23. 08. 2005

MINISTER WARNS JOURNALISTS MAY BE SHOT

Culture and Information Minister Dragan Kojadinovic has responded with a warning after the recent attack by Capital Investments Minister Velimir Ilic on journalists from RTV B92. Witnesses report that this attack included death threats aimed at the company’s director and editor-in-chief, Veran Matic, from Ilic’s media advisor, Petar Lazovic. “It seems to me that the next step is for someone to pull out a gun and shoot at a journalist, which happened in the Milosevic era,” Minister Kojadinovic told weekly Svedok. ANEM applauds the decision of the culture and information minister to dismiss his advisor, Bora Djordjevic, because of his unprecedented statement about B92 journalists. ANEM urges the democratic public and professional journalism and media associations to express solidarity with journalists and media who are subject to attacks and threats. The Association also calls on the appropriate state bodies to urgently take appropriate measures to prevent the real danger of which Minister Kojadinovic warns, and to halt the return to the period of harshest media repression as practiced under the Milosevic regime. Slobodan Stojsic, Chairman of the ANEM Managing Board