ANEM alarm: The attacker on the N1 cameraman has been conditionally sentenced to five months in prison.

The Permanent Working Group for the Safety of Journalists organized a meeting in Požega after several days regarding this and other cases. Veljko Lazić, the prosecutor of the Higher Public Prosecutor's Office in Užice, informed those present that actions had been taken and that an indictment had been filed against Ljubomir Knežević for the criminal offense of violent behavior at a public gathering, in conjunction with endangering the safety of journalists.

The Higher Court in Užice declared the attacker guilty of violent behavior with a first-instance judgment on November 20 and sentenced him conditionally to a prison term of five months, with a probation period of one year.

“In this case, the prosecution and the court brought about a first-instance judgment in a short period of time. We expect it to be confirmed, but also that an indictment will be raised against the same perpetrator who, after this attack, assaulted and injured activist Aleksa Pavlović in Kosjerić,” stated Veran Matić, president of the Management Board of the Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM) and a member of the Permanent Working Group for the Safety of Journalists.

Out of 98 cases formed before the prosecutors' offices in Serbia since the beginning of the year, we have only one final conviction for attacks on female and male journalists and only three indictments raised. According to the records of NUNS, there were over 130 unpunished attacks on journalists and media workers in the past year.

We call on the prosecutors' offices, and particularly the police, to investigate and prosecute threats and attacks on journalists much more effectively. In a large number of cases, the perpetrators have been identified as those who often appear as security for the ruling party and the “unsanitary tent settlement in front of the Serbian Assembly and from Pioneer Park,” but also from the ranks of police intervention units.

We once again urge representatives of the authorities and ruling parties to stop unjustly defaming and targeting female and male journalists and to condemn, rather than support, such attacks.

Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM)

The project "System for the Prevention of Violence and Protection of Journalists" is implemented by ANEM with partners Insider TV and the Center for the Development of Local Media, with the support of the European Union and the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications of the Republic of Serbia.