> Dogs maul journalist to death
Belgrade-based journalist and analyst Vladan Radosavljević (62) succumbed on 4th January after being attacked by dogs in a village on Mount Kosmaj, close to Belgrade.
The basic court in Mladenovac ordered that Violeta M be remanded into custody for up to 30 days on suspicion of not securing the cage containing the dogs in Velika Ivanča on 4th January, with the dogs later that same day leaving the yard and attacking Radosavljević and his wife, who also sustained serious injuries as a result of the attack.
Radosavljević worked at Studio B, the Belgrade Media Centre and Production Group Mreža. He also served as editor-in-chief of Vršac-based Television Banat, after which he collaborated with Television Šabac until the year 2020.
> Podcast authors targeted by pro-state media and threatened on social media
In just one day, portals of tabloid newspapers and one television company launched a witch hunt against Nenad Kulačin and Marko Vidojković, with the authors of the podcast “The Good, The Bad & The Evil” (DLZ) and columnists of daily newspaper Danas subjected to new insults and threats via social media.
Standing out among the threats received by Kulačin is one alluding to being bitten by dogs, which caused the recent death of journalist Vladan Radosavljević. That threat was issued after Kulačin and Vidojković used their podcast to call for a detailed investigation into the tragic dog attack. Pro-government television station TV Pink subsequently alleged that Kulačin had used the podcast to somehow link the journalist’s tragic death to Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić.
The same podcast episode also included discussion of the 1995 war crime in Srebrenica, during which the presenters clearly emphasised that there is no verdict condemning Serbia or the Serbian people for genocide, but rather specific individuals, though that didn’t prevent individual pro-state tabloids from presenting that part of the podcast conversation as the authors stating that genocide was committed in Srebrenica. Vidojković subsequently also received threats via social media, on the same day that the International and German PEN Centre called on the Serbian authorities to investigate all death threats issued against Vidojković, who reported having received more 40 such threats just last year.
> Journalist who first reported on ammonia leak accident detained
Nenad Paunović, editor-in-chief of local Pirot-based portal Pirot plusonline, who was the first to report to the Serbian public on the leak of an ammonia tank near Pirot and the spill of that dangerous gas, was taken into police custody together with an associate who operated a drone that filmed the scene of the accident.
The two toured the site of the accident some 13 days after the incident occurred. They were released following interrogation and police detention lasting four hours, but neither Paunović nor his lawyer, Srđan Mitić, has subsequently received any information as to whether criminal charges would be filed and for what criminal act.
Apart from being the first to report on the accident, Paunović also became known to the general public after finding a corpse in the immediate vicinity of the railway lines, but also for his posing of questions to Environmental Protection Minister Irena Vujović that she was unable to answer.