EFJ: Journalist Dinko Gruhonjić is no longer safe in Serbia; the regime bears direct responsibility.

“Severe damage to the vehicle represents yet another in a series of security threats that cannot be viewed separately from the long-standing organized campaign of persecution to which Dinko Gruhonjić has been subjected due to his journalistic, academic, and public engagement. The EFJ and NDNV believe that this attack on Dinko Gruhonjić’s family sends an unequivocal message that they are no longer safe in Serbia, for which the institutions and the ruling regime bear direct responsibility,” the statement reads.

For years, Dinko Gruhonjić has been one of the most frequent targets of regime-led media smear campaigns, hate speech, threats, including death threats, as well as public targeting in Serbia.

“Despite numerous warnings from journalistic and human rights organizations, as well as reactions from international institutions, including warnings on the Council of Europe’s Platform for the Protection of Journalism, the atmosphere of impunity has persisted. Instead of protection, we have witnessed further political and media targeting, creating an environment in which individuals may believe they have the right to turn threats and hatred into concrete acts of violence,” stated the EFJ.

They added that it is particularly concerning that pressures are now increasingly directed at members of Dinko Gruhonjić’s family.

“The attack on his son’s car represents an act of intimidation that sends a message that no one in the family is spared the consequences of the hate campaign that has been waged against Dinko Gruhonjić for years,” the statement reads.

The EFJ and NDNV expressed their fears that “the next step could be physical elimination.”

“It is clear that the responsibility for such an atmosphere does not lie solely with the direct perpetrators. All political actors who have been producing and spreading hatred towards journalists, professors, activists, and other critical voices for years also bear responsibility, marking them as targets and presenting them as legitimate objects of public persecution,” the statement assesses.

The EFJ and NDNV expressed full solidarity with Dinko and David Gruhonjić and stated that violence, intimidation, and persecution will not silence those who advocate for professional journalism, human rights, and democratic values.

“On Friday, the annual assembly of the EFJ unanimously adopted a resolution regarding the escalating threats and criminal violence against journalists in Serbia,” said EFJ President Maja Sever.

“We noted that these incidents, recorded at various locations and directed against different media, show that journalists in Serbia are increasingly exposed not only to political pressures and smear campaigns but also to direct intimidation from criminal actors operating in an atmosphere of impunity and insufficient institutional protection,” Maja Sever stated.

She called on the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Serbia to investigate the attack on David and Dinko Gruhonjić and to provide them with protection.

“We call on the European Union to consistently apply conditionality in the accession process and to demand concrete progress in the area of journalist safety as a prerequisite for Serbia's European integration,” said Maja Sever.

Source: Autonomija