October 15, 2018
Veran Matić, president of the Commission for the Investigation of Murders of Journalists in Serbia and permenant member of the Standing Working Group for the Security of Journalists, has proposed that security assessments be carried out for “individual investigative journalists”.
Matić, who was once allocated police protection due to threats against his security, noted that in the past year four investigative journalists have been murdered in the region and in the EU, and that his proposal is aimed at acting preventively against possible threats to security that could endanger the lives of journalists in Serbia.
Individual investigative journalists from Serbia expressed doubts about the quality of security assessments conducted by state bodies, arguing that the greatest threat to journalists in Serbia comes precisely from the state and its officials, who continue to openly threaten and verbally attack journalists, and are assisted in doing so by pro-government media.
