NUNS disappointed by Prosecutor's Office decision: Rejected complaint of journalist attacked by associates of young Vučić

SARAJEVO, (Patria) - The Independent Association of Journalists of Serbia is very concerned about the decision of the First Basic Prosecutor's Office in Belgrade to reject the criminal complaint against unknown men who brutally endangered the physical safety of KRIK journalist Bojana Pavlović while she was doing her job.

NUNS hopes that this, to say the least, unreasonable decision by the Prosecutor's Office is not a sign that this case of attacks on media employees will also remain without a judicial epilogue, or that it will enter the archive of numerous examples of verbal and physical attacks on journalists in Serbia whose perpetrators have remained without any sanctions.

In any case, the decision to reject the criminal complaint once again sends a message to the public that it is possible to physically and verbally assault journalists and other media employees in Serbia without consequences.

NUNS reminds that the KRIK editorial office and journalist Bojana Pavlović filed a criminal complaint against seven unidentified men from the circle of Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić's son, who intercepted the journalist, surrounded her, physically attacked her, took her mobile phone, and subjected her to mental terror.

This happened at the beginning of June this year after the journalist photographed the president's son sitting in a cafe on Cvetni trg in Belgrade in the company of the controversial Aleksandar Vidojević, who has been identified by the police as a member of the so-called Kavački clan.

Journalist Pavlović was identified by individuals who presented themselves as officials and informed her that she would be detained. Shortly after, several more individuals approached the journalist, and one from the group snatched her mobile phone from her hands. The journalist's phone was returned, and she was released only after Vidojević approached the group and ordered it to be done.

Unfortunately, all this was not enough for prosecutor Vojkan Ilić to file an indictment against the assailants, unclearly and incompletely determining that the journalist was not endangered but had a "subjective feeling of endangerment." The prosecutor did not question any of those whom the journalist named in the criminal complaint.

"Also, we expect that the Higher Prosecutor's Office, if an appeal is filed, will do everything possible to create conditions for the assailants to be held accountable for endangering the safety of journalist Bojana Pavlović," says NUNS.