Matić: Vučić's statement is intimidation, an attempt to make me stop defending journalists from threats and attacks.

The campaign against the president of the Association of Independent Electronic Media, Veran Matić, led by pro-regime media, continued last night on the national television channel Pink, during the show Hit Tweet, where the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, was a guest.

In response to the host Verica Bradić’s comment about the Twitter user Marko Marjanović (known as Crystal Met Damon, who has been in digital prison for three months, banned from posting on social media after he revealed the phone numbers of Ana Brnabić and a journalist from RTS), Vučić replied:

“If someone had done that to a journalist from N1 or Veran Matić, they would have gone into custody and prison or been shot directly.”

The host remarked that “it is even more interesting that Mr. Veran Matić came to his defense.”

“Impossible,” Vučić interjected.

“(Matić) claims that (Marjanović) should be released from that digital prison, even though Matić, who heads the Association of Independent Electronic Media, should be advocating for the protection of his colleagues. What caused this turnaround from Mr. Matić?” the host asked the president, to which he responded:

“Because they have nothing to do with honor and truth. It doesn’t matter who you are talking about. You see, it would be good if those who were arrested, detained, and convicted because of Veran Matić had their records wiped clean—if he is so nice to people—and that it would be as if they had never been punished. And that he should nicely bring them whiskey or a bottle of wine to their homes and apologize for the fact that people served time because of him, without any guilt or fault. How does that look to you?”

Vučić added:

“These are the double standards. If he is on our side, he can kill people; that’s how they see it. But if he is not on our side, he cannot even catch a fly; he is guilty and responsible. But that is the time we live in.”

According to Vučić, this is a time when “shame has retreated before ignorance, when knowledge has retreated before arrogance, and where we must oppose them. We must resist them at every place, with every word, with every action, so that they do not destroy our country, so that they do not destroy our state.”

Who are we really talking about?

Vučić did not clarify who he was referring to when he said that people had been “arrested, detained, and convicted because of Veran Matić,” but this can only be linked to the two former officials of the State Security Department, Milan Radonjić and Ratko Romić, who were convicted in the first instance for the murder of journalist Slavko Ćuruvija and were acquitted last year.

These two, along with their lawyers, have repeatedly blamed Matić and the Commission for Investigating the Murders of Journalists, which he headed, for influencing the trial for Ćuruvija's murder, which lasted nine years.

The other two accused and then acquitted for the murder of the journalist, former RDB chief Radomir Marković and RDB reserve member Miroslav Kurak, do not fit the president's description—the former is in prison for other criminal offenses, while the latter was on the run during the trial.

Matić requests a police assessment of his safety following Vučić's statement

Veran Matić told Cenzolovka that he interprets “the president's statement as being in the spirit of tabloids and in line with the defenders of the accused, as well as the accused themselves, who have often blamed me for the prosecutor bringing charges against them, judges confirming the indictment, and other judges rendering a verdict.”

“I understand this statement from the president as a kind of green light for all those who have been accused and convicted in cases of attacks on journalists or murders of journalists to come to me and demand compensation for the time they spent in detention and prison. I interpret such a statement from the highest level of government as intimidation and an attempt to make me stop actively defending all journalists who are threatened, who have been attacked, or who are unjustly prosecuted.”

Matić stated that after the president's statement, he officially requested an assessment of his personal safety from the police, as he had previously been in a similar situation when he was under police protection 24 hours a day for six years.

“Although I do not have high expectations from the aforementioned assessment, I want there to be a written record of the initiative for assessing my personal safety,” he said, adding that solidarity among endangered journalists, media workers, and all defenders of freedom of speech, opinion, assembly, and peaceful political action has never been more important.

“If that does not exist, then there will be no basic freedoms for the citizens of this country, for journalists, for the media, let alone democracy,” Matić stated.

Vučić 2024: The verdict for Ćuruvija is a great injustice and extremely bad for Serbia

Vučić stated just a year and a half ago, when the accused for Ćuruvija's murder were acquitted:

“A difficult situation, very unpleasant, terrible for us,” he said on February 5 of last year, adding that “if he believed in conspiracy theories, he would not exclude the possibility that this is yet another step in the downfall of power.” The verdict is “a great injustice and an extremely bad thing for Serbia, its legal system, as well as a bad message for anyone involved in journalism.”

As Deputy Prime Minister of Serbia, in 2013 he stated that he would resign if the murder of a journalist was not solved, claiming that the “state executed Ćuruvija.” He supported this trial, promising that the state would face the crimes committed by its members.

Vučić, who came to power promising to resolve the murders of journalists, supported the work of the Commission for Investigating the Murders of Journalists in 2013 and attended its meeting.

He, who now accuses Matić of arrests and trials, actively supported the investigation into Ćuruvija's murder and the trial, stating that “a man was killed in a criminal manner and the state should do everything to find those responsible and punish them.”

He forgets that in 2015 he himself asked Veran Matić to get involved in the process of clarifying the murder of the three Bitići brothers, saying that “Matić has shown serious results so far, and in the case of Slavko Ćuruvija's murder, he managed to encourage a significant number of people to cooperate and work together.”

In August 2018, Vučić appointed Matić as his special envoy for resolving the issue of the missing with Croatia.

Should Matić apologize to Kantar?

Dejan Nikolić Kantar, a bully and owner of numerous casinos in Vranje and its surroundings, who ended up in prison, threatened employees of OK Radio during the trial, in court, in front of the judge, and also threatened present journalists, including Matić.

Due to his involvement in this case, the president of ANEM became a target of attacks from Nikolić Kantar, who even sent a criminal complaint against him from prison.

During the trial against Nikolić, Matić appeared on wanted posters in Vranje, and several hundred people gathered outside the court, wearing shirts that read: “Justice for Kantar, Vučić help.”

Matić has repeatedly publicly stated that the case against Nikolić is a significant test for the judiciary in Serbia and that the state must respond decisively and effectively to protect journalists and citizens from bullies. He has also spoken about the disappearance of court files during the trial, obstructions, pressures, as well as the vulnerability of journalists and employees at OK Radio in Vranje.

Source: Cenzolovka