March 15, 2019<\/p>\n
Jovanovi\u0107’s house, in the Belgrade suburb of Vr\u010din, was set ablaze on 12th<\/sup>December last year, while prosecutors suspect the attack may have been ordered by the president of the Belgrade suburban municipality of Grocka, Dragoljub Simonovi\u0107, a powerful local figure who’s also the president of the local branch of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party. He was arrested on 25th\u00a0<\/sup>January.<\/p>\n Simonovi\u0107’s release\u00a0 from custody, where he spent about six weeks, was met by criticism from journalists’ associations, as well as organisation Reporters Without Borders. The release prompted Jovanovi\u0107 \u2013 a journalist of local portal \u017dig info who has repeatedly written about affairs involving this local leader \u2013 to fear for his personal safety.<\/p>\n The Association of Journalists of Serbia and the Standing Working Group for the Security of Journalists requested that permanent police protection be approved for Jovanovi\u0107, as well as his colleague and fellow portal journalist \u017deljko Marto\u010devi\u0107, who was physically assaulted several months ago.<\/p>\n Jovanovi\u0107 confirmed that he will be protected in his every movement from now by several police officers. This was preceded by protection in the form of a police patrol assigned to maintain a presence in front of the building in which he resides. This security measure was introduced after intruders broke into the apartment during the night after he moved in following the arson attack on his house.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" March 15, 2019 Police have approved protection for journalist Milan Jovanovi\u0107 just a few days after the individual suspected of firebombing his house was released from custody. Jovanovi\u0107’s house, in the Belgrade suburb of Vr\u010din, was set ablaze on 12thDecember last year, while prosecutors suspect the attack may have been ordered by the president of the Belgrade suburban municipality of Grocka, Dragoljub Simonovi\u0107, a powerful local figure who’s also the president of the local branch of the ruling Serbian Progressive […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":4365,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-content-en"],"yoast_head":"\n