New Attack on Journalist Ana Lalić

SARAJEVO, (Patria) - Attacks on our Nova.rs portal journalist Ana Lalić have not stopped since she was arrested for writing about the situation at the Clinical Center of Vojvodina, and the latest in a series occurred this morning, after someone punctured a tire on her car in Novi Sad.

Lalić gave a statement to the police regarding this incident.

The journalist of the Nova.rs portal, who has been the target of orchestrated attacks for weeks, says that around 11 a.m. this morning she set out for fieldwork in her car, when she discovered that someone had punctured her tire.

"This morning around 11 a.m. I set out for fieldwork, entered the courtyard of my building where our parking is located, got into the car and started driving. Then I heard a sound like something scraping against concrete. I stopped the car and got out, and behind the left rear tire I saw a piece of metal sticking out. I tried to pull it out, but it was deeply embedded," says this journalist.

As she states, given that she had not moved the car from the courtyard for five days and the fact that she has been the target of various threats and attacks for weeks, she decided, in consultation with her lawyer, to report the entire case to the police.

"The police conducted an investigation and inspected my car, as well as the entire courtyard, to possibly see if the mentioned object could have embedded itself in the tire on its own. However, they found nothing. After that, forensic technicians arrived, who extracted the piece of sharp metal from my tire. What is important is that there is video surveillance in the building, and the police requested from the president of the building council to review all cameras from the past five days, during which I did not move the car from the courtyard," states the Nova.rs journalist.

As she adds, she wants to believe this was a coincidence, but given everything that has happened to her in the past period, she fears this is just a continuation of the attacks that have been ongoing for weeks.

"I did not want to expose myself to risk and keep this detail quiet, so I reported the entire case to the police. I constantly feel on alert that something could happen to me because of everything that is happening, and I am constantly tense," says Lalić, adding that all circumstances of this case will be known after the investigation.

Incidentally, in the middle of last month, the Nova.rs portal journalist was also targeted by unknown persons who paid for an advertisement calling for her lynching.

Nova.rs reminds that journalist Ana Lalić was taken into custody on April 1 at the Novi Sad Police Department and was detained for 48 hours for allegedly causing panic and alarming the public, after the Clinical Center of Vojvodina filed a complaint against her.

The mentioned article titled "Clinical Center of Vojvodina on the verge of collapse: Without protective gear for nurses," which led to the complaint by the Clinical Center of Vojvodina, concerns the working conditions of medical staff in that institution.

However, at the end of April, the Basic Public Prosecutor's Office in Novi Sad announced that the mentioned criminal complaint had been dismissed.

Nova.rs responded by stating that if anything happens to any member of their editorial team, they will hold the state and its representatives responsible.