15. 07. 2008

ANEM STRONGLY CONDEMNS THE ATTACK ON ‘’ZA MEDIA’’ TV CREW

Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM) strongly protested on the occasion of threats and assaults against reporters and cameramen from the "Za Media" news agency, who wanted to make a package for the national television stations of B92, Pink and Avala.

After a murder committed at the public swimming pool in Zaječar, on July 13th, 2008, by a masked murderer who jumped in the pool area over the swimming pool fence, shot three bullets in the head of his victim and killed him, jumped again over the fence and run away on his motorbike, friends of the murdered man tried to prevent policemen from conducting a crime scene investigation, and then turned to assault television crews of the "Za Media" news agency. Police officers assaulted the attackers and secured a safe way out from the swimming pool area in Zaječar for the TV crews, but another assault took place in front of the news agency premises. The attackers then damaged a camera, took away the cassette with the filmed material and threatened to kill the reporters if they dared publish any detail on this murder case.

Police issued a public statement saying that Ivica Dačić, Minister of the Interior Affairs, ordered that media professionals must be protected from pressures and attacks, and stated that two persons suspected of the assaults on the "Za Media" news agency reporters had already been detained. ANEM would thus like to point out to an especially disturbing fact that this was the second assault on media professionals in less than a month, after the recent attack on the reporter and cameraman in the very centre of Novi Pazar, and also that television crews are being attacked when performing their job, and that they are threatened with murder in public places, in the very centres of towns in Serbia.

ANEM has insisted that it is necessary to bring the perpetrators before justice, and pointed out that the relevant officials should immediately take adequate measures to improve the safety levels for journalists in Serbia, without any deliberation and before another such incident takes place with tragic and fatal outcomes, in order to enable media organizations in Serbia to inform the general public on all the issues they are entitled to be informed about, protected from any pressures and fears for their own physical safety.

 
Sasa Mirkovic

ANEM Chairman