Original title: Publicly announced: These are the people who refuse to accept decisions for self-isolation
On June 22, the portal Dokazmakedonija.mk published an article titled Publicly announced: These are the people who refuse to receive decisions for self-isolation. The article states that the Ministry of Internal Affairs has published the list of persons who refuse to accept the decisions for self-isolation and in addition there is a photo from the website of the Ministry of Internal Affairs with a list of 35 people with their name, last name, address, decision number and date of the decision. Articles with similar content were published on 19.06.2020, about which F2N2 has already written.
The portal used the statement of the Minister of Health Venko Filipche from June 19, in which he said that the names of the people who do not want to receive the decisions for self-isolation will be made public. Earlier, at a press conference held on 15.06.2020, the Minister of Health Venko Filipche announced that, as an alternative legal form, a list of people who should be in self-isolation and who do not want to cooperate with epidemiologists and the Sanitary Inspectorate will be publicly announced.
However, in addition to the text, there is a list of persons with name, address, number of the decision and date of the decision, published on the website of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. There is also the text of the announcement itself:
MINISTRY OF INTERNAL AFFAIRS
Pursuant to Article 385 paragraph 3 of the Law on Road Traffic Safety, the Department for Misdemeanors Skopje-5, the Commission for Deciding on Misdemeanors, at the Ministry of Internal Affairs, makes a public announcement:
PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT FOR SUBMISSION
The Ministry of Internal Affairs, Department for Misdemeanors Skopje-5, Commission for deciding on misdemeanors, informs the mentioned natural and legal persons that it has adopted a DECISION that they are not able to submit with personal delivery…
From what has been said, it is clear that these are not the people who refused to accept a decision for self-isolation.
And if the content of the whole text is not read carefully, the first impression from the title and the list is that these are people who need to be in self-isolation.
Public announcement as part of the procedure for submitting decisions is not a novelty in our legislation. “If the above-mentioned persons do not respond, this public announcement will be considered a proper submission which is in accordance with Article 385 paragraph 3 of the Law on Road Traffic Safety,” reads the announcement of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
In this case, the public announcement is abused during this sensitive period when we all fear coronavirus and all efforts are aimed at preventing the infection. These people, without any fault regarding the measures taken to deal with the coronavirus, are “marked” as allegedly negligent and responsible for non-compliance with the measures of self-isolation. Such texts, in addition to stigmatizing these people, can also put them in danger, precisely because of the sensitivity of the public regarding coronavirus related issues.
This unethical reporting only misleads the citizens and harms individuals in order to change the relationship by their close and wider social environment.
So read carefully and check the information!
