ANEM alarm: A new brutal threat to Marko Vidojković

The President of the Board of the Association of Independent and Electronic Media (ANEM) and member of the Permanent Working Group for the Safety of Journalists, Veran Matić, as an operator on the SOS line for reporting threats and attacks, has submitted a report to the Prosecutor’s Office for High-Tech Crime requesting urgent identification and sanctioning of the perpetrator to prevent possible attacks.

“Vidojković, along with co-author of the program Nenad Kulačin, is among the most attacked media workers, which is why the international PEN, a global organization of writers advocating for freedom of speech, relocated him abroad. The majority of threats remain unresolved, and the perpetrators have not been sanctioned. In the past year and this year, only one case has reached a conclusion through a guilty verdict. As a result, the perpetrators feel safe and encouraged,” Matić stated.

Threats against journalists have also been inspired by leading officials of the executive and legislative branches, who, according to the records of the Slavko Ćuruvija Foundation, verbally attacked female and male journalists 141 times in September alone (four more than in August).

ANEM once again calls on government representatives to cease verbal attacks that label journalists, dehumanize them, and refer to them as traitors and foreign mercenaries, theorists.

We also call on the relevant prosecutors' offices, and especially representatives of the Ministry of Interior, to more effectively prosecute cases of threats and attacks on journalists, which have significantly increased. By the end of August alone, the Supreme Public Prosecutor's Office had formed 84 cases, 22 more than in the entire previous year, and according to NUNS records, there are over 200 cases of endangerment of the safety of female and male journalists.

We appeal to representatives of the international community, particularly the institutions of the European Commission, to react to the unacceptable rhetoric of government representatives, as well as to the increasingly frequent attacks by members of the police intervention units on female and male journalists.

**Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM)**
*The project "System for the Prevention of Violence and Protection of Journalists" is 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 Balkan Fund for Democracy, and the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications of the Republic of Serbia.*
*The OSCE Mission to Serbia has supported ANEM's project "24/7 SOS Helpline for Assistance to Journalists and Other Vulnerable Media Workers" as part of the project funded by the European Union "Enhancing Freedom of Expression and Media Freedom in Serbia."*