The Independent Journalists’ Association of Serbia (IJAS) strongly condemns the campaign targeting the N1 news portal and its journalist Predrag Popović, who has been portrayed by several media outlets as a “self-hating Serb” and a “Serb-hater” who allegedly “demands the arrest of Serbs”, merely for submitting a legitimate journalistic question to the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in Belgrade.
The campaign began after N1 published an article examining the lack of institutional response to the glorification of Ratko Mladić and the crimes committed in Srebrenica during the latest Belgrade football derby. The Informer, B92, Politika, Novosti and Kurir portals subsequently accused Popović and N1 of demanding the arrest of football fans, or “Serbs”.
However, the journalist merely asked the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office whether proceedings had been initiated against one or more individuals over the events at the stadium, bearing in mind the provisions of the Criminal Code concerning the public approval, denial or substantial minimisation of the gravity of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. Asking a competent institution a question is a fundamental part of journalistic work, not a demand for anyone’s arrest.
Turning a professional journalistic question into an alleged call for the “arrest of Serbs” constitutes gross manipulation, nationalist labelling and an attempt to portray the journalist and his newsroom as enemies of the state and the Serbian people. Such reporting is not intended to inform the public, but to discredit the journalist because of the subject he covers and deter other journalists from asking questions about institutional accountability.
It is particularly concerning that some media outlets published the email verbatim, even though it had not appeared in the article on the N1 portal. This raises serious questions about how they obtained the journalist’s correspondence with the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office and whether it was provided to them by someone within that institution. If official correspondence was forwarded to media outlets to be used in an attack against a journalist, this would constitute a serious abuse requiring an urgent and independent investigation.
IJAS therefore calls on the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in Belgrade to determine without delay who had access to Predrag Popović’s email, how its contents reached the media and whether any employee of the Prosecutor’s Office was involved. Should responsibility be established, we demand that appropriate proceedings be initiated and measures taken to prevent such practices from recurring.
It is especially dangerous that manipulative headlines and the conflation of all football fans and all Serbs with those who participated in the incident are fuelling hostility towards the journalist and the N1 newsroom. In a society where journalists already face numerous threats and attacks, such a campaign may have serious consequences for their safety. We recall that journalist Brankica Stanković was placed under police protection for years precisely because of threats made by members of football fan groups following her investigative reporting.
This is not the first time that Informer and other media outlets have used manipulation, nationalist labels and accusations of “treason” to target journalists working for N1 and other critical newsrooms. IJAS has repeatedly warned that such campaigns place journalists in the line of fire and may incite threats and physical violence.
We call on the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications to publicly condemn this campaign and take measures within its remit. We also call on all authorities distributing funds through project co-financing schemes and public procurement procedures to apply the statutory criteria consistently and stop rewarding, with taxpayers’ money, media outlets that continuously violate the Journalists’ Code of Ethics of Serbia and participate in campaigns against journalists.
IJAS expresses its full support for Predrag Popović and the N1 newsroom and reiterates that journalists must not be subjected to public vilification for asking institutions questions that are unquestionably in the public interest.
Independent Journalists’ Association of Serbia
Belgrade, 8 September 2026
