ANEM alarm: N1 editorial team threatened with burning and bombs
The Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM) calls on the relevant authorities, police, and prosecution to urgently respond to the recent threats received by the editorial office of N1 television.
The editorial office received disturbing and chilling threats through comments on the portal of that media outlet, stating: "F*** your mother, are you people normal? Let's burn down N1" and "We are preparing bombs for N1; because of your whining, they see us as rats. The time is coming when all Ustaše must be expelled."
ANEM assesses such messages as a direct threat and a jeopardization of the safety of journalists and other media workers and calls on the relevant authorities to urgently investigate the case, identify, and sanction the perpetrators who send disturbing and chilling threats to journalists.
We remind you that reporters and television teams from N1 have been the targets of verbal and physical attacks more than 40 times from November last year to the end of September, not counting the numerous grotesque and brutal threats in comments and emails.
ANEM emphasizes that such cases are a direct consequence of years of targeting this media outlet by the highest state officials, including the President of Serbia. Incendiary verbal attacks and labeling journalists as traitors, accusations of terrorism, and other unacceptable statements that are essentially serious lies are propagated through tabloids close to the authorities, which continue negative campaigns against journalists. It has happened multiple times that such behavior leads to brutal threats and attacks.
“N1 has long been the most endangered media house regarding threats and attacks on journalists. The impunity is concerning, as in the past two years, only in one case has the perpetrator been judicially punished. The brutality and frequency of threats and attacks require much greater efficiency from the police and the prosecutor's office. We call on the Ministry of Internal Affairs to secure the building where N1 operates to prevent possible attacks that are being announced in these threats,” stated Veran Matić, President of the Management Board of ANEM and member of the Permanent Working Group for the Safety of 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 support from the European Union, the Kingdom of Norway, the Balkan Fund for Democracy, and the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications.
