Other threats to the journalists, TV N1, Belgrade, 16.02.2021.

Translations: Beograd 

After TV N1 reported live in the morning program in front of the Belexpo Center in New Belgrade due to the announcement of the Government that the vaccination points will work during the holidays, the Prime Minister convened an extraordinary press conference. Namely, a TV N1 journalist reported live in front of the Belexpo Center and tried to find out what happened to the people who were there, she found about 40 people coming and waiting for 5-10 minutes and leaving, because they were expecting, given that the government itself announced that vaccination would continue normally during the holidays. She found people who came when they saw the camera and said we had a call.

After that report, they were contacted by the e-Government, in order to deny those claims of the citizens, and TV N1 offered them to the director to state and explain what happened. However, there was no answer, after which they received information that the director would not give a statement.

An extraordinary conference was convened by the Prime Minister Ana Brnabić, at which the Prime Minister stated: “This is a lie of unprecedented proportions to destroy the process, which is the most important, and to destroy the image of Serbia abroad. I ask and I will ask ten times: ‘ Why are you doing this? ‘ You who claim to be a symbol of objective and professional journalism. Or your intentions are different. And I say that your intentions are different. ” She then stated that the information was incorrect and that she told the e-Government Office not to give answers: “Where did the N1 team come from when the Bel expo Center is not working today, what did you do there, people gave you information that was not accurate, and you could to check in their phone. Then you are trying to contact the Office of e-Government, I said they do not give answers, because if the director gave a denial, that would be the last news in the lower left corner of your portal where the denial is one sentence and I did not want to give it, because I am here to defend the vaccination process, “said the Prime Minister.

N1 journalist Jelena Zorić, who was at the conference, explained that the television team was in front of the Belexpo center, because she checked the announcements that vaccination would continue during the holidays, and that it was not a practice for journalists to read messages from other people’s mobile phones. She said that it is not possible to control what the citizens say in the live program, but also that there is correspondence, in which the e-Government says that the director Mihajlo Jovanović will not give statements, so it was not possible to check. The Prime Minister replied that H1 only announced a few hours later that it had received an answer from e-Government that the vaccination was not even planned for today: “You do not check for two hours. But when we contact people to see what is happening, you contact the Office for “I told them not to give answers,” said Brnabic.