The editorial office received information that the buildings were being built by the company of a certain Novak Stajic, who was the brother of the head of the Secretariat for Legalization of Buildings in the City of Belgrade, Nemanja Stajic, and sent a team to the site. Then a person appeared who introduced himself as a guard and attacked the cameraman, with direct threats and insults.
“It was an extremely unpleasant situation. He claimed that we entered a private property and that we did not have the right to film “, says the journalist of the Nova.rs portal Milos Lazic,” We tried to explain to him that he was wrong and that he could not forbid us to work. Then he went several times and talked to a mobile phone. After talking on the phone, he became more and more aggressive in order to threaten us with the words “don’t let the pole to work”. He also told us that we were lucky because he did not let the dog on us.”
He added that he has been working as a journalist for thirty years and so far it has not happened to him that someone tells him about the street that it is private property.
After the threats, the endangered journalist team left the field.
The whole case was reported in such a way that criminal charges were filed with the competent public prosecutor’s office.
The Independent Journalists’ Association of Serbia calls on the competent authorities to investigate all the circumstances of the case and take all actions to resolve the case as soon as possible so that journalists can work unhindered in the future.
Belgrade, 21 April 2022.
