An explosive atmosphere requires a more efficient response from institutions.

Instead of stopping or reducing violence against journalists and the media, violence, threats, and pressure increased during the last ten days of January, along with an intensification of journalist layoffs.

This period illustrates the threat received by the editorial team of the portal Magločistač via the social network Facebook, from a profile that featured a photograph of the President of Serbia on its homepage to illustrate a political stance, while its intentions and the intentions of the group it belongs to were illustrated by a direct threat: “J… we will kill your family.” The threat has been reported, and we expect an efficient investigation by the Prosecutor's Office for High-Tech Crime and the Department for High-Tech Crime of the Ministry of the Interior.

This brutal and intimidating message was directed at an editorial team consisting of female journalists and confirms a trend noted in the past year that female journalists are threatened more than their male counterparts (70 percent of all threats directed at journalists via the internet were aimed at women).

Attacks on female and male journalists covering protests continued. At the City Hall in Novi Sad, members of the Ministry of the Interior pulled journalist Dragana Prica from Radio 021 and journalist Ksenija Pavkov from N1 by their arms and shoulders and pushed them toward the exit, despite their repeated identification as journalists. A member of the Ministry of the Interior threatened Danas journalist Aleksandar Latas with being tied up, while police dragged TV Nova S cameraman Darko Eker by his backpack with television equipment. Journalist Žarko Bogosavljević was knocked to the ground.

A large number of attacks on journalists and media workers since November 1 of last year have gone uninvestigated and unsanctioned, which increasingly encourages violence. What is even more concerning is that the violence is perpetrated by police officers, who should be protecting journalists and enabling them to work freely.

Journalists, especially female journalists in northern Kosovo, are very vulnerable and lack effective protection.

The editor of the portal Alternativa, Ana Marija Ivković, was harassed in the center of northern Kosovska Mitrovica when an unknown man followed her and demanded to see her personal documents, insisting that she answer whether she is Serbian or Albanian.

Since the beginning of the year, there has been a trend of dismissals of journalists after they expressed political opinions. Journalist Vojislava Crnjanski Spasojević from Večernje novosti had her employment terminated after posting a photo from a protest in front of the Constitutional Court on her Instagram profile.

ELLE magazine journalist Tara Đukić was informed of her employment termination after she expressed support for a student protest.

Due to her support for student protests, Olivera Kovačević, the editor of the entertainment program at RTS, has been subjected to a witch hunt in pro-government tabloids, as well as direct unfounded accusations from the President of Serbia. RTS correspondent from Novi Sad, Milan Srdić, openly discusses the censorship he experienced while reporting on protests in Novi Sad in a letter to the editor of the news program, Nenad Stefanović.

The KRIK editorial team received a second lawsuit in the past twenty days, this time from Jelena Tanasković, the acting director of "Infrastruktura železnica Srbije," who is among those accused in the collapse of a canopy that killed 15 citizens and is currently under house arrest.

A high concentration of attacks in a short period creates an explosive atmosphere that can lead to more severe consequences. It is essential for investigative authorities to process all cases in a much more efficient manner and to put an end to impunity while creating conditions for preventing threats to journalists' safety.

Veran Matić

President of the Board of the Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM)