Podcast authors targeted by pro-state media and threatened on social media

January 16, 2023


In just one day, portals of tabloid newspapers and one television company launched a witch hunt against Nenad Kulačin and Marko Vidojković, with the authors of the podcast “The Good, The Bad & The Evil” (DLZ) and columnists of daily newspaper Danas subjected to new insults and threats via social media.

Standing out among the threats received by Kulačin is one alluding to being bitten by dogs, which caused the recent death of journalist Vladan Radosavljević. That threat was issued after Kulačin and Vidojković used their podcast to call for a detailed investigation into the tragic dog attack. Pro-government television station TV Pink subsequently alleged that Kulačin had used the podcast to somehow link the journalist’s tragic death to Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić.

The same podcast episode also included discussion of the 1995 war crime in Srebrenica, during which the presenters clearly emphasised that there is no verdict condemning Serbia or the Serbian people for genocide, but rather specific individuals, though that didn’t prevent individual pro-state tabloids from presenting that part of the podcast conversation as the authors stating that genocide was committed in Srebrenica. Vidojković subsequently also received threats via social media, on the same day that the International and German PEN Centre called on the Serbian authorities to investigate all death threats issued against Vidojković, who reported having received more 40 such threats just last year.