26. 07. 2008

DECLARATION FOR GENERAL PUBLIC AND STATE INSTITUTIONS

STATE ADMINISTRATION IS RESPONSIBLE FOR PROTECTION OF WORK AND LIFE OF MEDIA PROFESSIONALS

Belgrade, July 26, 2008 – Reporters, cameramen and photographers in Serbia have these days been exposed to a renewed and brutal street violence. Reporters who cover protests of the Hague indictees' supporters risk their lives when they work fully exposed to violent hooligans before the very eyes of police officers and security services' members.

We hold the Government of Serbia and especially the Ministry of Internal Affairs responsible for tolerance shown for the violent and unrestrained behaviour of protestors led by Serbian Radical Party and "Obraz" organization. 

We cannot accept that the protestors' leaders openly threaten reporters and highest state officials with death, which is in itself a serious criminal offence, with almost no reaction from the Police and judiciary. 

The fact is that violent behaviour towards media has been openly supported and instigated by certain party officials, and that also caused almost no public reaction at all. 

An atmosphere of lynch has been gradually creating again, and this is why we:

- Demand that state institutions take all available measures in order to provide the necessary conditions for unobstructed work of media organizations and their reporters, and also in order to protect the lives of media professionals;

- Demand from the relevant state institutions that each assault on media professionals be treated as an assault on a person in their official capacity, and also that both executive and judicial authorities, and Police in particular, make strongest efforts in order to protect journalists' profession;

- Demand that the assailants on our colleagues from B92, FoNet, RTS and other media be identified immediately and taken into custody and punished according to the existing Criminal Code.
If within the following 48 hours all the assailants on our colleagues are not taken into custody, we shall be forced to reduce our reporting from public gatherings, and above all to report without any form of picture.

Conclusion from the meeting of representatives of journalists' associations and editors-in-chief that was held in the premises of the Independent Journalists' Association of Serbia (NUNS), on July 26th, 2008.
 
Participants in the meeting:
Nadežda Gaće, President of Nezavisno udruženje novinara Srbije (Independent Journalists' Association of Serbia) 
Zvezdan Mančić, President of Asocijacija medisjkih fotografa Srbije (Media Photographers' Association of Serbia)
Veselin Simonović, Editor-In-Chief with "Blic" Daily Newspaper
Dragoljub Žarković, Editor-In-Chief with the "Vreme" Weekly Magazine
Zoran Sekulić, Editor-In-Chief with FoNet News Agency
Ivan Cvejić, Editor-In-Chief with "Beta" News Agency
Sanda Savić, Editor-In-Chief with TV B92
Nebojša Popov, Editor-In-Chief with "Republika" Magazine
Tatjana Vidojević, Editor-In-Chief with TV Fox
Gordana Suša, Editor-In-Chief with VIN TV Production
Tanja Jordović, Editor-In-Chief with TV Pink
Aleksandar Timofejev, Editor-In-Chief with TV Studio B
Slaviša Lekić, Editor-In-Chief with "Standard" Magazine
Vladimir Radomirović, Deputy Editor-In-Chief with "Politika" Daily Newspaper
Maja Divac, Deputy Editor-In-Chief with "Mreža" Production Group   
Nataša Bogović, Assistant to Editor-In-Chief with "Danas" Daily Newspaper
Jovan Palavestra, Senior Editor with TV Avala
Nino Brajović, President of Udruženje novinara Srbije (Journalists' Association of Serbia)
 
Declaration has been supported by:
Nezavisno društvo novinara Vojvodine (Independent Journalists' Association of Vojvodina)
Asocijacija nezavisnih elektronskih medija (ANEM) (Association of Independent Electronic Media)
Asocijacija Lokal press (Lokal Press Association)
Javni servis RTS (Public Broadcasting Corporation Radio Television of Serbia)
Javni servis RT Vojvodine (Public Broadcasting Corporation Radio Television of Vojvodina)
Dnevni list Dnevnik ("Dnevnik" Daily Newspaper)
Dnevni list Građanski ("Gradjanski List" Daily Newspaper)