16. 09. 2005

LOCAL GOVERNMENT LEADERS HARASS VRANJE JOURNALISTS

On September 6, the current affairs editor of Radio OK, Sasa Stojkovic, was verbally attacked and threatened with physical violence by two Serbian Radical Party members of the Vranje Municipal Council. This was followed, just days later, by a telephone call from the president of the Council, Nenad Stosic, who threatened him with arrest because of an opinion poll, the results of which had not been broadcast but which Stosic believed to be malicious. On Monday September 12, the Radio OK editor and other journalists held a press conference to inform the public about the attack and sent an open letter to the president of the Council, asking him to explain his threatening behaviour. Stosic subsequently denied having called Radio OK. The editor and journalists then called a new press conference and informed the public that, because of the increasingly frequent threats they were receiving, all telephone conversations in the radio premises were recorded and that this included a recording of Nenad Stosic’s call. The recording, which includes obscene language in addition to the threats, was played at the press conference. Stosic then called the station again, now fully aware that the conversation was being taped, and threatened the journalist to whom he first spoke, saying that he was in for “suffering and pain” and that friends of his would “be paying a visit”. ANEM points out that no one, not even the president of the Vranje Municipality, is entitled to impose limits on the freedom of public information, and particularly not by abusing the authority of local government bodies. Any pressure exerted on journalists through threats of arrest or physical harassment is absolutely unacceptable in any civilized society. ANEM calls on media and journalist associations and the entire democratic public to show solidarity with the journalists and editor of Radio OK and urges the appropriate state institutions to use their authority without delay to guarantee the safety of these journalists and ensure that Radio OK is able to work without hindrance. The Association also demands that the president of the Vranje Municipality be made answerable for this unprecedented pressure on the media and on freedom of expression in general. Slobodan Stojsic, Chairman of ANEM Managing Board