Macedonian Feminists Demand Justice for 'Public Room' Victims of Online Sexual Harassment

SKOPJE — “Failure to act makes you complicit,” read the red banner at the front of the march in Skopje, North Macedonia. On March 8, 2021, International Women’s Day, a crowd of several hundred women gathered in front of the Ministry of Internal Affairs at 3pm and marched through the city to the Woman Warrior Park by parliament in protest of the government’s inaction on the case known as “Public Room” — namely, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the police, and the public prosecutor’s office. Many among the crowd donned black masks with a red handprint on them to symbolize how Macedonian institutions are silencing women.

In January 2020, a Telegram group called “Public Room” was discovered sharing images of child pornography, private nudes, social media profiles, and private phone numbers of countless women and girls from across North Macedonia — without their consent — to its more than 7,000 male members. “Public Room” was made known by non-profit medium Radio MOF, who were alerted to the group’s existence by high school students.

An investigation was immediately opened and authorities encouraged citizens to report misuse of any photographs to the police. Telegram ultimately closed the group upon request by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, but none of its members were charged with any criminal conviction in 2020.

This year, a new version of the group, with more than 5000 members, was discovered to be active, among similar groups in which non-consensual sexual content was shared.

While public outrage was swift, so too was the sexist backlash and victim blaming on social media, with a chorus of voices insisting that it was the fault of both the men — for spreading the photos — as well as the women — for taking explicit photos in the first place. Because of these misogynistic reactions, many organizations, such asthe Health Education and Research Association (HERA), pointed to the dire need for comprehensive sexual education in schools to pre-empt sexualized violence, as well as criminal sanctioning of the Public Room perpetrators.

The renewed Public Room garnered public attention when social media user Ana Koleva posted an Instagram video in late January describing how her social profiles and personal phone number had been leaked to the Telegram group. Koleva said that she was confused when she started receiving a large number of phone calls and messages from unknown persons until someone sent her a screenshot of a Telegram message with her photo (which had been posted on her Instagram) and her phone number.

“I didn’t know what to do,” Koleva says in the video. “I panicked, I felt terrified. I had never experienced something like that, and so I went to the Department Against Cyber Crime in Skopje to report it.”

She said that she had brought the names of many of the people who had been harassing her to the department, but when officials found out that Koleva was 28, they informed her that Macedonian law only protects underaged persons in cases of online harassment. The video post went viral within days, with almost 400,000 views.

Empty gestures from authorities

On January 28, in an on-air interview for local news channel Slobodna TV to discuss Public Room’s resurgence, Kalia Dimitrova, a representative from the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights and editor-in-chief of Meduza — the leading Macedonian feminist publication — negated what officials told Koleva as, in fact, untrue.

“Even though [Koleva] is of age, she could still file a complaint on the basis of misuse of personal information,” said Dimitrova, who argued that the law needs to recognize the gendered dimensions of online violence. “This is already regulated by law and punishable with up to one year in prison, as well as a monetary fine. The [misuse of personal information charge] is not a great solution, which is why I want to advocate for the criminalization of this kind of online sexual harassment, which is likely to be on the rise.”

The day after Koleva’s Instagram video was posted and went viral, the Macedonian government managed to convince Telegram to shut down the group after Prime Minister Zoran Zaev threatened to ban Telegram in North Macedonia. “Today, this is happening on Telegram, and tomorrow it may happen on another platform,” he said. “We have an obligation to do everything to ensure an appropriate response from those who created these platforms where such crimes take place.”

Some, however, saw Zaev’s posturing as flirting with censorship, which could set a dangerous precedent for freedom of expression online. Irena Cvetkovic, activist and executive director of the human rights organization Coalition Margins, believes that Zaev’s statement only subtly redirects responsibility toward Telegram, a private entity, rather than holding the police and public prosecutor's office to account, whose actual legal responsibility it is to handle criminal cases.

“Had the police been serious about pursuing an investigation, there would be no need to get Telegram involved,” said Cvetkovic. “A real investigation would have involved either police officers infiltrating the group or the police actually listening to the victims, since they are the ones who know to whom they sent their pictures. In other words, by taking witness testimony from the victims, the police could find their first suspects.”

Coalition Margins had assisted two young women with filing a criminal complaint to the public prosecutor's office for similar online abuse. “The girls knew exactly who sent their pictures and videos, and they even have evidence,” said Cvetkovic. “And yet, there was no reaction: they are only getting called to give a statement seven months after filing their complaints.”

The Ministry of Internal Affairs wrote a statement expressing “absolute support for the citizens’ demands regarding Public Room” and urged all victims of these digital crimes to report them to the nearest police station — gestures many saw as mere lip service. Meanwhile, only four people have been detained for participating in the 2021 Telegram group; it remains unclear what their formal charges will be, if any. Copycat groups have since surfaced, one of which even has members from Serbia.

On February 3, more than 500 people marched from the Ministry of Internal Affairs to the public prosecutor’s office to demand justice for the victims of the Telegram group. Two press conferences held by the Platform for Gender Equality — a broad coalition of civil society and non-governmental organizations — followed, and guerilla actions by activists took place on and offline. Still, to date, none of the victims of Public Room have received justice.

If anything, the police syndicate’s reaction to the first press conference, which was held in front of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the institution seen as largely responsible for its failure to act in the Public Room case and the body under which the police is organized, appeared defensive and hostile. “As a syndicate, we will not allow individual cases to be generalized and — through those generalizations — for police officers to be insulted and belittled as being unprofessional, unethical, or not sensitized to gender issues, or that police officers are guided by prejudice and stereotypes when performing their duties,” their statement read.

Public policy researchers Ljupka Trajanovska and Sara Milenkovska reacted with a piece for Meduza explaining that not only does the Macedonian police fail to perform its duties professionally, but police officers are often complicit in violence against women, such as choosing not to intervene in domestic violence situations. Meduza published anonymous testimony from women who’ve reported gender-based and sexual violence to different institutions, including one case in which the police dismissed a woman’s police report as “a lovers’ spat” — “We don’t meddle in that kind of stuff,” officers allegedly told her.

'We will continue to march forward'

It was precisely the police’s and the government’s failure to act and protect the victims of Public Room that prompted this year’s International Women’s Day protest to focus on gender-based and sexualized violence against women.

The demands made in the press conferences held by the Platform for Gender Equality — one in front of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and one in front of the public prosecutor’s office — were echoed once again in front of the Ministry of Internal Affairs: criminal charges on the basis of creation and distribution of child pornography, misuse of personal information, mediation in prostitution, endangering women’s safety, and spreading of xenophobic and racist content.

Activist and acting representative for Platform for Gender Equality Marija Savovska read the coalition’s demands and called for a separate law to be adopted to regulate online sexual harassment. While virtual crimes are regulated by the country’s criminal code, online sexual harassment currently lacks a full legal framework: as it stands, online sexual harassment can only be prosecuted on the basis of misuse of private information.

Among the crowd that day were sex workers carrying red umbrellas (the international symbol for sex workers), LGBTQ activists, members of Glasen Tekstilec — an NGO which advocates for the rights of (women) workers in the textile industry — male allies, and many more.

“As an association, we joined in the march to articulate the problems and shortcomings of the system and to emphasize the vulnerability of women — especially in a global crisis that has hit women even harder,” Kristina Ampeva, president of Glasen Tekstilec, told me.

Notably, the march was also attended by Roma activists, two of whom gave speeches at the march’s endpoint at Woman Warrior Park. The Roma are a racialized minority who have been historically persecuted by various far-right forces and governments, such as Nazi Germany. They remain one of the most marginalized minorities in Europe.

“We will continue to march forward because the world needs [Roma] women sitting at any table where important decisions are made,” said Sibel Bajram, who gave one of the speeches.

Moreover, Elena Danova from the Association for Educational Development “Ekvalis”, spoke about the systemic nature of violence against women which is present in our families, workplaces, and government institutions.

“Every day, we hear about sexual violence crimes that have never been reported, due to fear of condemnation, fear of disbelief, fear of how the police treat the victims,” said Danova in her speech. “What is most disgusting of all is that this fear is absolutely justified and absolutely real.”

The march’s final speech was given by a young woman (who did not reveal her name) who was brutally raped and beaten last August. She immediately reported the incident, but, six months later, the case is still open; her attacker has not been arrested.

“I urge every woman who has experienced sexual harassment and violence to report their case,” she told the crowd. “I am sure that they will arrest him and I am sure that there will be justice! I will get my justice!”

The day before the march, Prime Minister Zaev wrote on Facebook in support of women and girls who were victims of sexual and gender-based violence and stated that stalking and sexual harassment would be added to the Criminal Code of North Macedonia as criminal charges. But, it is unclear when these laws will be implemented and how they will be used in practice.

These new laws can be a step in the right direction for addressing sexual harassment on and offline, but it will be up to the institutions to gain women’s trust when it comes to properly dealing with cases of sexual and gender-based violence. Given the police syndicate’s reaction to the press conference, in which the syndicate framed themselves as victims rather than addressing the police’s systemic mishandling of gender-based and sexual violence, one can only expect that there will be a long road ahead before these desired reforms become a reality.