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The Macedonian web-app of the year

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In September 2014, a short lived blog on Blogspot was reported as spam and as a result switched of. It lasted for a day. It was a blog with live information on the public debt in Macedonia.

A twitter user reacted with urgency and here it is -- the github repo of the code that can display Macedonia's public debt, a closely guarded secret of the Governmetn: https://github.com/mopkobot/JavenDolg

The page is live on http://javendolgmkd.herokuapp.com and http://javendolgmk.herokuapp.com

Developers at large, please consider making an Android / iOS app too.

Macedonia's new media law - what [can we do] now?

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It should be said with as few words as possible: Macedonia's newly proposed law on media allows censorship. It is as simple as that.

But here is the fine print: As far as public knowledge goes, most media in the country are already owned or controlled by the government or pro-government businessmen. If a story is not supposed to be run - it wont be, as we have seen on numerous times so far. Press freedom has plummeted in recent years. And, in the strangest turn of events [and as far as the official investigation goes without any foul play], Nikola Mladenov died and with him, the fate only independent or pro-opposition media outlet hangs by a thread.

So, by the time this law is enacted there might not be anything left to censor. Nevertheless, it is the murkiest of scenarios. There is little hope that the law can be halted in Parliament and even less in the Constitutional court which is postponing decisions on 'hot' issues. Journalists are divided on the issue of censorship and the profession at worst and scared for their job and paycheck at best.

Thus, another principled battle of huge proportion lands in the laps of couple of Internet activists, free speech groups and few journalists who, at least for now, ride on the free waves of the Internet. What [can we do] now?