Press Shelter Cacak: Authorities by all means against facts

The most common question encountered by the representatives of the journalist guild in Cacak, which were addressed by public officials is:  “Who do you work for? ” Also, one gets the impression that pressures on objective media in local communities are the greatest. Media freedom in our country is also threatened by the favoring of pro-government media, tabloids, portals, as well as individuals who are placing untrue information.

It is a well-known fact that those who write odes to current regime receive more than 70 percent of the funds allocated for information, both at the local and national level. It can be concluded that they directly endanger the survival of those who work in the interest of the entire public.

Of course, the fact that there have been no murders of journalists in recent years should not be left out, but daily verbal attacks, both at the national and local level, are also an indisputable fact. Attacks on the property of objective journalists has been recorded, but also the attempted murder of Milan Jovanovic, whose house was set on fire, and thus his and his family’s life in December 2018 were endangered.

Nenad Nesovic: Independent and professional media cannot survive

The Zig Info portal journalist case is not an isolated one, testifies N2 portal editor-in-chief  Nenad Nesovic from Cacak, whose editorial office was robbed on February 4th this year, which was a direct attack on property and  thus the way of stifling objective reporting.

Nesovic says that journalistic profession representatives who do their job honestly are discriminated and directly endangered.

“The economic status of journalists is one of the most important segments of free and professional media. We should be relieved of all kinds of pressures, especially when it comes to our livelihood.” said Nesovic.

In his opinion, Serbia is ruled by media darkness, especially having in mind the fact that almost no media with a national frequency has another side in its program contents, regardless of the area it deals with.

“I believe that the representatives of the authorities, both in our country and in the entire region, maintain such a situation for their own safety, which is why independent and professional media cannot survive,” said the editor of the N2 portal.

According to him, he himself applied for co-financing the media project in the City of Cacak and has been rejected because he was the most often being linked with N1 television and the portal. As he says, he has already sent a request to the Cacak Police Department twice to submit reports that are covered by the Cacak Police Administration, but none of that happened.

“A spokesman for that service asked me first if my company was a daughter company of N1. That is rude and it is not clear to me what they have against that television, Nova S and the Nova.rs portal”, said Nesovic. He points out that he did not receive approval from the Cacak City Administration to broadcast an Easter greeting, so he does not hope for more funds for some new media projects.

“Recently, there was a case in Cacak, when a lady received first ‘Sinofarm’, then ‘Pfizer’ vaccine. Following journalistic ethics, even though we had material evidence of the case, we invited the director of the Health Center for comment. He only answered one phone call and told us to submit questions by e-mail which we never received an answer “, says Nesovic, adding that his statement about the failures of medical workers immediately appeared in the regime media.

According to Nova.rs portal journalist and the editor-in-chief of the site info-lider.com Ljubica Sokic’s assessment, the situation in the media has never been worse. She has been a journalist for more than two decades, but she has never encountered any obstacles in practicing her profession as she does now.

“For the last nine years, the situation in the media has been catastrophic “.

I have worked in electronic, printed and written media, however, it is very difficult to do this job honestly lately. When we call the Fire Brigade in Cacak, for example, they act as if we are looking for a nugget of gold, and not the most ordinary information about the fire, to inform the public. “I very much miss the time when Dragisa Brocic was the chief, and late Predrag Maric at the national level, when we felt free to call them at any time of the day or night and when we could receive accurate and precise information,” she stated.

According to her, the journalistic profession has been tarnished by those who serve the current regime and “spill” fairy tales from their media daily. She believes that the “golden age” in which we are allegedly living is just good propaganda for people without the opportunity to get information from the Internet, social networks, and television and hear the other side. According to her, especially on televisions with national frequencies, the people of our country are mostly told stories about prosperity, high GDP, which creates a mask that life in Serbia has never been better.

“Personally, I have never experienced a physical threat. There are honorable and honest people even among the members of the SNS, but one man is shaping the fate of us all. I often came across situations in which my interlocutors asked: “Who do you work for?” instead of answering questions. I experienced it from the head of the Working Team for monitoring the epidemic in Cacak, Ph.D. Mihailo Lukovic. They are trying to humiliate us with those, but we will not allow it, “said Sokic.

Speaking about the economic status of journalists, she estimated funds from local budgets being mostly distributed to suitable media houses. There is nothing for those who objectively report and think with their own heads.

“They are trying in every way to stop us from doing our job, which we won`t allow. I will continue asking questions instead of just holding a microphone or dictaphone and giving representatives of authority a chance to made marketing out of it for themselves. Their power is the best aphrodisiac, however, I will never agree to compromises “, concluded Sokic.

If media suffocation continues, along with officials running from questions and non-transparency, then  little “light at the end of the tunnel” that has already been discussed is also debatable.

Freedom of speech and expression is very debatable in our country, and representatives of this profession are exposed to pressure daily. Also, tabloidization of the media has led to violations of codes of ethics, but also laws that should be respected.

It might be concluded Serbian institutions are not doing their job while sensational-oriented media supported by the authorities are spreading false news.