The Independent Journalists Association of Serbia sent letters to the president and secretary of the Valjevo City Assembly and the mayor of Valjevo regarding the ban on journalists reporting from the City Council meeting.
The letter states that banning journalists from attending the session of the Valjevo City Council represents direct discrimination of journalists.
“Given that it is an extremely negative public attitude, obvious discrimination and a selective approach in the selection of media that will be allowed to attend and monitor the sessions of the Valjevo city assembly, and thus make work more difficult and put direct pressure on journalists and newsrooms, we express concern about this attitude and expect you to change this decision urgently, and immediately allow other reporters to attend the meetings of the city assembly, so that such situations do not happen again,” the letter stated.
IJAS reminds that public information is completely free and that discrimination against journalists, editors and media on any basis is prohibited by the Law on Public Information and Media.
“Freedom of public information must not be violated by abuse of official position and public authority, such as the decision to deny a large number of interested media the presence of such an event of public interest as the session of the City Council”, adds IJAS.
IJAS expects that all city structures of the City of Valjevo enable journalists, regardless of which media they report for, to regularly receive information and attend events organized by the City, as this is the basic way to improve the quality of work of local self-government and its relationship with citizens.
We remind that in the notice dated March 5, signed by the secretary of the Valjevo City Council, Mladen Simović, it is stated that only certain media can report on the city council session that was held on March 6. Media representatives who were not on that list were not allowed to enter the Council and follow the session.
