22 Apr Press Shelter Kragujevac: The safety of Kragujevac is endangered- me(n)tal bars
In a multitude of problems that hit local media scene in Kragujevac, above all financially, as well in every other aspect, the question of safety of the Kragujevac’s journalists, consequently arises. Although the official Local and State Attorney Offices data tell us that there weren’t any reported cases of threats on journalists safety, safe in year 2018 when journalist Zoran Radovanovic submitted a criminal complaint for threat on personal safety, which was disregarded as unfounded, not much has been said on this topic.
Though the fact there haven’t been any reported cases of aggravated threats to journalists’ safety in Kragujevac appears to been couraging, it doesn’t reflect the true state of affairs nor all the issues encountered by journalists in their professional work. Journalists’ safety can be threatened not only physically, but also professionally which is a serious threat to local media sustainability.
Mostly threatened professionally
With this statement/claim is consentient also the Beta Agency journalist Gordana Mirovic, who deems as well that apart from physical assault protection, protection against threats or offences, journalists must be protected from money shortage that affects them nowadays, working in media that are struggling to survive on daily bases.
– The financial situation has never been more difficult for Kragujevac local media, apart from RTK, that has safe revenue from city budget, which I regard as a threat too, furthermore a pressure on the profession, for which the central and local authorities are responsible, says Mirovic and adds that the fact that the town authorities in Kragujevac. have, in last 6 years, been breaking the law, by not publishing contest for sub-financing media contents of public importance, supports this claim.
What used to be the question of respecting the law, unfortunately, in Kragujevac has become one man’s affair, the former city mayor’s Radomir Nikolic, who didn’t want to finance the local media that were, unofficially, labeled as “Verko’s” . It appears he wasn’t benevolent even to city’s RTK in those days, allowing for it to be privatized by a businessman who wasn’t even paying employees’ wages.
– Kragujevac is a small environment, we all know each other, who’s who in the media, what and how someone writes, on what subject, what has been criticized, but also who’s been “self-censored”.
The reactions of public to journalists articles nowadays have been partially moved to social networks and portals, where a few offensive words about journalist or media can be read as well, but my impression is that the topics and actors of press articles are being commented more. Critical articles stay the longest in ill memory of those criticized, so the next time, they’ll be unwilling to give information to media that have published them, explains journalist Gordana Mirovic.
She says that her personal safety hasn’t ever been physically threatened because of the profession, nor has she been threatened or offended, but admits that she’s overwhelmed by fear every time when she thinks how in certain moment the arrogant behavior of the highest state authority towards certain national media and their journalists could be “copied” locally. Furthermore, it’s dreadful to hear of colleagues in smaller towns being attacked and threatened.
And the attitude of the authorities towards the media in Kragujevac was never (really) exemplary.
Regardless of whom has been leading the city, the administration has almost always had the need to “tame” the media and to “iron out” the criticism. The establishment lead by the SNS party has merely “perfected the model” leaving the local media without contests and money, and focusing on those “in touch” , that is the City Media House.
THE ESTABLISHMENT OFTEN TARGETS THE JOURNALIST AS ENEMY OF THE STATE: BRANKO VUCKOVIC
Our interlocutor claims that it is a good thing that the residing authority in Kragujevac has made a step forward this year – for the first time the contest for local media has been made public. Also, our collocutors from city’s authority has, seemly, made itself more available to the press in regards to previous one.
Problems, however, are still present in institutions whose executives are avoiding certain media who are trying to report objectively, but are, nevertheless, on a list of the unwanted. There are still those who aren’t sending events’ invitations to all media, yet they are making preferences. It occurs that the collocutors are willing to give out information, providing they aren’t mentioned as a source, because of the interdict, since the official news are announced solely by their superiors in Belgrade.
– Honour is honour (journalistic), but authority is authority, so I’d say that there’s no place to relax, having in mind that every, even the most democratic authority can become “perishable goods”. No matter how much they’re inclined to free press and professionalism, the individuals in office will sooner or later show that they haven’t got a “stomach” for criticism in media and that is when the animosity towards the press is arisen. In similar climate, which today is spread abundantly from “above”, with constant dividing of media to “hostile, American, magnate owned” and those who aren’t, it is certainly most difficult for journalists that work on research texts, following professional standards, who are objective, incorruptible, independent, asserts Gordana Mirovic and mentions that she believes it is clear to everyone that objective information can be reported only by journalists who are fearless and feel that they personally as well as their profession are safe. Therefore, in guarding the safety of journalists and professionalism precisely the citizens can help the most, that is non-governmental sector, by supporting them, acknowledging the values of objective and critical reporting shaping the public opinion.
The phenomenon of “metal bars”
The correspondent of Radio Free Europe from Kragujevac, Branko Vuckovic, also claims that the economic exhaustion of journalists endangers their safety as much as anything else, leading to self-censorship and fear of presenting the real facts.
Vuckovic says that in 20 years, from the murder of journalist Milan Pantic to the recent beating of Dasko Milinovic, the safety of journalists has often been endangered, if not physically, then certainly by more “subtle” forms of disciplining undesirable professionals who do not hesitate to say publicly that ” to Emperor Trajan the Goat’s Ears “, or to seriously deal with some suspicious privatization, rigged tender, bribery, corruption…
– For professional journalists, security is endangered by the atmosphere and the hostile environment in which they work. Such a working environment is created by the highest representatives of the government with hate speech directed against anyone who thinks differently, and especially towards journalists who dare to criticize the government in any way. In a deeply divided society, such is ours, in which the government often targets journalists as enemies of the state, foreign mercenaries and spies, it is only a matter of days before the “metal bar” hits the journalist’s head or back again, says Vuckovic.
But it is not just a metal bar that is a metaphor for endangering the safety of journalists. There are also daily covert pressures, such as lawsuits with enormous damages claims, which were recently filed by a company close to the government against the media that only transmitted statements made at a press conference. We should remember the long and exhausting lawsuit against the “Independent Light” Miroslav Jovanovic, according to the lawsuit of the former owners of the weekly, which also resulted in a huge claim for damages.
Many journalists, when dealing with everyday topics, fall victim to various pressures – from those reduced to verbal outbursts of anger, threats, to tax “combing” of the brave and disobedient, lawsuits, and finally high damages amounts.
– If economic exhaustion is added to that, such as the five-year avoidance of announcing a competition for co-financing media content of public interest and the poor salary of journalists in Kragujevac, then it is a sure way to destroy a profession that has deep roots in Kragujevac, says Vuckovic..
He adds that the slightly older ones, and he is one of them, remember many attacks, endangering security and safety, but he says that they always defended themselves with the truth, and had the public as their allies. He believes that the public is still on the side of true professionals and that the phenomenon of “metal bars” will weaken, that those who pulled the metal bars will one day be brought to justice.
THEY THREATENED I AM NOT SAFE EVEN AT HOME: GORDANA JOCIC
Gordana Jocic, the editor of the church Radio “Zlatousti”, also remembered such times. She recalls receiving the most specific threats after a text dedicated to minority religious groups that she wrote about as about sects from an Orthodox point of view.
– Immediately after the publication of that text, several threatening letters arrived addressed to me. At the beginning, the position of the editorial board was not to mention it to me, but as the threats repeated, they decided to show me the letters, with the recommendation not to be afraid and to take them to the police, which I did. I remember very well one sentence from those letters: “You are not safe in your house either”, Gordana Jocic tells about this unpleasant experience.
Unfortunately, her experience with the police was not encouraging. The questions they asked her seemed to be like she is to blame for something ( who she was hanging out with, did she encourage certain behaviors, etc. )
Security Officer – Unavailable
It is interesting that Gordana Jocic later when she became the editor of the church radio, experienced something equally unpleasant and in its own way “threatening” from religious circles. The story goes that this happened immediately after the radio organized training for church media journalists when one of the lecturers from Germany recommended some Eastern techniques in breathing exercises to suppress the fear in front of the microphone. It became known. At the same time, reports were broadcast on the Radio in which the interlocutors were representatives of the Roman Catholic community. All this brought the editor to the “pillar of shame”. Namely, at that time, a site whose founders were unknown, which supported the later dismissed Bishop Artemije, started working.
– An anonymous person there criticized all of the above and then wrote that “whoever knows something about me should write there”. I really felt like I was marked for stoning. Afterward, they discussed for a while “whether I am important or not”. Fortunately, they decided I was irrelevant. So, that chase stopped said Gordana Jocic.
The “threat” which may not sound like that for someone, happened a year ago.
A local director with political ambitions was awarded the title of “the greatest Serb in the 21st century”. Gordana Jocic, as she says herself, laughed at the e-mail she received as a journalist from his institution on her personal Facebook wall. He was told about it and something unexpected followed.
– A group of women appeared before the Bishop of Sumadija, who is also my employer with complaints against me. At that time, the case around Jutka was happening, who also had his own group of women who stood in his defense. Although the intervention of the mentioned group did not harm me, it potentially could, so I perceive it as an attack on my journalistic and personal integrity, our interlocutor shares her experience.
.She also met a “radio policeman”, whom she does not know how to interpret. Namely, one day her phone rang, and the man who called introduced himself as a policeman in charge of following Radio “Zlatousti”. He scheduled a meeting for her at a nearby café. After she arrived he showed his ID. Mainly he inquired about foreign guests coming to the Radio.
It is possible, says Gordana Jocic, that it was a joke, although she later saw him in a group of police officers who were monitoring the local street protests.
The topic discussed in this text was a direct reason to talk about it with police officer Andrija Brzakovic, who is in charge of the journalists safety in the city. He is marked as a contact person – a point, which is in charge of working with journalists, with the aim of their greater security and faster work on reports of threats and attacks. Otherwise, the contact points in the prosecution and the police are part of the action plan for Chapter 23 in Serbia’s negotiations with the European Union, and they are the product of the Working Group for the safety of journalists.
However, even though the editorial office sent a request to the Kragujevac Police Administration last Monday, April 12th, to allow us that conversation, the approval of the “directorate” did not reach the day of the conclusion of the newspaper, Tuesday, April 20th. Although Brzakovic showed the goodwill to explain his new role, we were denied that information.
It is worth saying that a large number of journalists in the city do not even know that there is a police officer for their safety. This is not surprising to people from this industry because it is impossible to get information or interlocutors on topics of public interest from this state body.
The authors are Gordana BOZIC, director of the weekly Kragujevacke, and Jovanka NIKOLIC, editor-in-chief of the Voice of Sumadija portal, who are members of the Kragujevac Media Shelter.