The Coalition for Media Freedom expresses great concern over the broadcast of the pogrom pamphlet „Meta Family“ on Pink Television, and calls on the authorities to protect labeled journalists, politicians and public figures, but also the public from dangerous manipulations and lies abounding in controversial television coverage.
Pink Television aired a 20-minute quasi-documentary, Meta Family, on its central news program, Nacionalni dnevnik, on Sunday night, in which many public figures, including many independent journalists, are accused of collaborating with criminals and foreign intelligence services and trying to organize the liquidation of Aleksandar Vucic and his family.
By suggesting that they endanger the security and call upon the assassination of members of the Vucic family, the target is again drawn on professional journalists, especially those most marked in this what can be seen as a kind of „TV arrest warrant“ broadcasted on a national television – Stevan Dojcinovic, Branko Cecen, Slobodan Georgiev and Zoran Kesic
We call upon the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Serbia and the Republic Public Prosecutor’s Office to issue a statement regarding the claims that journalists endanger the highest representatives of the Republic of Serbia. Without a clear reaction from these institutions, the campaign against professional journalists would only continue and the institutions would participate in these attacks in this way.
The Coalition for Media Freedom provides support to colleagues and calls on citizens, as well as other organizations and institutions to condemn the bestial and dangerous attack on our colleagues and other public figures.
The Coalition for Media Freedom consists of the Association of Media, Association of the Online Media (AOM), the Independent Journalists ‘Association of Vojvodina (IJAV), the Independent Journalists’ Association of Serbia (IJAS), Association of the Independent Local Media – Local Press and Slavko Curuvija Foundation.
January 11, 2022