Death threats and threats to physical safety of journalists, Dragojlo Blagojević, Belgrade, July 13, 2022.

Translations: Beograd 

The editor of the magazine “Drvotehnika”, Dragojlo Blagojević, received death threats through a phone call in the night between July 12 and 13. The threats followed the publication of the magazine’s July issue on Monday. “Dragojlo, are you? Is that the deceased, who died a year ago. And he’s not, he’s not, he’s just going to die,” a male voice told him, warning him that he’s just going to see who he is. At Blagojević’s insistence to introduce himself, the man said his name was Stanko Vasić, which, according to the journalist, is probably a fake name. He assumes that the threats have something to do with the article entitled “Distribution of raw materials from state forests under the veil of secrecy”, which was published in the last issue of the magazine “Drvothenika” on Monday, July 11. In the mentioned text, Blagojević writes that “forestry potentates resell wood at twice the price, and the state tolerates or encourages all this for a long time”, as well as that the export of wood assortments is growing, and “domestic wood processors have big problems in supplying raw materials, lay off workers, import raw materials and have far higher production costs, and all of this is reflected in the market and, at the end, on customer’s pocket”.