Targeting Veran Matić

Since the protests and university blockades began across Serbia, involving various actors—from students to bikers, veterans, and various forms of protest such as marching from place to place, culminating in the final protest—authorities in Serbia, particularly Aleksandar Vučić, have attempted to imitate the ideas observed on the streets. He has created his own bikers, his own veterans, and even his "students who want to learn," which might be the highest praise from the authorities for everything that has transpired on the streets. He has not yet dared to organize his rallies, as that sounds too communist.

All these ideas from the authorities, primarily copying what they have seen, had a kind of precursor in their non-governmental organizations, known by the acronym GONGO (Government Organized Non-Governmental Organizations).

Their emergence coincides with the strengthening of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party’s power and authority. The first reports in the media about abuses in the allocation of funds to non-governmental organizations through ministry competitions appeared in 2014. A 2024 BIRN study states that in that year, 396 organizations received over one million dinars in public competitions from 15 ministries of the Government of Serbia during 2022 and 2023, totaling 22.7 million euros.

The research showed that more than a quarter of that sum, specifically 683 million dinars (5.8 million euros), was awarded to invisible, phantom organizations directly or indirectly connected to the ruling party or state officials, with GONGO receiving 135 million dinars (1.1 million euros).

Less than half of the total sum, 1.1 billion dinars (9.7 million euros), was allocated to organizations confirmed by the research to be legitimate.

One of the GONGO organizations stood out particularly. Its name is the Center for Social Stability (CZDS). On their website under the "About Us" section, it states:

"The Center for Social Stability was founded in 2004. Throughout its existence, we have advocated for promoting tolerance in public dialogue, raising awareness of the necessity of democracy as a political and social system of values, and proposing new solutions to enhance civil society on patriotic foundations. At the end of 2017, young intellectuals and enthusiasts entered the Center for Social Stability, with the ambition to contribute to the development of social debate and promote a model of non-conflict resolution of key issues. The Center for Social Stability brings together intellectuals of various profiles and interests, but with a clear mission—to promote a culture of dialogue, improve the ability to accept differences, and respect differing opinions, while finding creative responses to the complex questions that social reality presents us with daily."

How they perceive "the culture of dialogue and the enhancement of the ability to accept differences and respect differing opinions" is reflected in nine published "documentary series," although some have multiple parts.

"Anatomy of Deception" deals with deceptions, specifically regarding Srebrenica and Račak, that is, the deception that genocide occurred and the deception that there was a massacre of Kosovo Albanians in Račak, which was the pretext for NATO bombing of the then FR Yugoslavia.

"Time of Terror" has two parts and focuses on exposing the rebellion from the streets. Five parts of "DEblocking" claim to reveal those behind the protests... A particular series titled "Evil Age" has drawn attention, which is yet another plagiarism, this time of a series called "Heroes of the Evil Age," which aired on N1 television. There are two episodes. However, you will not find them on the website of that "work." Perhaps because just recently, the Basic Court in Novi Sad issued a first-instance ruling stating that the Center for Social Stability harmed the reputation of N1 and Nova S by broadcasting a video with the logos and journalists of these two media houses, alleging that they "lie and spread hatred."

N1 and Nova S, along with journalists from those television stations, were a particular target of the first series, but not only them, as KRIK and BIRN also appeared as "socially harmful." United Media, which is behind those television stations, warned at the time that "Evil Age" is a "dangerous mix of disinformation, manipulation, half-truths, and tendentious interpretations of the laws and activities of United Media and United Group."

"The video material, broadcast on televisions with national frequencies, openly targets the leaders of our company, journalists, media, and TV personalities—with a clear goal: their dehumanization, criminalization, and ultimately their removal from the public space. This is not an ordinary smear campaign—this is the culmination of years of systematic persecution of independent media and one of the most serious examples of politically motivated media violence recorded in modern Europe," they stated at that time.

On the other hand, the President of the National Assembly of Serbia, Ana Brnabić, who was also an interviewee in the film, along with Miloš Vučević, the former Prime Minister and current President of the SNS, referred to the CZDS as a "fantastic non-governmental organization," while President Aleksandar Vučić called them "true Serbian patriots."

However, by the ruling of the Basic Court in Novi Sad, where the CZDS is based, the publication of video recordings on any television or social media is prohibited.

The ruling was announced in January 2026, and at the very end of that month, the second part of the series focusing specifically on the personality of Veran Matić, a former editor of RTV B92, was aired on national frequency televisions "Prva" and "B92," as well as on "Informer," accusing him of being a traitor, a foreign mercenary, an agent, with allegations of misappropriating vast sums of money, thereby indirectly calling for the lynching of Veran Matić, as noted in a statement by the Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM).

The film was also condemned by the Permanent Working Group for the Safety of Journalists (SRG), of which Matić has been a part since the beginning. They particularly pointed out that one of the "most serious threatening messages in the film was conveyed through a carefully selected photograph of Veran Matić on Svetogorska Street in Belgrade, at the site of the murder of journalist and publisher Slavko Ćuruvija."

"The authors must have known that it was Veran Matić, through the work of the Commission for the Investigation of Journalists' Murders, who contributed for years to gathering evidence and insisted on shedding light on that crime, as well as that the campaigns of constructed accusations of 'treason' and 'foreign agents' were part of the atmosphere preceding Slavko Ćuruvija's murder, which is why such content today appears to be a conscious invocation of the same pattern of targeting," they indicated in the SRG.

In the second part of "Evil Age," besides Matić and Stevan Dojčinović from KRIK, Kruna Savović, a lawyer and representative of NUNS in the SRG, is also implicated, as well as specific individuals from the Independent Journalists' Association of Vojvodina—Ana Hegediš Lalić, the current president, and Dinko Gruhonjić, the former president.

Veran Matić himself stated in an interview with "Danas" that the film was made in a manner reminiscent of the time when Aleksandar Vučić was Minister of Information, reminding that the then confrontations with journalists did not end only with media attacks, but also with violence.

"The same handwriting used in the 1990s is recognized, along with amendments to laws that facilitate the criminal prosecution of journalists and media. We know how that ended—with the murder of Slavko Ćuruvija," stated Matić.

He also reminded that the Supreme Court issued a ruling according to which the acquittal in that case was made in violation of the law and assesses that today a "full circle" is being completed in the relationship of the authorities toward professional media, which we have also written about.

Let us also recall that the same handwriting in defamation was used prior to the murder of Oliver Ivanović, whose murder, just like that of Slavko Ćuruvija, as well as Dada Vujasinović and Milan Pantić, remains unresolved to this day.

**Source: [portalnovosti.com](https://www.portalnovosti.com/targetiranje-verana-matica/)**