Unpunished physical attacks on female journalists, male journalists, and media workers have become a daily occurrence in Serbia.
ANEM unequivocally condemns the physical attack on journalist Tamara Radovanović of Južne vesti while she was performing her journalistic duties.
We particularly condemn the behavior of members of the Ministry of Interior who removed her from the scene of the attack, preventing her from continuing to record the events, instead of intervening with the attacker.
The footage clearly shows the assailant's face and the fact that the police did not approach him, identify him, or detain him, but instead stopped the journalist from doing her job.
It has become a norm that attackers are more protected after an assault than the victims.
In just the past 6 months, there have been over 20 physical attacks on journalists.
We call on representatives of the Ministry of Interior to perform their duties professionally and to ensure that journalists can carry out their work, which is of general public interest, without interference. They must also neutralize, identify, and detain the attackers immediately.
Pursuant to this, we urge the relevant prosecution to promptly initiate proceedings to ascertain the identity of the perpetrator and to urgently prosecute yet another attack on a journalist.
It is essential to immediately halt the escalation of attacks on journalists, for these attacks to be condemned by officials, and for the perpetrators to be punished.
None of the assailants from the past 6 months have been definitively punished, which encourages further attacks.
We also call on government representatives to cease hate speech and targeting of journalists and media, as this certainly further motivates aggressors.
Veran Matić
Member of the Permanent Working Group for Journalist Safety and President of the ANEM Management Board
