Professional associations condemn threats against B92

Professional associations condemn threats against B92

ANEM member B92 announced on Tuesday that its legal team had filed criminal charges against several persons who threatened to beat to death its employees, and also threatened to carry out "a ritual murder of Veran Matic as an example to others, in the middle of Terazije Square." Matic is the media outlet's news editor-in-chief, and also serves as chairman of a commission the government has set up to investigate murders of journalists.

ANEM said it found it unacceptable that not only B92 - as one of the original founders of the association and Veran Matic, its first president - but any newsroom, editor, or journalist, should be exposed to attacks and threats because of their work. In the case of B92 and Matic, these threats have been ongoing for years, and are no longer a problem of just a newsroom, just one association, or even just one media community, but the entire society, the statement noted.

In a recent report Human Rights Commissioner of the Council of Europe Nils Muiznieks highlighted positive developments in the media sector in Serbia but also pointed out that the mere fact four journalists are under 24-hour police protection was a clear indication that their safety remains one of the the most pressing problems related to respect for human rights and that Belgrade must be decisive in establishing a secure media environment, ANEM said. Two of these four journalists come from B92, Veran Matic being one of them - he has been under 24-hour police protection for five years.

The statement added that given the importance of the role that the media play in democratic processes in the society, which in terms of the basic safety of journalists has been seriously compromised, ANEM calls on the authorities not only to investigate each individual case of threats and attacks and punish those responsible in accordance with the law, but to also, in dialogue with media and journalists' associations, come up with systemic mechanisms for the protection of journalists, whose application would finally make the media environment in Serbia safer.

Also on Wednesday, the Independent Association of Journalists of Serbia (NUNS) strongly condemned the death threats against the editor of B92 Veran Matic and his colleagues.

NUNS demanded that the authorities immediately identify and punish the authors of the threats.