Did the Australian Open intentionally ban the North Macedonian flag from being displayed and flown during the Grand Slam tennis tournament in January 2024? No, that's not true: The North Macedonian flag was allowed to be displayed during the match of the North Macedonian player Lina Gjorcheska, who represented her country at the qualifiers for the competition, following the tournament's rules which state that fans are only allowed to bring in flags representing players competing.
The claim appeared in a TikTok video (archived here) published on January 17, 2024, under the title "The Macedonian national flag banned from world tournament," translated from Bulgarian to English by Lead Stories staff. The narrator says, as translated also by Lead Stories staff:
Did you know that the flag of North Macedonia is banned in a world tournament? Here are the no-fly flags at the Australian Open - the biggest, most massive tournament in human history. The flags of Palestine and Israel are banned - it's clear why. It's forbidden to fly the Russian flag - totally understandable why, but here's the old Macedonian flag before they changed it... and the original new version is banned. When there is a ban on flying your national flag in such a world tournament and a respected forum like the Australian Open, even though there are Macedonian players participating in it, I would think why... To have a ban on flying your national flag in such a forum, there should be a far more serious reason...
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Mon Feb 12 22:52:38 2024 UTC)
The case of the Macedonian flag being snubbed at the Australian Open 2024, and added to a "black list" of flags banned from the tournament, circulated on social media (archived here). It was reported by SBS (archived here), Special Broadcasting of Australia, in Macedonian, on January 15, 2024. According to the report, the Macedonian flag appeared along with other "prohibited" flags - such as Palestinian and Israeli - on a piece of paper attached to the cameras of the cameramen broadcasting the event at the KIA Arena, in Melbourne. The Macedonian Australian Pride announced (archived here) that the organizers of the tournament instructed Channel 9 TV, which carried out the broadcasts, not to show several flags, including the North Macedonian flag. Before the start of the tournament, director Craig Tiley announced (archived here) that there would be a ban on Israeli and Palestinian flags in the stands, while Russian and Belarusian flags had already been banned since the beginning of the war in Ukraine.
Following the issue being reported, the North Macedonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs reached out to the Australian Open tournament. The Australian Open organizers did not contest the fact that there had been a mistake and directly apologized to the North Macedonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The organizers of the tournament - which took place from January 14 to January 28, 2024 - promptly addressed the issue, clarifying it had been an unintentional mistake. They added that according to the rules, only the flags of participating players are allowed to be flown in the stands during the matches. They also confirmed that fans were able to display North Macedonia's official flag (archived here) without any restrictions during the match of Lina Gjorchevska (archived here) in the tournament qualifiers, on January 9, 2024.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed it in a press release (archived here) shared by the public information service of North Macedonia Media Information Agency (MIA) on January 16, 2024, as translated by Lead Stories staff:
We received a profound apology and the assurance that the incident will not affect the strong ties between the citizens of Australia and North Macedonia, which are characterized by friendship and love for sport. The organizers clarified that according to the tournament rules, only the flags of participating players are allowed to fly in the stands during the matches. They confirmed that the fans displayed the country's official flag without any restrictions during the match of North Macedonia's Lina Gjorchevska.
