Court sends journalist assault case to retrial

-In the night of July 24, 2010, the pair assaulted Vreme weekly columnist Teofil Pančić in a city bus in Belgrade, hitting him with metal bars and fists.-

I think it's most unfortunate that no one has responded to this item. here's the deal -- i am a strong and consistent critic of this media outlet, and very correctly so.

and then, when you have these brave individual journalists, like the one(s) from yr Insider, the svetlana's from pescanik, and a handful of others (like this pancic), they end up at the not so tender mercies of criminals and the "justice" system treats it as a joke, maybe gives a slap on the wrist, never manages to find them at all. gives them 6 months soft time...

this is putin russia, belarus. and present-day serbia.

if you want a land of law, of human rights, of some kind of equality and normalcy, this has to change! and as long as it doesn't change, journalists (and dissidents/ human rights advocates) will remain in a state of fear and intimidation.

b-92 runs these articles, these stories, but there is no context, no solutions...

and with such intimidation, we'll never have a brave and free press, which is the foundation for any normal, democratic society.

we have to keep pushing.

roberto frisco

i am a strong and consistent critic of this media outlet, and very correctly so.
roberto frisco
(roberto, 19 May 2011 05:11)

No! Not correctly so. You are critical of this media outlet because your narcissistic personality disorder leaves you unable to accept the validity of any opinion, however moderate and well-reasoned, that deviates even a fraction from your embittered, hate-filled world view.

The time has indeed come to speak out, to speak out against evilly intentioned hatemongers like you. In an ideal world, I'd phrase this more strongly, but don't want to force B92 to censor me.

roberto you might want to bear in mind that the journalist in question works for a widely respected publication called Vreme.

Some years ago there was a well publicised polemic between Helsinki and then editor of Vreme (who died of cancer since then) Cerovic. She attacked Vreme and other media outlets such as B92 for not doing enough.

This was pretty well documented in English, parts might still be at the Helsinki site. It is well worth reading and there are merits to both sides of the debate.

However, the mistake made in certain parts of the NGO world is to think that journalists should have the same aims as NGOs.

They are not the same profession. Even within journalism there is a constant debate about whether a journalist should be detachted and report the details factually, or whether he / she should persue advocacy journalism. The latter is the form of journalism that Sonja and others believe should be pressed forward.

It is a highly simplistic belief to suggest that journalists or others have become nationalists overnight, as a means of forcing them to shift position.

My advice to you is to try to spend a little more time with principled non advocacy journalists in Serbia, but I fear that this won't help you much.

After all, if what I'm saying is correct it means there are no simple solutions to the big problems we face in Serbia. Do you really think that if Ceda came to power tomorrow he would do half the things he said he would?

-In the night of July 24, 2010, the pair assaulted Vreme weekly columnist Teofil Pančić in a city bus in Belgrade, hitting him with metal bars and fists.-

I think it's most unfortunate that no one has responded to this item. here's the deal -- i am a strong and consistent critic of this media outlet, and very correctly so.

and then, when you have these brave individual journalists, like the one(s) from yr Insider, the svetlana's from pescanik, and a handful of others (like this pancic), they end up at the not so tender mercies of criminals and the "justice" system treats it as a joke, maybe gives a slap on the wrist, never manages to find them at all. gives them 6 months soft time...

this is putin russia, belarus. and present-day serbia.

if you want a land of law, of human rights, of some kind of equality and normalcy, this has to change! and as long as it doesn't change, journalists (and dissidents/ human rights advocates) will remain in a state of fear and intimidation.

b-92 runs these articles, these stories, but there is no context, no solutions...

and with such intimidation, we'll never have a brave and free press, which is the foundation for any normal, democratic society.

we have to keep pushing.

roberto frisco

i am a strong and consistent critic of this media outlet, and very correctly so.
roberto frisco
(roberto, 19 May 2011 05:11)

No! Not correctly so. You are critical of this media outlet because your narcissistic personality disorder leaves you unable to accept the validity of any opinion, however moderate and well-reasoned, that deviates even a fraction from your embittered, hate-filled world view.

The time has indeed come to speak out, to speak out against evilly intentioned hatemongers like you. In an ideal world, I'd phrase this more strongly, but don't want to force B92 to censor me.

roberto you might want to bear in mind that the journalist in question works for a widely respected publication called Vreme.

Some years ago there was a well publicised polemic between Helsinki and then editor of Vreme (who died of cancer since then) Cerovic. She attacked Vreme and other media outlets such as B92 for not doing enough.

This was pretty well documented in English, parts might still be at the Helsinki site. It is well worth reading and there are merits to both sides of the debate.

However, the mistake made in certain parts of the NGO world is to think that journalists should have the same aims as NGOs.

They are not the same profession. Even within journalism there is a constant debate about whether a journalist should be detachted and report the details factually, or whether he / she should persue advocacy journalism. The latter is the form of journalism that Sonja and others believe should be pressed forward.

It is a highly simplistic belief to suggest that journalists or others have become nationalists overnight, as a means of forcing them to shift position.

My advice to you is to try to spend a little more time with principled non advocacy journalists in Serbia, but I fear that this won't help you much.

After all, if what I'm saying is correct it means there are no simple solutions to the big problems we face in Serbia. Do you really think that if Ceda came to power tomorrow he would do half the things he said he would?