Vucic condemns front page of weekly magazine

Vucic condemns front page of weekly magazine

The Independent Journalists Association of Serbia (IJAS) and the Independent Journalists Association of Vojvodina (IJAV) estimated on Oct. 31 that the front page with the title "The Hounds Are Unleashed" and the accompanying text represented "a classical call for lynching independent journalists and the media and all those who criticize the authorities in Serbia."

"I saw the front page and, both as the president and an ordinary man, I condemn that. That is not the public discourse which we desire and I hope that will not be repeated, at least not in the media where the state has a stake," Vucic told the TV Prva, replying to a question about whether it represented "putting the noose around the media's neck".

He said he was not a policeman to punish someone for that front page, and that there was no punishment in Serbia for someone's editorial policy.

The president's media advisor, Suzana Vasiljevic, on Nov. 1 sent a letter to members of IJAS and IJAV and other media associations, saying she resigned from the post of member of the Supervisory Board of Politika AD, because she did not wish "to support such editorial policies by being a member, and provide the members of these associations with a reason for baseless attacks on the president."

The president of the commission for investigating the murders of journalists, Veran Matic, urged the relevant bodies to reconsider the safety of all journalists who were "targeted" in the text by its author, Djordje Martic, as well as of those who are in jeopardy in similar ways.

Matic recollected that Nov. 2 was International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists, and that violence against journalists was on the rise in the region and throughout the world.