Journalist Associations: Unacceptable Violence Against Journalists in Serbia

Representatives of the Safe Journalists Network, which brings together more than 8,200 media professionals in the Western Balkans, as well as several journalist associations, pointed to the extremely poor climate towards journalists in Serbia, especially after the latest attacks on journalists, and called on the authorities to find the attackers.

The statement said that the editor of the KRIK portal and investigative journalist Stevan Dojčinović received death threats on TikTok, while FoNet reporter Marko Dragoslavić was physically attacked.

Dojčinović was threatened after participating in the podcast "Snaga uma" (Power of the Mind) of the Nova.rs portal, where he spoke about the life path of criminals in Serbia and assessed that the prices of contract killings in Serbia have drastically fallen.

"Below the video clip from the podcast episode, a comment was publicly posted on TikTok: 'Give us those cheap ones so we can kill you,' and this case was reported to the Special Prosecutor's Office for Combating High-Tech Crime," the statement reads.

The second incident occurred last night in Belgrade, in Takovska Street, after the gathering "Students for Kosovo," when an unknown man approached the FoNet reporter from behind, pulled his hood over his head, punched him twice in the face, and then fled.

The President of the Independent Association of Journalists of Serbia, Željko Bodrožić, said that the new attacks on journalists are not unexpected, given the atmosphere filled with hatred and conflicts that are mostly initiated and encouraged by politicians.

"The obligation of our associations is to protect members, as well as all colleagues, from pressures, threats, and attacks. This time too, we will do everything to help Stevan and Marko, but our reach is limited because there is no independence, i.e., full readiness of state authorities to protect journalists," Bodrožić said.

In addition to these two cases, the Safe Journalists Network reminded that one of the authors of the podcast "Dobar loš zao" (Good Bad Evil), Marko Vidojković, had to leave Serbia.

"The Network calls on the competent institutions to take the attacks and threats against journalists seriously and urgently find the perpetrators of these acts and adequately punish them," the statement said.