BELGRADE, 08.11.2018. – The ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) deputies attacked the Belgrade Danas daily, telling the parliament the newspaper’s editorial policy was unseen since the Nazi time, prompting a strong condemnation from the Media coalition in Serbia, the Beta news agency reported on Wednesday.
The Coalition said in a statement the latest attacks coming from the SNS, led by President Aleksandar Vucic, were “yet another blow to media freedom, deliberately endangering the safety of the daily’s journalists,” and added that such incidents put in doubt the meaning of further negotiations between media organisations with the authorities on drafting a media strategy.
Aleksandar Martinovic, the SNS deputy club president, accused the independent Danas newspaper of “conducting an anti-SNS campaign unrecorded since the time of (Adolf) Hitler and (Joseph) Goebbels.”
His deputy Vladimir Orlic added “the Danas newspaper”, and its journalists were “a shame for journalism in Serbia.”
“The practice of the ruling party’s deputies to vilify media and journalists and draw a target on them is continuing,” despite the regime representatives’ claims they wanted to work on improving the media scene in Serbia and increase the safety of media people,” the coalition’s statement said.
“We asked the politicians to immediately stop using their power positions to brand the journalists and media the enemies of the people, foreign agents and traitors,” it added.
The Coalition, made up of the Independent Associations of Journalists in Serbia, the Independent Union of Vojvodina’s Journalists, the Association of Independent Electronic Media, Business Association Local Press and the Association of Online media, said they had already informed the OSCE, European Commission, the Council of Europe and other international organisation about the latest attacks.