January 2020.