ANEM calls for reaction to attacks against B92 reporter

ANEM calls for reaction to attacks against B92 reporter

In a statement signed by its president, Milorad Tadic, ANEM called on the state authorities to ensure the security of the above mentioned journalists and to provide for conditions where the media will not have to delay their broadcasts.

TV B92 has announced that it has decided, in agreement with the Editor of “Insider” Brankica Stankovic, to postpone indefinitely the program “Reporter” produced by the team of “Insider”. The statement of TV B92 says that the decision was guided by security concerns and the desire to protect the journalists of “Insider”.

"We remind that the first episode of the series “Reporter” was aired on March 2, on the topic of the embezzlement of the largest Serbian football clubs. The organizations concerned – Red Star and Partizan – reacted by issuing press releases prior to the broadcast of “Reporter”, accusing the journalists of causing damage to the state and society as a whole. The management of the said clubs

ridiculed, through their friendly media, the decision of the government to put Brankica Stankovic under police protection, while a journalist of “Reporter” was prevented from making an interview with the Manager of the Red Star football club by the fans of the team, with which the said manager had just had a friendly chat. Appalled by the reaction of the state to the lies in the campaign waged against her, Brankica Stankovic requested the security to be revoked, at her personal responsibility," the association said.

"ANEM wants to stress that, in a country where we have not been able to identify the murderers of journalists Dada Vujasinovic and Milan Pantic and we are still waiting for the trial for the assassination of Slavko Curuvija, the state should to take very seriously every attack and threat journalists in general are exposed to. The government should invest additional efforts and its authority to ensure the protection of journalists and freedom of expression. Such obligation of the authorities in Serbia is at the same time their debt not only to journalists, but towards the citizens, whose constitutional right is to be informed about matters of public interest, by media that will be free of fear.