Press Shelter Nis: Attempts to discredit endanger the safety of journalists

According to the Database of the  Independent Journalists’ Association of Serbia, there have been about twenty cases of various attacks, pressure, or insults on journalists in Nis from 2010 until today.

The largest number of reports of such incidents was reported by the regional portal Juzne vesti. In two cases, it was a physical attack, while in addition, verbal attacks and various types of pressure were mostly reported. In addition to these data, the mentioned database also contains data on attacks on property of RTS cameramen, hacker attack on the City Radio website, and on threats against Kurir, Informer, and Narodne novine journalists, but also on insults to N1 and Istinomer journalists by Aleksandar Vucic, during his visit to Nis in 2017. A KRIK journalist was also verbally attacked by some city leaders in Nis.

In 2021, all data on attacks and pressures are related to the Juzne Vesti portal. In February, the appearance of a fake portal www.juznevesti.info was reported, as stated in the Database, “with the same name and logo, design and colors that also remind of the real version of Juzne vesti. The site was registered by a company whose owner founded and shut down numerous companies.  In addition to the news that is neutral in content, this portal also published texts with which discredit the real Juzne vesti.

The March report also refers to the fake “Juzne vesti” with the specific explanation that they are certainly part of the propaganda machinery that serves to discredit journalists and dissidents. The report followed a series of articles about Gordana Bjeletic, the editor-in-chief of “Juzne” whom the fake portal accuses of “lying and manipulating information” and “has the task of overthrowing the Serbian Progressive Party from power in Niš.” The aggressive campaign against Bjeletić followed the pointing of the real South News to the discriminatory behavior of the mayor of Nis, Dragana Sotirovski, who said that “she will no longer give any statements to the media that additionally comment on those statements.”

In 2020, most reports were related to the regional portal Južne vesti, whose journalists were both verbally and physically. The attack took place during last year’s “torchlight” when Gordana Bjeletic was shot with a glass from the building, and the Juzne team was attacked on election day in June 2021, while people with parallel voter lists were being filmed at one polling station.

An attack was reported on the team of RTS, the correspondent office in Nis, which was filming the last year’s demonstrations. They experienced threats and insults, but thanks to the reaction of some demonstrators there was not any physical attack.

A damaged car of the H1 reporter from Nis was also reported, exactly on the day of airing the first part of “The Ruler,” a film about Aleksandar Vucic.

The context of the COVID 19 pandemic made 2020 even more interesting when it comes to pressures on the media. After several months of complete silence of the Clinical Center Nis regarding the sick and especially the dead in this health institution, after the texts published in some media, CC Nis reacted with accusations of causing panic and tarnishing the reputation of the Clinical Center. Two such cases have been reported. The management of CC Nis accused Vecernje novosti of tarnishing the honor and reputation of white coats and that their reporting leads to alarm and harassment of the public. A similar accusation will be made by the then director of CC Nis, Zoran Radovanovic, to CINS journalists, claiming in a statement to Juzni vesti that the CINS journalist misused the information, took it out of context, and misled the public and employees of CC Nis.

Gordana Bjeletic: New methods of attacking journalists

The whole situation that took place during the state of emergency at the Clinical Center Nis could actually be classified as preventing the media from doing their job and informing the public. Persistent silence on questions sent by e-mail, complete ignoring of the media, made any information published label unverified.

A correspondent for the “Danas” newspaper, journalist Zorica Miladinovic from Nis, explained in detail her struggle to get data on the deceased from the Clinical Center Nis for a whole year in a recent interview for “Cenzolovka.”

“Today is the anniversary of my extremely unsuccessful search for the valid data on the number of dead patients in the covid zone at the University Clinical Center Nis, which, according to the serious indications I have, have been concealed since the beginning of the epidemic.

I was visiting institutions and using all the mechanisms offered by the Law on Free Access to Information of Public Importance.  I was a good (media) student, but I still could not receive the data. The pile of requests, complaints, notifications, warnings, decisions, and other letters ended with the UCC’s silence or stating meaningless reasons for their non-delivery, including the explanation that they are unavailable because they are in the contaminated “red zone.”

In the end, this important health institution in Serbia did not hesitate to incorrectly inform the competent state ministry that it “submitted” the requested data to me. The vicious circle of searching for the right information about the dead, ended with what it started with – untruth.

The system has its ways to prevent you from getting what you want ” – wrote Miladinovic among other things in the article:  “Journalist of Danas Zorica Miladinović: A year of concealing data on deaths from covid,” published in Cenzolovka, in May this year.

Are all attacks reported?

From all the above, a nonprofessional could conclude that, given the number of media and journalists in Nis, the situation with their security and potential pressures is not worrying. Is that exactly the case, or do journalists simply still not know the mechanism for reporting the inconvenience they experience while doing their job?

The truth is somewhere in the middle. The fact is that the number of registered attacks and reports is not very large. The fact is that many journalists simply do not give importance to threats and insults, especially those on social networks and in the comments.

City Smart radio has recently organized a panel discussion about the journalist’s safety and frequent pressure on local and regional media in its Media Shelter in the name of support to Juzne vesti and colleagues from JugPress from Leskovac and InfoVranjske from Vranje. Interestingly, the news about that event, which was published on the City Smart website and shared on Facebook (“Every attack on journalists is an attack on each of us”) triggered an incredible avalanche of insulting comments, some of which could be characterized as threats.

Although at first glance, they seemed to have been written mostly by anti-vaxxers, irritated by the photo of the participants in the forum with masks on their faces, it is confusing that there were no such comments under numerous texts about the COVID 19 pandemic, vaccination, and measures. After the analysis, the conclusion was that they were provoked by the topic of the discussion because the insults were directed at the journalists. For example, one comment says:

“Unless the journalist writes in Cyrillic, because then he is a fascist, and “death to fascism” should be attacked first and foremost.”

“That is not on me, an attack on those suckers is not an attack on me,” says another commentator, adding, “Ha, ha, ha, I’m very glad, suckers, that the people greeted you like this.” As I see, you will be fucked instead of your bosses. Think about all this that the people have written to you. Think about all this that the people have written to you.”

In other, all negative comments, the journalists are accused of ruining the country and civil Serbia and are often called “muzzlers.”

“And muzzles serve you to promote the fear spread by Satanists,” added one commentator.

We could see similar comments below the live recorded during the protest. One stands out because below the photo of one of the banners, someone writes:

“You should be hit in the head with it. ”

There are such examples on the sites and social networks of some other media from Nis and other cities. What to do in such cases? And how possible is it that some of the threats and insults are realized in real life?

We will remind you of the threats that appeared under the texts of the Juzne vesti about migrants, where journalists were threatened with the rape of them and their families.

Zorica Miladinovic: How to get true data

In a conversation with several colleagues from other media, we find out that opinions are divided. From those who think that such messages of hatred should be ignored because they are “bot” to those who think it is pointless to report such attacks so that they would not be treated like in a fairy tale of a boy who was warning the village about wolves. In their opinion, only explicit threats should be reported. There are also journalists who decide not to report insults because they do not want to look like “cowards”  in the public eyes.

“New methods require new ways for the media to defend themselves,” said Gordana Bjeletic, editor-in-chief of Juzne vesti, an influential portal in southern Serbia.

However, it is important that in this case there is great public support, she points out. She believes that greater support from colleagues is necessary. She emphasizes that with lawsuits and pressure, the authorities are trying to put away the media and its work on important topics. Bjeletic sees the intimidation of journalists as the goal of all this. However, the target is not only journalists because fear is transmitted to the whole society.

However, the general impression is that many journalists do not even know the mechanism for reporting any kind of threat. Many of them are not aware that there is a Database on attacks on journalists, and only a few know that a Working Group for the Safety of Journalists has been formed at the Ministry of Culture and Information. Logically, they do not know about the problems that have accompanied this Working Group since its establishment until today.

Inspecting the report of the Republic Public Prosecutor’s Office to the Permanent Working Group for the Safety of Journalists published on the website www.bezbedninovinari.rs, we see that in the first two months of 2021, as far as journalists from Nis are concerned, a case was filed under Security Threat before the Special Prosecutor’s Office for High-Tech Crime related to Gordana Bjeletić from Juzne vesti. The RPP  informed that in that case, they sent an invitation to the injured party and a request to collect the necessary information, and that the case is in the records of unknown perpetrators and that the status of the case is “ongoing.”

In the RPP report for 2020, we find the Juzne vesti again. The procedure on Article 138 of the Criminal Code refers to the journalists who were attacked on election day in June 2020, Matija Gacic, Nikola Mitic, and Boban Stankovic. Although the initial Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office rejected the criminal report of the journalist, after the appeal to the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office and its adoption, the collection of evidence continued.

Economic pressures

Although someone unfamiliar with the issue when they hear the word attack and pressure will primarily think of physically endangering the safety of journalists or the media, the fact is that the authorities in Serbia, and even in local self-government units, puts much more subtle pressure on those who want to report independently and critically. Through the absolute abuse of the Law on Public Information and its project co-financing of media products in the public interest, and the pumping of abnormal amounts of money into the pockets of obedient, close to regime media owners, the media market is practically killed. In that way, there is actually pressure on the small local media and the employed journalists, who are left with two options – to side with the regime or to turn it off slowly but surely.

The fact that almost no event related to media freedom, which we have been organizing all these years alone or with colleagues from Juzne vesti, Media and Reform Center, was attended by many of our colleagues clearly shows how strong this kind of pressure is. They would not risk being seen and thus put on the blacklist of disobedient media, which are not awarded even the crumbs of a huge cake eaten by Vitko Radomirovic, Vladan Gasic, son of Bata Gasic, and other media owners close to the SNS in Nis..

Journalists in these media are in a state of the precariat. In an informal conversation with some of them, we found that despite the millions who enter the media in which they work from the budget, in some of them, the minimum wage is months late. Thus, on one of those televisions, the workers did not even receive their February salaries. However, none of them is willing to speak about it publicly. We could clearly see how strong that ability to remain silent, with their heads bowed, was in October 2016, when Jovica Vasic, now a former Narodne novine journalist, went on a hunger and thirst strike. For the highest budget paid media in the city, including his then media house, a 14-day long strike by a colleague on the street was not news.

 

Jovica Vasic: Fight for the rights of journalists

As directly responsible for the beginning of his hunger strike, Joca marked the city authorities and the police administration, because, as he says, they did nothing, despite numerous reports and evidence, which he says he sent within ten years, from the moment the Narodne novine was privatized by the Radomirovic family. The reports, he says, referred to various offenses, from “undeclared work” to numerous employees.

The reports, which Vasic sent first by mail anonymously and then from the official e-mail of Narodne novine to the addresses of various inspections and criminal police, he said at the time, never aroused the slightest interest of the authorities, nor did anyone come to check them. So he decided to go out and start a hunger strike..

Although he went on strike two times, his colleagues from the editorial office, even those who secretly called him worried about his health, did not want to support him publicly. They did not want to talk about it then or now, nor about the conditions in which they work.

The authorities in Nis demonstrated a special kind of pressure on the disobedient, independent local media with an order for a meaningless long-term tax audit of Juzne vesti. As they explained from Juzne, in addition to viewing the business documentation of Juzne, an order was issued for extraordinary tax and financial audits of their clients, which in several cases resulted in the cancellation of contracts for advertising and other services..

The case of the establishment of fake portals to discredit respectable media and tarnish editors and journalists, the “slapp” lawsuits faced by many local media these days, indicate that the authorities are becoming more imaginative in their ways of pressuring. It seems estimated that in these circumventing, soft ways, a better effect of silencing, intimidating, and exhausting those who still resist control is achieved.

Compared to burning a journalist’s house, physically assaulting, or liquidating a journalist, which characterized some previous times, these soft methods seem naive. In fact, they are very dangerous – without a potentially negative image in one part of the public, they achieve their goal. And the goal is the total suppression of all voices that differ from the voice of the majority owner and ruler of our public space.

Ivana Petrovic, City Smart Club