The Tanjug news agency announced yesterday that death threats were sent to the newsroom by email. According to Tanjug, the threat stating that every Tanjug journalist “will receive a bullet in the back of the head the next time he/she steps on the soil of the Republic of Kosovo” was sent by a person signed as “Trim Bardhi”.
“We see that lately your propagandistic, chauvinistic and warmongering machine called ‘Tanjug’ has become more and more aggressive, using the chauvinistic name ‘AP KiM’ for the Republic of Kosovo, in the service of the dictator and warmonger Aleksandar Vučić. Just so you know that we follow the lies you spread every day about the state of Kosovo and the Albanians, just as we follow the movements of every journalist of your pseudo-media agency in Kosovo. Rest assured that one of them will get a bullet in the back of the head the next time they set foot on the soil of the Republic of Kosovo. We are monitoring everything,” the threat states.
The Minister of Information, Dejan Ristić, also reacted on that occasion.
He told Tanjug that the Ministry immediately entered into communication with the Ministry of Interior and the High-tech Crime Department of the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in Belgrade.
As he stated, they were in communication all night and it was discovered that the threat came from Albania. He also mentioned the international mechanisms with the help of which the perpetrators of the threats can be found.
Independent Journalists’ Association of Serbia (IJAS) strongly condemns the threats directed at journalists from Tanjug. We believe that no journalist’s safety should be jeopardized due to the performance of journalistic work.
We also welcome the quick reaction of the Ministry of Information and the High-Tech Crime Department of the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in Belgrade. In this example, they showed how they can discover the location where the threats are coming from in the shortest possible time. That’s why we expect them to do the same in similar cases in the future, especially when threats come from the territory where they have authority.
Independent Journalists’ Association of Serbia (IJAS)
Belgrade, October 1, 2024.