ANEM ALARM: The Case of Jelena Stojković – Victim and Unpunished Attacker

The Vranje Police Department has filed a criminal complaint with the prosecutor's office, stating that a city official assaulted a journalist, preventing her from reporting and seizing her phone, which was later returned to her at the insistence of witnesses. Physical attacks on journalists leave not only immediate physical scars but also serious psychological consequences.

We also remind that the prosecutor who initially handled this case, after unacceptable delays, decided to merge two cases – the complaint regarding the assault and the counter-complaint from the assailant, which is why ANEM submitted a request for oversight to the Chief Public Prosecutor at the Higher Public Prosecutor's Office in Vranje, Danijela Trajković, who acted urgently on this objection.

“The decision by Prosecutor Nakić, unfortunately, was expected. The city authorities are protected at various levels, as we have witnessed for years in the case of the ‘sealing of OK Radio’. Despite the decisions from inspection authorities in June 2022 to demolish the illegal structure that blocked part of OK Radio’s premises, the city authorities have yet to take action. In the meantime, Nikolić Kantar has been sentenced to prison twice, serving his sentences, but the illegal structure remains as part of a betting shop that has been generating revenue daily since 2022.

The same city authorities, whose official assaulted a journalist in front of numerous witnesses, also receive protection from the prosecutor's office: instead of protecting the victim, in this case, the assailant is being shielded. The traumas – both physical and psychological – resulting from the moment of the attack have been further deepened by the delays in the investigation, the decisions of the prosecutor who first acted, and this latest resolution.

We call on the relevant authorities to rectify this injustice and ensure that the assailant of the journalist is appropriately sanctioned. We express our full support for our colleague Stojković and other professional journalists in Vranje and urge the Higher Public Prosecutor's Office to review the decision of the Basic Public Prosecutor's Office in Vranje, so that our colleague is provided with adequate protection,” stated Veran Matić, President of the Board of the Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM), a member of the Permanent Working Group for the Safety of Journalists and an operator on the Safe Line for Journalists 0800 100 115.

Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM)

The project “Improvement of the Prevention and Response Mechanism for Threats to the Safety and Lives of 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 Journalists and Other Threatened Media Workers” as part of the EU-funded project “Strengthening Freedom of Expression and Freedom of the Media in Serbia.”