The published financial data of INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING LAB MACEDONIA (IRL) opens a serious debate about how an organisation that for years has presented itself in public as a symbol of „independent investigative journalism\" actually works.

According to publicly available figures, IRL reported total revenues of 19.9 million denars in 2023, over 27.5 million denars in 2024, and almost 30 million denars in 2025. These are huge sums by Macedonian standards - especially for an organisation that markets itself as independent and non-profit.

But the biggest shock in the published data is the line „number of employees\" - where for all three years the figure is 0.

At the same time, the average gross salary and average net salary are also reported as zero.

That opens logical and legitimate questions: who carried out all the investigations, documentaries, analyses, productions and media projects if the organisation officially has not a single employee? Who received the money? On what basis was the money paid out? Was it done through contracts, fees, subcontractors, or other forms of engagement?

The public has a right to know how an organisation with tens of millions of denars in revenue operates without a single officially employed person.

Additionally, IRL has previously publicly stated that it was founded in 2017 with the support of an international organisation for reporting on organised crime and corruption, and has in the meantime received significant funding from domestic institutions, among them Macedonian Radio Television.

Which is exactly why the question is being raised more and more loudly: how much money in total has entered the organisation since its founding, from which sources, and for what purpose?

When a media outlet or organisation asks the public for trust and presents itself as a moral corrective for society, its transparency has to be absolute. Otherwise, instead of trust, it produces suspicion.

Independence is not declared by press releases and slogans. It is proven by full accountability, clean finances and clear answers in front of the public.