In the controversial text published on the aforementioned website, Zivkovic was attacked with primitive and street insults and was labeled as a traitor and a foreign mercenary. Among other things, it was stated that he “hates the Serbian people” and represents the interests of “pro-Ustasha, Balija, Shiptar and Western leeche… who are hindering the development of our country.”
This website has previously written about Zivkovic in the same manner, and he sees the whole case as a continuation of the campaign against free and critical-thinking journalists.
“From the safety of an anonymous website and an unsigned editorial office, they continue to incite dissenters, at the same time avoiding decent public communication, which would be appropriate for a civilized and democratic society, which Serbia is not. To put it mildly, such toxic media content further lowers the level of communication, widens the scope of hate speech and destroys the presumptions of punishability of hate speech, thereby legitimizing it”, Nenad Zivkovic said for IJAS.
He assumes that the immediate reason for the text on this website was a satirical interview with the Vice-President of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia Sandra Bozic, which was published on the same day on the Pancevo.city portal.
The Independent Journalists Association of Serbia strongly condemns the writing of the “Banatska istina” portal, which in its latest article spreads hatred, calls for lynching, insults and labels the journalist Nenad Zivkovic.
IJAS calls on the institutions to protect Nenad Zivkovic. We also demand from the competent authorities to discover and sanction the creators of hate speech behind this website, who write about critics of the regime in the most primitive way and thus threaten their safety.
Independent Journalists Association of Serbia
August 23, 2022
