Maja Sever: SLAPP’s are the most serious threat to media freedom in the region

16/11/2022

Banja Luka, 15.11.2022. – Lawsuits against editors and journalists for defamation and SLAPP’s are currently the biggest threat to media freedom in the entire region, said the president of the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) and the president of the Union of Journalists of Croatia, Maja Sever, during her address at the training for journalists in Banja Luka, organized by the BH Journalists Association and with the support of Internews.

“I don’t know how many of you know, but Croatia is, unfortunately, the infamous champion in terms of SLAPP lawsuits, in terms of pressure from political and other powerful people on journalists through groundless lawsuits, which exhaust journalists and endanger their work. I invited journalists to send me a short video about how attacks and insults affect their work. In those videos, many colleagues said that insults and threats to journalists are unacceptable, but that the SLAPP lawsuits they are being bombarded with are much more painful and a severe blow to their freedom of work. Not only because of the fear that they will lose and have to pay hundreds of thousands, but journalists nowadays lose days in courts. When one newsroom and one journalist receive two, three, five, ten, thirty lawsuits, you constantly have to go to court hearings, often in another city. Simply, people are completely exhausted“, says Maja Sever.

Being a witness at trials is also a very stressful experience for journalists, says Sever: “I’m often a witness at trials. It’s a terrible experience for me, regardless of the fact that I am not being sued. All day long you are somewhere in a court, in an atmosphere that is neither pleasant nor friendly, with an uncertain outcome for your colleague.”

According to her, when it comes to defamation lawsuits and SLAPP’s, it is necessary to establish a better education system for journalists, on the one hand, and judges and all people who are part of the judicial system, on the other hand.

“In everyday processes, ignorance of journalistic work, ignorance of the environment and the media, leads to sometimes absurd lawsuits. In Croatia we have, for example, a case where a media outlet lost a case that was a pure SLAPP because they published the truth, but that truth caused ‘mental pain’ to the plaintiff and in the end that media outlet lost. So it’s an awful lot of pressure and how do we fight together? Well, let’s say, through educations like the one you are on today. Better cooperation. Cooperation with international institutions“, emphasized Sever.

She added that the European Federation of Journalists, in cooperation with the organization Media Freedom Rapid Response, provides support to journalists who are exposed to SLAPP lawsuits, including legal and financial aid.

“I can say that judges are already a little more aware of what is a SLAPP and what is not a SLAPP. It’s still difficult for us, we’re still under attack, but the public and those who make decisions have actually realized that there are a number of pressures and attempts to censor journalists and the media precisely through SLAPP lawsuits. At the same time, we have an increase in violence and attacks against journalists, which also limits our work“, said the EFJ president.

It is necessary to improve the cooperation between the media, media organizations, police and prosecutor’s offices with the aim of more efficient processing of attacks on journalists. Also, media outlets should establish a risk assessment, support their journalists who are victims of attacks and provide them with adequate psychological support, concluded Maja Sever.

Ukrainian Foreign Ministry calls on Serbia not to broadcast Russia Today

IJAS

16/11/2022

Oleh Nikolenko, the official representative of the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, has called upon Serbia not to permit the broadcast of the propaganda channel Russia Today (RT).

He reminded the public that in the RT broadcast, „the aggression against Ukraine is constantly being justified and calls for the genocide of Ukrainians are being made.“

„RT has nothing in common with freedom of speech and journalism. The propaganda and disinformation that this channel spreads will not benefit Serbian society. We are calling upon Belgrade not to make this decision,“ pravda.com.ua quoted Nikolenko as saying.

Nikolenko remarked that permitting the RT broadcast is not in line with Serbia’s course to become a member of the European Union (EU), which introduced sanctions against this propagandistic Russian media source.

„The Serbian government must understand that RT can start destabilizing the situation in Serbia at any moment,“ Nikolenko summed up.

The Russian state channel Russia Today, which is banned from broadcasting in the EU because of “inciting and supporting Russian aggression” against Ukraine, said Tuesday that it has launched a multimedia online website in Serbian, dubbed RT Balkan.

RT Balkan editor-in-chief Jelena Milincic said “people the region will now have access to RT in the Serbian language, which will provide a more complete picture of the modern world.”

Allowing the broadcast of the Russian RT channel in Serbia has nothing to do with free speech, because this is not a medium but a mouthpiece for Russia’s war propaganda, European Parliament Rapporteur Vladimir Bilcik MEP told N1.

Serbia: Protect journalists and denounce death threats against them

IJAS

16/11/2022

1667746748-list-danas-678x382-1 — source: Danas/B.C

The partner organisations of the Media Freedom Rapid Response express deep concerns about the death threats against journalists of the daily independent newspaper Danas. We welcome the swift action of the Serbian authorities to provide security and carry out individualised assessments for the journalists. It is now vital that Serbian authorities conduct a thorough investigation to identify individuals behind the threats and bring them to justice. Journalists must be protected from any threat of violence.

On 6 November 2022, Danas’s editor in chief Dragoljub Petrovic received a threatening email from an anonymous Protonmail account that contained death threats against the newspaper’s staff, singling out journalist Snežana Congradin. The email draw comparison between Danas journalists’ fate and the murdered journalists from the French magazine Charlie Hebdo, who in 2015 were victims of a deadly terrorist attack.

According to reports, threats to Danas were linked to news reports the newspaper published about Kosovo, Republika Srpska in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro. The author of the menacing email also accused the newspaper of supporting ‘Albanian separatists’. While by far the most extreme message received, it is alarming that this is far from the only death threat sent to the editorial office in relation to its journalistic work.

We understand that the Serbian prosecutorial team is progressing with investigations into the culprits and is currently collaborating with Swiss authorities to identify the sources of the threat. The threatening email was sent through a Swiss-based Protonmail service, which is used by Danas’s team as a communication channel.

Serbian authorities must ensure that journalists are able to work in an enabling environment that protects them from any threat or violence resulting from the exercise of their profession. To this end, our organisations urge the Serbian government to take full stock of the provisions included in the Council of Europe’s Recommendation on the protection of journalism and safety of journalists and other media actors (CM/Rec(2016)4), and enact comprehensive measures that point towards the prevention, protection and prosecution of threats and violence against media professionals.

We call Serbian authorities to ensure the safety of Danas’s staff, to promptly investigate the threats and bring perpetrators to justice. We also call public authorities to openly denounce such violent threats and express solidarity with Danas’s journalists.

Signed by:

ARTICLE 19 Europe

European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF)

International Press Institute (IPI)

OBC Transeuropa (OBCT)

This statement was coordinated by the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR), a Europe-wide mechanism which tracks, monitors and responds to violations of press and media freedom in EU Member States, Candidate Countries and Ukraine.

Russia Today launches website in Serbian, defying EU sanctions

IJAS

15/11/2022

lens-g11e1179a1_1920-1536x1024 — Photo: Pixabay

Russia Today (RT), which is under European Union sanctions imposed following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, said on Tuesday that it has launched a multimedia online website in Serbian, dubbed RT Balkan, with TV broadcasting expected to launch in 2024.

“We were probably not expected anywhere in the world as much as here. And I want to address the dear Serbs in their own language: Brothers, watch RT,” the company’s editor-in-chief, Margarita Simonian, said in a press release.

The RT Balkan website will be led by Jelena Milincic, the daughter of Ljubinka Milincic, who is the editor-in-chief of the Serbian edition of the Moscow-aligned Sputnik news website, which launched in 2014.

“Now the residents of the region will have access to RT in the Serbian language, which will provide a more complete picture of the modern world. Becoming part of the media space of the Balkans is a big challenge for us. But we are ready for it,” Jelena Milincic was quoted as saying. In addition to the website, RT Balkan will also run its Telegram channel, and will have a presence on social networks such as Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, and YouTube. The RT network publishes news in English, Arabic, Spanish, French, and German. They also run a separate documentary channel, RTD.

In early March, the European Union imposed sanctions against two state-owned Russian media outlets, Russia Today and Sputnik, alleging that they manipulate information and spread Russian propaganda about the brutal attack on Ukraine.

EU: RT and Sputnik are a direct threat to public order and security

“We will ban the Kremlin’s media machine in the EU. The state-owned Russia Today and Sputnik, and their subsidiaries, will no longer be able to spread their lies to justify Putin’s war. We are developing tools to ban their toxic and harmful disinformation in Europe,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said at the time. The Commission said that Russia Today and Sputnik are “key media for promoting and supporting Russian aggression against Ukraine” and that they represent a “direct threat to public order and security in the EU.”

Both media outlets participate in the coordinated manipulation of information and disinformation, according to an analysis by the European External Action Service, which has been collecting data on this since 2015. The EU sanctions cover all means of transmission and distribution of content, including cable, satellite, IPTV, platforms, websites, and mobile apps. All their broadcast licences and distribution agreements have been suspended in the EU.

In July this year, European Union spokesman Peter Stano, commenting on the announcement that RT will open its representative office in Belgrade, said that “Serbia, as a candidate country, is expected to gradually align itself with the Union’s foreign and security policy and its decisions.” He recalled that the EU “introduced restrictions on broadcasting, distribution and advertising of RT within the framework of sanctions that are a response to illegal Russian aggression against Ukraine.”

Kryeministri i Shqipërisë akuzon mediat për ‘shantazh’ – Shtohen pyetjet për besueshmërinë dhe profesionalizmin e medias

Tirana

10/11/2022

Javën e kaluar kryeministri Edi Rama dhe Top Channel, televizioni i dytë më i madh për nga të ardhurat në Shqipëri (stacion privat me licencë transmetimi kombëtar), kanë pasur një konflikt publik. Nga njëra anë, kryeministri Rama akuzoi Top Channel se shantazhon qeverinë me mbulim negativ. Nga ana tjetër, Top Channel argumenton se kryeministri po sulmon median për shkak të ndryshimit të linjës editoriale – duke u kthyer tashmë në një nga mediat më kritike të qeverisë në Shqipëri.

Në një sërë postimesh në Twitter (këtu, këtu, këtu, këtu, këtu dhe këtu dhe këtu), kryeministri Rama argumentoi se Top Channel kishte kërkuar favore të paligjshme, kryesisht shuma të mëdha parash për mbulim favorizues. Kur nuk iu dha kjo, ata ndryshuan mbulimin e lajmeve, duke shantazhuar qartë Qeverinë me mbulim negativ – argumenton Rama. Ai akuzoi mediat për “#DavaRublash” (konotacion negativ – persona që paguhen nga qeveria ruse), duke aluduar për lidhje me regjimin e Putinit dhe “gjobaxhinj” (konotacion negativ – njerëz që përdorin shantazhe). Ai inicioi #DavaRublash (Një Çështje e Rublës Ruse) dhe #MeFakteJoMeRubla (Bazuar në fakte, jo në rubla ruse), të dyja i referohen pretendimit se një pjesë e opozitës dhe disa media (duke iu referuar kryesisht Top Channel në këto tweete ) paguhen nga Rusia. Nga ana tjetër, Top Channel kritikoi sulmet e Ramës dhe pretendoi se ato erdhën “pas transmetimit të kronikës së lajmeve që shqetësoi publikun”.

Ky rast ngre pikëpyetje për profesionalizmin, integritetin dhe besueshmërinë e një prej televizioneve më të spikatura të Shqipërisë, në mos më të mëdhatë, kombëtare. Top Channel ka qenë një mbështetës i dukshëm i qeverisë për nëntë vitet e fundit deri në dy javë. Prej afro 15 ditësh ky televizion kombëtar ka nisur të raportojë me një “dozë” të fortë kritikash për zhvillimet aktuale sociale, ekonomike dhe politike në vend. Madje, ai bëri një artikull me titullin “Shqipëria po bëhet autokraci”, e ndjekur nga shumë mbulime të tjera kritike të qeverisë, duke demonstruar një ndryshim në politikën e tyre editoriale ndaj qeverisë dhe kryeministrit. Ajo që bie gjithashtu në sy është se ky televizion nuk është domosdoshmërisht në rresht me opozitën sepse Top Channel përgjithësisht vazhdon të transmetojë të paprekura materialet e gatshme PR të kryebashkiakut të Tiranës. Pra, nuk ka asnjë provë që ka një ndryshim thelbësor profesional në linjën editoriale, por një konflikt në dukje vetëm me Ramën.

Përdorimi i medias për shantazh është nënvizuar si një shqetësim në rritje në raportet ndërkombëtare të lirisë së medias, duke përfshirë Treguesit e Sigurisë së Gazetarëve në Nivelin e Lirisë së Medias dhe Sigurinë e Gazetarëve. Në fillim të këtij viti, pronari dhe drejtuesit e lartë të Top Channel shkëmbyen akuza të ndërsjella publike me autorin e një emisioni investigativ të përjavshëm (Top Story) për shantazh në këmbim të favoreve dhe parave. Në shtator, kryeministri dhe Top Channel patën një konflikt publik në lidhje me sistemin e hakuar TIMS (këtu), i cili është përshkallëzuar javët e fundit.

Rasti ilustron qartë se si funksionon qeveria dhe media në Shqipëri – një çështje e përmendur rregullisht në raportet ndërkombëtare të lirisë së medias, duke përfshirë Treguesit e Sigurisë së Gazetarëve në Nivelin e Lirisë së Medias dhe Sigurisë së Gazetarëve dhe Komisionit Evropian. Reklamat nga organet shtetërore në Shqipëri jepen aktualisht pa njoftim paraprak dhe pa transparencë në lidhje me kostot, bazuar në një vendim të qeverisë të vitit 2007. Partia Socialiste, në atë kohë në opozitë, e kritikoi këtë praktikë si “korruptive” dhe premtoi se do t’i jepte fund kur të merrnin pushtet. Raporti i Progresit i Komisionit Evropian për vitin 2021 dhe 2022 nënvizonte se Shqipëria “nuk ka bërë asnjë përparim” në lirinë e medias dhe i kërkoi qeverisë “të prezantojë legjislacionin për të forcuar transparencën në reklamat publike”.

Në të njëjtën kohë, tregon problemet me cilësinë e medias, standardet profesionale dhe gazetarinë vëzhguese, veçanërisht kur merret parasysh që Top Channel është një nga tre televizionet kombëtare në Shqipëri. Kjo ndikon edhe në besimin e qytetarëve në media.

Links të tjerë:

https://balkaninsight.com/2022/11/02/albania-pm-claim-media-is-blackmailing-him-with-negative-coverage/

https://sot.com.al/english/politike/rama-thellon-konfliktin-me-mediat-dhe-sulmon-opoziten-po-dezinformojne–i545926

https://www.medialook.al/a-po-rizgjohet-gjigandi-mediatik-rama-akuzon-per-shantazh-kerkuan-nga-azhbr-120-mln-leke/?fbclid=IwAR3vVeRbljo0roKQhOFLJBFBSI7E9vlP8KwJgzWdsOmlv23O6L-j_8l1niI

Albania Prime Minister Accuses Media of ‘Blackmail’ – Questions of media credibility and professionalism rise

Tirana

10/11/2022

At the beginning of November, Prime Minister Edi Rama and Top Channel, the second largest television in terms of revenues in Albania (private station with a national broadcasting license), have had a public conflict. From one side, Prime Minister Rama accused Top Channel of blackmailing the Government with negative coverage. On the other side, Top Channel argues that the Prime Minister is attacking the media due to the change in its editorial line – having become now one of the most critical media of the Government in Albania.

In a series of tweets (here, here, here, here, here and here and here), Prime Minister Rama argued that Top Channel had requested illegal favors, basically large amounts of money for favorable coverage. When not provided with this, they changed their news coverage, thus clearly blackmailing the Government with negative coverage – Rama argues. He accused the media of “#DavaRublash” (negative connotation – persons being paid by the Russian Government), alluding to connections with Putin’s regime, and “gjobaxhinj” (negative connotation – people that use blackmailing). He initiated the #DavaRublash (An Affair of the Russian Ruble) and #MeFakteJoMeRubla (Based on facts, not on the Russian Ruble), both refer to the allegation that part of the opposition and some media (referring mainly to Top Channel in these tweets) are paid by Russia. On the other hand, Top Channel criticized Rama’s attacks and claimed they came “after airing the news chronicle that worried the public.”

This case raises questions about the professionalism, integrity, and credibility of one of Albania’s most prominent, if not the largest, national television. Top Channel has been an apparent government supporter for the past nine years until two weeks. For nearly 15 days, this national television has started to report with a strong “dose” of criticism on the country’s current social, economic, and political developments. It even did a feature piece with the headline “Albania is becoming an autocracy,” followed by much other critical coverage of the Government, demonstrating a shift in their editorial policy towards the Government and Prime Minister. What also stands out is that this television is not necessarily aligning with the opposition because Top Channel generally continues to broadcast intact the ready-made PR materials of the Mayor of Tirana. So, there is no evidence that there is a substantial professional change in the editorial line, but an apparent conflict only with Rama.

Using media to blackmail has been underlined as a growing concern in international media freedom reports, including Safe Journalists Indicators on the Level of Media Freedom and Journalists’ Safety. Earlier this year, Top Channel owner and senior managers exchanged mutual public accusations with the author of a weekly investigative show (Top Story) for using blackmail in exchange for favors and money. In September, the Prime Minister and Top Channel also had a public conflict regarding the hacked TIMS system (here), which has escalated in the past weeks.

The case clearly illustrates how the Government, and the media operate in Albania – an issue referred to regularly in international media freedom reports, including Safe Journalists Indicators on the Level of Media Freedom and Journalists’ Safety and European Commission. Advertisements from state bodies in Albania are currently awarded without prior notice and transparency regarding costs, based on a government decision of 2007. The Socialist Party, then in opposition, criticized the practice as “a corruptive one” and promised to end it when they took power. The European Commission Progress Report of both 2021 and 2022 underlined that Albania “has made no progress” on freedom of the media and urged the Government to “introduce legislation to strengthen transparency in public advertising.”

At the same time, it shows the problems with the quality of media, professional standards, and watchdog journalism, particularly when considering that Top Channel is one of the three national televisions in Albania. This also affects citizens’ trust in the media.

Further links:

https://balkaninsight.com/2022/11/02/albania-pm-claim-media-is-blackmailing-him-with-negative-coverage/

https://sot.com.al/english/politike/rama-thellon-konfliktin-me-mediat-dhe-sulmon-opoziten-po-dezinformojne–i545926

https://www.medialook.al/a-po-rizgjohet-gjigandi-mediatik-rama-akuzon-per-shantazh-kerkuan-nga-azhbr-120-mln-leke/?fbclid=IwAR3vVeRbljo0roKQhOFLJBFBSI7E9vlP8KwJgzWdsOmlv23O6L-j_8l1niI

This online tool helps journalists analyze political ad spending on social media

IJAS

08/11/2022

Political advertising has ramped up in the U.S. ahead of the country’s midterm congressional elections on November 8. According to campaign finance tracker OpenSecrets, over US$9 billion will be spent on this year’s political races; $50 million was spent in September alone.

Much of this money goes towards political advertising on social media. A newly enhanced online tool, the Ad Observatory, can help journalists analyze the nature of this ad spending.

In a recent ICFJ Global Crisis Reporting Forum webinar, Nancy Watzman, a strategic advisor for NYU Cybersecurity for Democracy and founder of Lynx LLC, spoke on how journalists can use the Ad Observatory to investigate political advertising on social media.

How it works

Created by NYU’s Tandon School of Engineering, the Ad Observatory allows users to search data on political ads from social media sites owned by Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram. Search parameters can include keywords, topics, sponsors or regions. Users can also do basic Boolean searches with the tool, and explore keywords in relation to each other.

The tool uses data from the publicly available Meta Ad Library, which is an archive of all ads running across Meta properties. It combines this data with available election information to create easy-to-understand graphics. These visualizations can show trends such as spending over time, by top sponsor, by ad type and partisan lean, or by audience demographic. Data can also be date-restricted, for instance if a journalist is looking for ad spending over a specific period of time.

This additional level of processing makes NYU’s tool a better starting source for journalists than the Meta Ad Library, explained Watzman. “We don’t clean [the data] so much as add layers of analysis on top of it. Those topics — you cannot find that on Facebook. We also have classifications of the ads: buy versus persuade versus connect. That’s not something Facebook provides; we add that value,” she said.

The Ad Observatory does not carry any individual examples of posts flagged as political, however — only aggregated data, Watzman noted. Users will have to go into the Meta Ad Library to see those posts themselves.

“What you can find on the Meta Ad Library is the trees, and we’re showing you the whole forest on [the Ad Observatory]. If you want to go back and find a particular tree, the Ad Library is very useful.”

How to use it

Journalists have used data from the Ad Observatory to inspire and enhance their stories on politics. Some examples include: learning which candidates are using social media advertising more; comparing spending from a single candidate over different periods of time to draw conclusions about political aspirations; understanding trending political topics, like immigration and abortion; and investigating the history of political sponsors.

The Ad Observatory is best used in conjunction with the archived ads in the Meta Ad Library and other sites like OpenSecrets, a research group which provides data on money in American politics, said Watzman. She cautioned journalists not to hastily draw conclusions based purely on information in the Ad Observatory about the forces behind political winners or losers following the upcoming elections.

“Spending is just one metric,” she said. “It is true that overall, historically, the biggest spender usually wins in a race. But, that’s not just spending on Facebook, and there’s always exceptions to that rule.”

It is, instead, best to use the Ad Observatory’s information as a supplement to understand bigger stories on trends in politics. These stories can also be used to highlight the lack of information available, since there are no rules dictating what ad information Meta and other social media sites are required to make public.

“There’s so much that we don’t know, and the reason we don’t know it is because this is not required. We just have to trust Meta to identify these political ads,” she said.

International use

Currently, the tool is most effective at analyzing English-language ads from the U.S. Part of the reason is because the Meta Ad Library, the source of the tool’s raw information, is sub-par at categorizing political and non-political ads from other countries. Although you can use the Ad Observatory in Spanish and search for Spanish-language ads, the results provided are not as comprehensive as the English-language results.

“We use a pretty conservative methodology for how we figure out whether an ad is in Spanish or not. We’re still tweaking that model,” said Watzman. “What we do hope is that this expertise we’re gaining on how to detect languages and ads will become really useful in global elections.”

Watzman stressed that the Ad Observatory has been built with unique, portable infrastructure that the NYU team hopes to disseminate worldwide. In addition to creating Ad Observatories in other languages, the team also hopes to integrate the nuances of regional or country-specific jargon and idioms into the tool’s algorithms, according to Watzman.

“Sometimes, ads about immigration [in the U.S.] never mention the word immigration. They use these code words that different political extremes recognize as being about it, like ‘the caravan’ [by right-leaning organizations],” said Watzman. “I think in every country it’s going to be very, very specific about what the terms used are, and the topic modeling is going to have to be different. One of the research questions that the team is exploring is how to build these nimble topic models to reflect those different languages and different ways that things can be expressed.”

Midterms and beyond

As the U.S. midterms inch closer, Watzman said that political advertising on social media is only going to get more aggressive.

“It’s going to be hard to track. It’s going to be hard to figure out what’s going on. It’s just going to be an onslaught,” she said. “It’s a very crucial election in the U.S., and a lot of people have a lot at stake. We need journalists watching.”

Watzman encourages those who have questions about the tool or want to contribute to improving the Ad Observatory to reach out to the NYU Cybersecurity for Democracy team.

“After we’re all done with this election, we’re going to be figuring out what our next projects are. So we’re always open to talking,” she said.

Applicants for fifth national broadcasting license before REM

IJAS

07/11/2022

Regulatory Authority for Electronic Media (REM) Council chair Olivera Zekic opened Monday public talks with the representatives of the four television stations that have applied for the fifth national broadcasting license, Fonet reported.

Four television stations have applied for the fifth national frequency license – Nova S, Kurir, Kopernikus and BK, said Zekic.

The REM Council issued in July this year four national broadcasting licenses to the same television stations that previously had them – Pink, Prva, Happy and B92.

At the proposal of REM Council member Judita Popovic, the media have been allowed to record the talks with the representatives of the four TV stations.

Threat of violence against Danas daily

IJAS

07/11/2022

Danas daily editor in chief Dragoljub Petrovic received an email threatening violence against that independent newspaper and its staff.

The email sent from a webmail service threatened “salvos of bullets” against the daily’s journalists, editors and columnists because of the newspaper’s editorial policy. The threatening email, sent from [email protected] was reported to the police.

“As the editor in chief of Danas daily, I need to inform you that you and your journalists and columnists are in mortal danger from certain far-right structures living in the shadows. I do not mean right-wingers under the control of the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) or the right-wingers who recently stopped you at Slavija square while you were giving an interview for the Croatian branch of N1. Those people are mostly benign and the worst you could suffer from them are light injuries,” the email addressed to Belgrade Charlie Hebdo. The email was published on the Danas web portal.

It said that the threat comes over the newspaper’s reporting on Kosovo, the Republika Srpska and Montenegro.

It accused Danas, N1 and Nova S of openly siding with “Albanian separatists” Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti and “ethnic Albanian separatists” in southern Serbia, singling out columnist Snezana Congradin. It also accused Danas of insulting the Serbs in Republika Srpska by allegedly calling them genocidal and the Serbs in Montenegro “Orthodox Taliban”.

The email listed the names of several Danas columnists.

The threat against Danas was condemned by Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic in a live appearance on the pro-regime TV Pink. Vucic said that things like that should not happen. “Let those people speak,” he said.

Petrovic said he expects the authorities to react immediately to identify the author of the threat. “We are used to receiving threats over our editorial policy but never something as terrifying as this one which said we would end up like our counterparts in Charlie Hebdo,” he said.

Journalists’ organizations, including Safe Journalists and the Association of Journalists of Serbia (UNS), condemned the threat and called the police and prosecutors to identify the author of the e-mail.

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Safejournalists.net

How it works

How to use it

International use

Midterms and beyond

The threat against Danas was condemned by Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic in a live appearance on the pro-regime TV Pink. Vucic said that things like that should not happen. “Let those people speak,” he said.