ANEM ALARM: The chanting against Brankica Stanković must be urgently sanctioned.

ANEM has reported a threat to the safety of Brankica Stanković to the competent prosecutor's office, requesting an urgent response from the police and the prosecutor's office, noting that the fact that the Belgrade Arena is covered by cameras could facilitate and expedite the identification and prosecution of the perpetrator of the criminal act of endangering the safety of journalists under Article 138 of the Criminal Code of Serbia.

We emphasize that previous reports to the competent authorities have not led to the prosecution of those responsible. According to ANEM's data based on insights from the records of the Supreme Public Prosecutor's Office, all investigations regarding the endangerment of Brankica Stanković's safety have yielded no results. Additionally, in 2010, the First Basic Court in Belgrade dismissed the indictment against six fans of "Partizan" and acquitted them of the charges of endangering journalist Stanković's safety due to chanting at a football match in 2009. At that time, the fans were released from custody by the court's decision. The panel of judges, led by Judge Jelena Milinović, concluded that singing the lyrics "You're as dangerous as a snake, you'll go down like Ćuruvija" did not constitute a qualified and serious threat that would endanger Stanković's safety. Following years of proceedings and appeals, the Higher Court in Belgrade definitively acquitted three "Partizan" fans in 2015 of charges that their violent behavior, specifically offensive chanting from the stands, endangered Brankica Stanković's safety during the football match between Partizan and Shakhtar on December 16, 2009.

ANEM also points out that the result of all four reports filed for offensive and threatening chanting and singing from 2022 to the present boils down to requests from prosecutors to the police to identify the perpetrators, but the police have not done their job despite numerous cameras in the arenas and broadcasts on television.

The police have evidently protected the violent individuals and hooligans, rather than the journalist whose safety has been compromised since the airing of the "Insajder" series 17 years ago.

Additional concern regarding the inaction of the relevant state authorities arises from the fact that the controversial list of pardoned individuals by former President Aleksandar Vučić includes Nebojša Đokić, a member of a group charged with money laundering alongside Vitomir Bajić, who is designated as an associate of Darko Šarić in the Serbian police. Vitomir Bajić is mentioned in an official note from the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Serbia as a person who was supposed to carry out the murder of Brankica Stanković.

The editor of Insajder has been a target of fan groups and hooligans for 17 years because she has exposed the criminal profiles of organizations and individuals posing as fans and highlighted numerous criminal charges for serious offenses against individuals from fan groups that have not been prosecuted for years.

“A society that normalizes threats, intimidation, and insults against journalists, especially one that remains insensitive to misogynistic and sexist insults aimed at female journalists, is not ready for any progress or healing. Brankica Stanković has been endangered and targeted for 17 years simply for doing her job. She is further endangered by the frequent misogynistic chanting and threats simply because she is a woman. Now is the time for the police and the prosecutor's office to take action against the fans and criminals who continuously repeat and normalize violence against Brankica Stanković, as well as against the journalists of Insajder TV,” said Veran Matić, President of the ANEM Management Board.

Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM)

The project "Improvement of 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 Insajder TV and the Center for the Development of Local Media, with the support of the European Union.