BELGRADE, 01.11.2018. – The last issue of the Belgrade Ilustrovana Politika weekly triggered reactions from abroad on Wednesday, after the independent unions of journalists in Serbia and Vojvodina (NUNS and NDNV) said that the weekly cover page was “a call for lynching the independent media and journalists,” the Beta news agency reported.
The headline reads “Dogs are unleashed,” and the unions have said on Tuesday that both the headline and the content of the article are equivalent to an open hunt season on independent media.
“It is frightening that this weekly has been spreading hatred and intolerance by branding professional journalists traitors and foreign spies, thus drawing a target on their forehead,” the unions’ statement said.
It has added it is even more upsetting since the weekly is state-owned.
The Reporters Without Borders (RWB) or in French Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF) condemned the hatred and call for verbal lynching by “a pro-government newspaper against two independent outlets which are critical of the regime.
“Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.” Thomas Jefferson https://t.co/XkJk9AVJqY
— Američka ambasada (@USEmbassySerbia) October 31, 2018