ANEM ALARM: Identify and process the individual who is threatening Branislav Šovljanski and his family.

A threat was made in a comment on an article published on the N1 portal titled “The Tabloid Spin from the Front Row: Turning a Simple Protocol into a Great Honor for Serbia and Vučić,” sent by a person identifying themselves as “a Serb,” who has previously sent threatening messages to the editorial office.

“N1, we will f*** your children, family, everything you have, and we will f*** slowly, we will wait for you, we will f*** your loved ones, remember that as long as there are Serbs, you will be hunted, we will f*** your origin, you need to be impaled on a stake and roasted alive, you whore, bastard, your mother f***ed everyone, I don't know who your father is, bastard,” the message states.

From the same account, “Serb,” similar threats and intimidating messages were sent to the N1 editorial office and Veran Matić just a few weeks ago, which have been reported to the prosecutor’s office and the police.

ANEM demands that the relevant institutions, after numerous unresolved cases of pressures, threats, and physical attacks on female and male journalists, finally start doing their job and put an end to the spiral of endangerment of media safety in Serbia.

“We are particularly concerned about the ‘returnees’ who intimidate and threaten with brutal announcements of murders and rapes. Instead of prioritizing their identification and prosecution, we are typically left without any reaction from the prosecutor’s office and the police. Only fear remains for those who have been threatened and their families. We call on international institutions for freedom of speech and media to influence major global providers to provide data on the owners of accounts spreading hate speech and issuing death threats,” said Veran Matić, Chairman of the ANEM Board, member of the Permanent Working Group for the Safety of Journalists, and operator of the Safe Line for Journalists 0800 100 115.

We appeal to journalists, female journalists, and media representatives to regularly report any form of safety threats while performing their work through the Safe Line 0800 100 115.

Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM)

The project “Enhancing the System Mechanism for Prevention and Response in Cases of Threats to the Safety and Life of Female and Male Journalists in Serbia” is being implemented by ANEM in partnership with Insider TV and the Center for the Development of Local Media, with the support of the European Union.

The OSCE Mission in Serbia has supported ANEM's project “24/7 SOS Hotline for Assistance to Journalists and Other Endangered Media Workers” within the EU-funded project “Strengthening Freedom of Expression and Media Freedom in Serbia.”