Independent Journalists’ Association of Serbia strongly condemns the threats made to the journalist of the Nova.rs portal, Vojislav Milovancevic, and calls on the competent authorities to react urgently

Namely, on Thursday evening, Milovancevic received insults and threatening messages from several Twitter accounts, some of which represent a very serious and direct threat to the safety of journalists.

The threats followed the publication of an article in which the Nova.rs journalist referred to a rape case at the Orthodox Theological Faculty. One of the users called on his like-minded people to “address” Milovancevic, after which several people, under the pretext of protecting the reputation of the Serbian Orthodox Church, sent threatening and insulting messages to the journalist.

“The threats began to arrive after the article, where I referred to our earlier writing about the case at the Theological Faculty. The team that did this is hiding under the cloak of alleged protection of the Serbian Orthodox Church’s reputation, and is making death threats – quite Christian. Unfortunately, this is it happens to us journalists on a daily basis, “Milovancevic told IJAS.

He says that “there are people constantly appearing who threaten and make false claims about journalists.” “I think it is important for the prosecution to deal with this case and to process these brave ones who send such messages from social networks,” our interlocutor is clear.

He adds that “he hopes that this country has legal mechanisms by which it can stand in the way of such people.”

This is not the first time that this journalist was attacked, because in July last year he suffered a severe physical attack during a protest in front of the National Assembly. The perpetrator was found and taken into custody, and the attacker pleaded guilty and was sentenced to one year of house arrest. The journalist was dissatisfied with the end of the case, given that he considered that there were several open questions and suspicions that this really was the person who attacked and injured Milovancevic.

IJAS will inform the Contact Points for the Safety of Journalists and the Permanent Working Group for the Safety of Journalists about this case.

IJAS,

23^rd of January  2021.