In a first instance judgement, the Basic Court in Skopje dismissed a defamation claim brought by the North Macedonian company ZAMAN DOOEL in relation to a photo published online, which it alleged falsely linked the company to the Gulen Movement. The case concerned a news article about a protest staged by former students of a Turkish private school in Skopje who called for an investigation into possible ties between the school and the Gulen Movement, which the Turkish government claims orchestrated an attempted coup in 2016. Although ZAMAN was not mentioned in the article, the image accompanying the article showed a picture of its headquarters next to the name of the Turkish school. The Court cited case law of the European Court of Human Rights to affirm the importance of freedom of expression for journalists in order to fulfill their role as public watchdog. The Court found that the photo, the headline and the text of the article reflected value judgments on a matter of public interest which had a sufficient factual basis, and hence could not be considered defamatory. Consequently, the court also rejected the claim for EUR 2,000 in damages.