07. 12. 2007

THREAT TO BURN B92 NOTHING CONTROVERSIAL – POLITIKA EDITOR

BELGRADE, 7 December 2007 (B92) - The daily Politika editor-in-chief today reacted to yesterday's interview published in her newspaper.

Ljiljana Smajlović sees nothing controversial in the piece, where B92 is directly threatened by a high New Serbia (NS) party official.

Smajlović, herself interviewed by our journalist today, does not believe that the article was inflammatory, nor that the interview and claims of Topola Municipal President Dragan Jovanović threatened the safety of B92 employees, since, as she explained, “there is no real intention to set fire to B92.”

Jovanović, Infrastructure Minister Velimir Ilić's party deputy, said the same fate suffered by the state-controlled RTS awaits B92.

The RTS building was set on fire on October 5, 2000.

But Smajlović accused B92 of acting "too much like detectives, and not professionals", and that B92 only defended itself when something was aimed directly at our company.

The full interview will soon be available in our Insight pages.

In the meanwhile, referring to the Law on Racial and Other Discrimination, the Belgrade Center for Human Rights lodged a criminal complaint today against Jovanović for interrupting the Peščanik promotion.

The violent canceling of the radio show led to his subsequent comments about B92 published in the daily.