25. 12. 2012

ANEM CONDEMNS INSULTS AND THREATS TO JOURNALISTS IN VALJEVO

Belgrade, December 25, 2012 - The Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM) strongly protests against the incident that occurred in the Valjevo City Assembly, where local journalists were exposed to rude insults coming from one of the deputies, Slobodan Gvozdenovic, the deputy mayor of the city, Dragoljub Krstic, and some of the deputies belonging to the ruling coalition in the city.

The incident occurred after the editor of an ANEM member, Radio Patak from Valjevo, Darija Rankovic, had removed her recorder from the speaking platform in the Assembly. Deputy Slobodan Gvozdenovic, who was speaking at the time, threatened to "personally throw out" anyone who dared to "take away the microphone" from him. He was supported by other deputies and supporters of the group of citizens "Pobeda" ("Victory"), who then blocked the presidency of the Assembly. The deputy mayor of the city shouted that journalists should be thrown out of the building and called the editor of Radio Patak a "scum".

Protesting the incident, journalists from the daily Politika, Radio-Television Serbia (RTS), the weekly magazine Napred, Radio Patak, Radio 014, Revija Kolubara and the news agency Beta, left the assembly hall. Only the reporting teams from the Public Company for Information Radio Valjevo and a private station, TV Mars, remained in the city assembly hall and continued to broadcast the session.

After the journalists left the session, the city assembly was also left by the deputies from the Democratic Party (DS) and the Liberal-Democratic Party (LDP). The president of the City Assembly, Mihailo Jokic from the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), promised better working conditions for journalists aimed at "preventing similar situations from happening again".

ANEM points out that current laws in Serbia stipulate that bodies of local self-government and its deputies are under legal obligation to make available to the public all information about their activities, under equal conditions for all journalists and all media. The freedom of expression also entails the freedom to collect information. It is up to journalists to decide which speeches in the city assembly they want to record. It is completely unacceptable that journalists could be exposed to threats and insults and be thrown out of the city assembly because of their decision not to record some of the speeches. The excuse made by the perpetrators - that the removal of the sound recorder supposedly ruined the concentration of the speaker - are completely baseless, especially after taking into account that the session was attended by supporters of certain political parties and groups of citizens, whose behavior was far more distractive than any action made by journalists who were doing their job. ANEM emphasizes that it is unacceptable to treat journalists reporting from city assemblies as anyone's "mouthpieces", without the right to criticism or autonomous selection of speeches that they consider newsworthy enough for their readers, viewers and listeners.

ANEM fully supports the editor of Radio Patak, Darija Rankovic, and all journalists who were exposed to threats and insults during the session of the City Assembly of Valjevo, and demands that the Assembly punish the perpetrators and ensure appropriate working conditions for journalists who report from its sessions.

Sasa Mirkovic, President of ANEM