section_path: Casualties/Funerals
section_name: Funerals
paragraph_text: Funerals
  
  The funerals of the victims were held on 20 March in Štip, Kočani, and Obleševo. The funeral in Kočani was officiated by Stefan, Archbishop of Ohrid and Macedonia, the head of the Macedonian Orthodox Church, and was restricted to the relatives of the victims. The beginning of the ceremony was briefly interrupted after some mourners fainted. Among the deceased members of DNK, Gjorgjieski was buried in the Butel municipal cemetery, Projkovska in Gorno Lisiče, Gjorgiev in Strumica, while Stevanovski, Kolarov and Efremov were buried in Štip.
  
  The Agency for Audio and Audiovisual Media Services requested that the media "adhere to the highest professional and ethical standards" while reporting on the funerals and said that media should refrain from taking pictures of the graves or violating mourners' privacy. The North Macedonian government condemned unnamed foreign media outlets whom they alleged "crossed every line of humanity and dignity in reporting on the tragic funeral in Kočani". The Independent Journalists' Association of Serbia (NUNS) condemned the usage of footage of "graves, close family members, and private moments" of the victims by the Serbian media outlets Republika, Kurir, Blic, Alo!, Telegraf, and Mondo, and requested that the Serbian Ministry of Information and Telecommunications take action. NUNS said that the coverage was a violation of the Serbian Journalists' Code of Ethics, which forbids "reporting on funerals of private individuals", and that such coverage "is not in the public interest". The Ministry of Information and Telecommunications condemned the footage in a statement, and publicly ordered the aforementioned media outlets to immediately remove it from their websites, saying that the media outlets "violated the dignity of the victims, caused anxiety among their relatives and the entire public, and demonstrated a lack of awareness of the need to respect elementary professional standards".