Veran Matić: A Quarter Century Since the Murder of Milan Pantić, Impunity is Unacceptable

The President of the Management Board of the Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM), the President of the Commission for Investigating the Murders of Journalists, and a member of the Permanent Working Group for Journalists' Safety, Veran Matić, emphasized that we are getting closer to the obsolescence of this criminal act, "which many evidently wish for."

"There is no end because impunity is unacceptable. It is unacceptable in the case of Slavko Ćuruvija, although everyone knows very well who killed him. It is not without reason that the Supreme Court stated that the panel of the Appellate Court violated the law in the case of the acquittal for his murder. I hope that soon some similar competent institution will officially ask the Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime why it resolutely refused twice to initiate proceedings regarding the murder of Milan Pantić," Matić assessed.

According to him, the Commission for Investigating the Murders of Journalists once did a great job and provided an abundance of materials for further prosecution, which has not happened. Therefore, he believes it is important to maintain a flicker of hope that the person who killed Milan Pantić will be found.

"Milan was killed deliberately, just to silence him, so that he would not awaken the working class, preventing them from rising up and realizing they have been sold out. Whether politics and the management of privatization by a certain circle of people from the political establishment are involved in the act itself, we can only suspect, because the most important institution for the fight against organized crime—the Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime—lacked the knowledge, strength, will, and political will to take over the case and provide an answer to this question," stated the President of the ANEM Management Board.

As he emphasized, the safety of individuals who worked on the cases of the murders of Slavko Ćuruvija, Dada Vujasinović, and Milan Pantić has also been endangered over time.

"I am referring to retired police Major Predrag Simonović, retired police Colonel Dragan Kecman, who was also the head of the working groups of the Ministry of Interior for resolving the murder cases of Ćuruvija and Pantić, as well as myself as the President of the Commission for Investigating the Murders of Journalists. This fact speaks volumes about the relationship of institutions and society towards these crimes that must not go unpunished. As long as we continue to fight against impunity, it is evident that we will also be endangered," Matić noted.

After laying flowers at the grave, the "Milan Pantić" award for journalistic courage was presented to journalist, publicist, and war reporter Igor Damjanović at the National Library in Jagodina.

Let us remember that on this day, 25 years ago, Milan Pantić, a correspondent for "Večernje novosti" from Jagodina, was killed in the entrance of the building where he lived. He is suspected to have been murdered due to his reporting on corruption and questionable privatizations in the Pomoravlje district, but there are still no accountable parties for the murder.

**Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM)**

*The project "Improving the system of prevention and response mechanisms in cases of threats to the safety and lives of journalists in Serbia" is being implemented by ANEM in partnership with Insider TV and the Center for the Development of Local Media, with the support of the European Union.*