15. Apr 2017
Press release
The Independent Association of Journalists’ of Serbia (IJAS) and the Independent Journalists’ Association of Vojvodina (IJAV) inform the public that the President of IJAV, Nedim Sejdinović, has received a large number of threatening and insulting messages in the past two days, through social networks, among which are those that can be considered a serious threat of death.
The messages began arriving after a sort of a call to lynch of Sejdinovic, which was posted on the Facebook page “The people against color revolutions” in which, among all, states that he was one of the organizers of the mass protests in Serbia, as well as after a similar articles in the regime’s media and statements of Aleksandra Martinovic, a senior official of the Serbian Progressive Party (SPP).
IJAS and IJAV consider that the overall responsibility for the increase in violence and a climate of fear in the country shall be borne by the government, and that the performance of Martinovic officially opened the „hounting season“ on the ones that are recognized as their opponents, including their children.
IJAS and IJAV remind us that these threats are just a continuation of intimidation to which have been recently exposed journalists and some public figures, and reminded that these threats are registered with the Serbian Interior Ministry and Prosecutor’s Office of Cyber Crime according to the mechanism established in the Agreement on Cooperation and raising the safety of journalists’, signed by the police, prosecutors and journalists and media associations.
IJAS and IJAV indicate that the competent authorities have shown great efficiency when the target of threats are the authorities, and, conversely, when the target of “opponents of the government”, the perpetrators are not sanctioned.
We note that the inadequate response to the attacks on journalists can be read only and only as an incentive to intimidation and violence.
(Belgrade-Novi Sad, April 15th 2017.)
