Dragan Bursac, journalist and columnist from Bosnia and Herzegovina, received threats on his Instagram profile.
Person registered with full name and surname sent threats to Bursac, some of which are: “I’m reconfirming my promise to you. You’ll put up with a lot of s**it in your mouth, if you knew how much you’d literally go to that “Serbian” church to pray to God.” “This is an open threat, you stinky scumbag, so you can report it wherever you want, we are just waiting for you anyway.”, “You’ll put up with s**it in your mouth some time. Very unpleasant. You will understand when we meet”. The case was reported to the Police in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia considering that the threats were sent from Serbia.
This is not the first time that Bursac was threatened. He is constantly the target of threats and insults because of his general journalistic work and articles about confronting the wartime past in the region of the former Yugoslavia and critically oriented articles towards the nationalist authorities in the region.
Director of the SafeJournalists Network, Dragan Sekulovski, stated that online threats to media workers are equally dangerous as traditional threats, hence must not be ignored, and added: “The Ministry of Interior and the Public Prosecutor’s Office must not disregard threats to journalists because in that way they will be responsible for hate crimes that journalists can face later. The fact that the perpetrator in the case of Bursac is registered with his name and surname makes the investigation easier, and therefore punishment in accordance with the law is expected”, said Sekulovski.
SafeJournalists Network, representing more than 8,200 media professionals in the Western Balkans, condemns threats against Bursac and calls on the competent authorities to conduct an investigation and adequately punish the person who sent the threats.
SafeJournalists Network will inform relevant national and international stakeholders about this case.
Each attack on journalists is an attack on public interest, democracy and rights of all citizens.
Skopje – Belgrade – Podgorica – Pristina – Sarajevo – Zagreb – Tirana, 05.11.2022
Association of Journalists of Kosovo
Association of Journalists of Macedonia
BH Journalists Association
Croatian Journalists’ Association
Independent Journalists Association of Serbia
Trade Union of Media of Montenegro