Journalists demand urgent response

The brutal attacks on reporters demand a reaction from the state, and could also lead to a boycott of violent rallies. Speaking to B92, FoNet Director Zoran Sekulic, BBC correspondent Djordje Vlajic, and Voice of America correspondent Misa Brkic said that the state had to protect journalists, otherwise the profession would have to react. Journalists demand urgent response Attacks on journalists can be viewed as attacks on social institutions and sewing an atmosphere of fear by those who perceive the media to be their opponents. B92’s guests said that these were the same hooligans who started the riots in February, and went on the rampage around Belgrade, which was why they did not want to be caught on camera. “As far as I’m concerned, professionally, as a person, morally—this is the straw that broke the camel’s back. We’re now speaking publicly, we’ve been doing this job a long time, we’ve gone through all kinds of things. It’s never reached the stage, not even in the darkest days under [Slobodan] Milosevic, that I’ve feared for the lives of people on Belgrade streets, and I’m on the verge of deciding , as editor-in-chief, to tell them not to film, we won’t report, we won’t film simply to avoid someone getting lynched,“ said Sekulic. Vlajic said that it was a question of political instrumentalization against something which had very little to do with Radovan Karadzic. “There’s a problem in parliament, there’s a problem of forming a government in Belgrade, former coalitions are breaking up, so that now one party has completely lost all hope of coming to power at any serious level, and so now it’s a chance for them to ’kick up a fuss’“ he explained. Brkic said that it was necessary to pose a public question to Interior Minister Ivica Dacic who, only a week ago, following an incident in Zajecar, said that it was necessary to give journalists more protection. “Now that this has happened, the public question to the minister is what is he going to do about it? Last night, today… We now need an urgent answer as to whether we can even do our job,” he said. The state has to show that it truly wants to protect not just journalists but all members of the public who have the right to personal safety, the right to work and freedom of movement, said B92’s guests.

Journalists demand urgent response

Attacks on journalists can be viewed as attacks on social institutions and sewing an atmosphere of fear by those who perceive the media to be their opponents.

B92’s guests said that these were the same hooligans who started the riots in February, and went on the rampage around Belgrade, which was why they did not want to be caught on camera.

“As far as I’m concerned, professionally, as a person, morally—this is the straw that broke the camel’s back. We’re now speaking publicly, we’ve been doing this job a long time, we’ve gone through all kinds of things. It’s never reached the stage, not even in the darkest days under [Slobodan] Milošević, that I’ve feared for the lives of people on Belgrade streets, and I’m on the verge of deciding , as editor-in-chief, to tell them not to film, we won’t report, we won’t film simply to avoid someone getting lynched,“ said Sekulić.

Vlajić said that it was a question of political instrumentalization against something which had very little to do with Radovan Karadžić.

“There’s a problem in parliament, there’s a problem of forming a government in Belgrade, former coalitions are breaking up, so that now one party has completely lost all hope of coming to power at any serious level, and so now it’s a chance for them to ’kick up a fuss’“ he explained.

Brkić said that it was necessary to pose a public question to Interior Minister Ivica Dačić who, only a week ago, following an incident in Zaječar, said that it was necessary to give journalists more protection.

“Now that this has happened, the public question to the minister is what is he going to do about it? Last night, today… We now need an urgent answer as to whether we can even do our job,” he said.

The state has to show that it truly wants to protect not just journalists but all members of the public who have the right to personal safety, the right to work and freedom of movement, said B92’s guests.