BELGRADE, 22.03.2019. – A columnist of the Belgrade independent Danas daily Bozidar Andrejic received a threat from a Twitter user “Rade Mjesalica” saying he would beat up Andrejic, adding many swearwords and insults, the Beta news agency reported.
The Independent Association of Serbia’s Journalists (NUNS) and the Association of Serbia’s Journalists (UNS) called on the police and prosecutors to urgently react and find out the real identity of the man who threatened Andrejic.
The threats came after the daily published Andrejic’s column “Prince Marko on Internet” (Kraljevic Marko na netu) in its weekly edition. The author wrote about the Internet and suspicious contents on Wikipedia and did not mention anyone by name.
Andrejic filed criminal charges against John Doe, UNS said in a statement, adding they expected those responsible for threats to be punished in line with the law.
NUNS added that every attack on a journalist was a threat to the media freedom and accordingly to democracy itself.
It said NUNS have called on the highest ruling officials on many occasions to “publicly and non-selectively” defend journalists and media.
The posts and comments on the mentioned Twitter account also insulted the Danas daily.
Threats to journalists both on social networks and in real life even from the state officials have become a practice in Serbia with the authorities reacting selectively.