Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemns police attacks on journalists covering protests and demands that authorities investigate every attack. In an interview with N1, Head of the RSF EU-Balkans Desk Pavol Szalai said it is clear that the ruling party’s rhetoric is to blame for the treatment of media.
On Tuesday, we saw that police did not react to protect journalists. Stones, fireworks, even nunchucks and tools were thrown at people and journalists. An N1 assistant cameraman was injured when a stone was thrown from the side where the supporters of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) were. So how do you see this obvious decision of police not to react and not to protect journalists?
Szalai: We strongly condemn the attacks by the supporters of the ruling party on journalists of N1. It’s all the more scandalous that the police didn’t act to protect them. Unfortunately, what we see in Serbia is now an institutionalized system of violence against journalists. We have the supporters of the ruling party attacking journalists almost on a daily basis. These attacks are inspired by the president’s verbal assaults against critical media, and on the other hand, we have the police who in the best case, don’t do anything. In the worst case, they participate in the violence. We have had a couple of cases like that. And we don’t know if they are actually investigating the complaints filed by the journalists through all these months from various media for the attacks that they suffer.
We saw similar things the day before. Our crew was called Ustashe, a gesture was made towards our reporter with cutting her neck, a clear sign. But again, no reactions from the police, no reactions from the institution. As you said, it is all inspired by the ruling party. Is it possible at all to expect a reaction from the institutions when even the president calls N1 journalists terrorists?
Szalai: You know, we are really expecting a strong reaction from the European leaders because so far what we have heard even regarding this incident in Vojvodina is a strong support from for example the Prime Minister of Slovakia for Aleksandar Vucic. So we hear voices supporting the Serbian president who is implied, which contributes to this climate of violence, but we don’t hear politicians from the European Union condemning the steps of the regime and of the police in this regard. The rule of law report published by the commission in July about Serbia to which we had contributed because we reported all the violence and we had asked the commission to act. So this report unfortunately only sees the problem with the safety of journalists but it doesn’t see the source. And the source is the ruling party, the president, and the passivity of the police. So we are trying to push the European Union to also condemn the behavior of the institutions and the fact that they’re actually not protecting journalists.
And I have to say, you know, between the end of February and early July, we had about 30 attacks, physical attacks on journalists. So this means every week, at least one journalist is physically attacked either by the supporters of the ruling party or by the police. But this is not all because we have verbal attacks, we have threats, we have death threats, you mentioned them as well. So basically every day, it’s on a daily basis journalists in Serbia are threatened. And Europe really needs to react.
Yes, you mentioned the European Union. We had the Austrian Chancellor today in Serbia. He did mention that freedom of speech, freedom of media is one of the key things to join the European Union. However, it all goes down the drain when they start speaking about other things like economics and stuff like that. But I also have to add that, as you mentioned, in the previous month our journalist was also hit by the police, as you mentioned as well. Government officials regularly say Europe would stand up if someone came in front of N1, you know, journalists’ houses and so on. What would happen if someone came outside their TV station? Can we call this a threat as well? Because it’s like they’re asking a question but not really asking a question.
Szalai: It’s definitely a threat. We have seen protests which were politically provoked against N1 and other media. And really the biggest threat is that following these massive political attacks coming from the highest echelon of power, someone in the street, and it has happened already, will attack a journalist or even worse, will order a physical attack on a journalist who is not saying the things that this person would like to hear. This is very, very dangerous. And this climate created by the institutions in Serbia actually sends a signal that violence against journalists can be excused and it’s absolutely inexcusable. I understand there have been some statements from Western leaders but we really don’t consider them strong enough and it really must be reminded to the Serbian government that it cannot come to the EU while having this record number of attacks against journalists and with press freedom at a historical low.
The president’s media advisor recently said in an interview when the protesters came in front of her home to protest, I quote: “Is their (N1 journalists’) life worth more than ours.” How would you comment on that?
Szalai: Of course not. Everybody’s life has the same value. Every single human being’s life has the same value, journalist, president, advisor, or someone who works in a factory. But I don’t think that this is the question. I think that the police has to take seriously threats against all citizens. And what we focus on, we focus on journalists. And we see that this is not happening. It’s not taken seriously. So I’m sure that the president’s advisor has other support and should file a complaint, and the police should investigate the attack. But what we see is not massive physical attacks on government officials – what we see is massive physical attacks against journalists.
Source: N1
