Tabloids are attacking prosecutors and the Permanent Working Group for the Safety of Journalists in a campaign based on fabrications.

In light of the false and malicious information that has emerged in the aforementioned media, the Permanent Working Group for the Safety of Journalists emphasizes that the photograph featuring the public prosecutor of the Higher Public Prosecutor's Office in Novi Sad, Slobodan Josimović, the Chief Prosecutor for High-Tech Crime, Boris Majlat, and journalist Dinko Gruhonjić, originates from a meeting of the Permanent Working Group for the Safety of Journalists held two years ago in Novi Sad, attended by journalists from several editorial offices.

The Permanent Working Group for the Safety of Journalists has been in existence since 2017. Over time, a system of contact points has been established in every prosecutor's office, police station, and relevant journalistic associations and media organizations. Prosecutors Slobodan Josimović and Boris Majlat were present at the aforementioned meeting two years ago specifically in their roles as contact points representing the Higher Public Prosecutor's Office in Novi Sad and the Special Prosecutor's Office for High-Tech Crime, while journalist Dinko Gruhonjić attended this meeting as a journalist who is frequently subjected to numerous threats, pressures, and other criminal acts.

Such meetings of the Permanent Working Group for the Safety of Journalists are continuously held across the country, and after each meeting, the public is informed through press releases and photographs. Everything is more than transparent and, consequently, all the constructs presented in tabloid articles are the product of the authors' imagination and are intended to cause harm, both to those holding the most responsible positions in public prosecutor's offices and to long-standing independent professional journalists. In this way, damage is also inflicted on the Permanent Working Group for the Safety of Journalists, as one of the few working groups that has largely justified its existence through its practical activities and initiatives.

Therefore, there is a significant dilemma regarding whose interest it serves to target prosecutors Boris Majlat, Slobodan Josimović, Branko Stamenković, as well as journalists Dinko Gruhonjić and Veran Matić, through ordinary falsehoods and unfounded constructs filled with hate speech, at this moment and in this manner. The coordination of the mentioned media in this shameless campaign, in which some members of the ruling coalition also participate, based on false premises, suggests that there is an orchestrator who does not shy away from a media-disseminated anti-establishment campaign that threatens the foundations of the rule of law. Such unscrupulous activities strike at the very foundations of one branch of government, simultaneously endangering certain journalists, which raises additional concern in a time of heightened tensions and polarization within society.

At the same time, this campaign is taking place at a moment when the local authorities are striving, at all costs, to meet the prerequisites for the opening of Cluster 3 and to secure funding from the Growth Plan for the Western Balkans. One of those prerequisites is the amendment of media legislation, which is closely monitored by representatives of the European Commission and the international community. Such campaigns inflict immeasurable damage on the state and discourage actors who strive to translate the provisions of the law into practice, which is certainly not the case with this well-organized dangerous campaign that is rooted in certain structures of power. Therefore, it is the obligation of the same authorities to prevent and sanction such actors and to timely warn them to cease such activities, so that the spiral of verbal violence and lies does not escalate into serious physical attacks, which are becoming increasingly frequent.

Journalists in Serbia are faced with a multiplicity of threats and attacks in the past year, with a decrease in the effectiveness of police work in identifying attackers, and with police ignoring attacks on journalists. The attack on both prosecutors and victims of attacks indicates that the authorities in Serbia plan to intensify and brutalize their approach towards journalists and everyone who seeks to protect journalists from threats and attacks, as well as towards all political actors who hold differing opinions from those of the ruling party.

We call upon the OSCE, which is an observer in the Permanent Working Group for the Safety of Journalists, and the European Commission, which monitors the work of this body year after year, to protest in all available ways with the aim of stopping the attack on journalists and prosecutors associated with the Permanent Working Group, as well as on all prosecutors and judges who uphold the laws of this country.

The statement from the meeting of the Permanent Working Group for the Safety of Journalists, from which the photograph of Miroslav Janković was misused, is available at this link.

Association of Independent Electronic Media

Online Media Association

Media Association

Independent Journalists' Association of Serbia

Independent Journalists' Society of Vojvodina

Journalists' Association of Serbia

The project "System for Preventing Violence and Protecting Journalists" is implemented by ANEM in partnership with Insajder TV and the Center for the Development of Local Media, with the support of the European Union and the Balkan Democracy Fund.