The Independent Journalists’ Association of Serbia (IJAS) calls on the competent authorities to urgently identify the person using the name “Nives” to post threatening comments under articles on the N1 news portal, targeting Forbes Serbia editor Ivan Radak, IJAS President Željko Bodrožić, as well as N1 journalists more broadly.
In a comment posted under an article about threats against Ivan Radak, a person signed as “Nives” wrote: “We are not making threats; we will carry out the deed.”
In another comment, directed at IJAS President Željko Bodrožić under the article “Bodrožić: As a society, we have completely gone to hell,” the person wrote: “In the event of an uprising and conflict, you will be our favourite toy.”
The same person also posted a message directed at N1 journalists: “Threats? What do you do every day to people who disagree with you, damn you. I live for the day you start an uprising so that I can legally crush and eradicate you. Blockader scum.”
IJAS has reported all of the threats to the Special Prosecutor’s Office for High-Tech Crime.
IJAS considers these messages to constitute serious threats and intimidation that the competent authorities must not dismiss as merely “inappropriate comments” on the internet. Phrases such as “carry out the deed” and “favourite toy”, as well as the statement that someone will be “crushed and eradicated”, require an urgent and thorough institutional response, particularly in the current climate of increasingly frequent attacks and threats against journalists.
It is especially concerning that Ivan Radak has again become a target only a few hours after IJAS had already publicly reacted and reported to the Special Prosecutor’s Office for High-Tech Crime a threat made against him by another person under an article concerning his professional work. In that message, Radak was told, among other things, that people like him would be “wiped out”.
The new messages show how the lack of an effective response and a climate of impunity can encourage further threats. When journalists are openly told that threats will be “carried out”, that they will become “toys” in the event of conflict, and that someone is waiting for an opportunity to “eradicate” them, institutions have an obligation to act before verbal violence escalates into physical violence.
We call on the Special Prosecutor’s Office for High-Tech Crime and the Ministry of Interior to treat this case with the utmost seriousness and take all measures within their competence. Continuous threats against journalists and representatives of journalists’ associations must be met with a clear and effective institutional response.
Independent Journalists’ Association of Serbia
Belgrade, 27 August 2026.
