The Australian Press Council considered a complaint by Australian FYROM community representatives the  “Australian Macedonian Human Rights Committee”, AMHRC against Neos Kosmos English Edition that arose from an online article published in 2009 titled Gruevski makes claims in Sydney speech.

The complaint focused on the paragraph that read:

“The Prime Minister of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), Nikola Gruevski has made irredentist claims against Greece and Bulgaria during a speech to the Skopjan community in Sydney.”

The FYROM representatives took exception to the word “irredentist,” complaining “that Mr Gruevski did not make any claims in his speech upon any other nation’s territory”.

They also complained about the word “Skopjan”, describing it as “pejorative” indicating that “ethnic Macedonians do not exist and that they constitute a community of culturally inferior people.”

Neos Kosmos rejected the assertions emphasising its support of diversity. The article was from a wire service in Greece and Neos Kosmos admitted it was not edited to meet its policy of the naming of using the term FYROM.

Neos Kosmos modified its online story and in its print edition, Neos Kosmos published an expanded article. The article referred to a meeting between Mr Gruevski and then PM Rudd omitting the “offending paragraph” and using the term FYROM.

The AMHRC sought a public apology, but Neos Kosmos refused. The Australian Press Council then sought mediation.

The Council welcomed “the prompt action of the newspaper” in removing from its online edition the opening paragraph and the omission of that paragraph from the article in the print edition.

In its Adjudication 1462 the Council writes “The AMHRC insisted that the paper should also publish a “retraction and apology”, which would have drawn specific attention to the “offensive material and its removal”.

It continues; “The Council does not censure the paper for refusing this request” because the effect of such an apology might be to “inflame the situation” and also because of “the paper’s swift correction.”