May 15, 2020
Jovana Gligorijević, assistant editor-in-chief of weekly news magazine Vreme, has been threatened via Instagram by an unknown individual, who described her as: “Human waste and the dregs of society” warning that “payment day is near”, which the journalist reported to the prosecution service.
The Vreme editorial department and the group Journalists Against Violence reminded that Jovana Gligorijević has been receiving death threats since 2016, while her home address and personal ID No. have been published in comments on YouTube. They are seeking an urgent response from the relevant authorities.
Instead of learning about the arrest of the person who issued the threats from the police or the prosecutor’s office, the public – and even the journalist herself – were informed at a press conference of Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić. He announced the initials of the person arrested and called on citizens not to threaten journalists.
During the nationwide state of emergency, Magda Janjić, executive editor of portal nova.rs, was branded a “sick lesbian who hates Serbia” by journalist Zoran Ćirjaković on both national frequency television channel TV Happy and on the YouTube channel of Balkan Info, which Janjić interpreted as the carving of a target on her back.
Speaking to Cenzolovka, Janjić said that a calculated attack was underway against the portal nova.rs and its journalists, primarily the journalists who provide reminders of the arrest of Ana Lalić. Lalić was arrested and held overnight by police on 1st April in response to an article she wrote about the lack of protective equipment at a Novi Sad hospital.
N1 TV reporter Tatjana Aleksić endured an unpleasant experience in the hall of the National Assembly of Serbia, when Saša Radulović, an MP of the opposition Dosta je bilo (Enough is Enough) party, began yelling at her, claiming that this journalist deliberately interfered with his party’s press conference by loudly interviewing MP Gordana Čomić in a live broadcast on TV N1. The hall of the Serbian National Assembly is generally used to hold press conferences, but is also the only place where journalists can record MPs’ statements.
