“Vreme” writes in its new issue that data from the Supreme Prosecutor’s Office showed that the number of requests that prosecutors make to the police for investigating attacks on journalists is increasing, but that the police simply ignores those requests.
Police ignores the demands of the prosecution when it comes to attacks on journalists and thus torpedoes investigations. Jovana Gligorijević writes about this big and worrying problem for the new issue of “Vremena” (Thursday, June 25).
Of particular concern is the fact that in the first five months of the year, out of a total of 52 cases formed in connection with criminal charges or reports on endangering the safety of journalists, in as many as 30 cases there was a request to collect the necessary information, to which the answer has not yet arrived. Such a trend was not characteristic of previous years. Prosecutors don’t know the reasons.
Prosecutor Branko Stamenković, who coordinates the work of the Permanent Working Group for the Safety of Journalists, says that the police have a legal obligation to act on the requests of the prosecution:
“According to the current laws, the police cannot turn a deaf ear to the public prosecutor’s requests, but are obliged to act on them. What are the reasons for the stated delays is a question for the authorities in the Ministry of Internal Affairs,” he told “Vreme”.
He adds that police officers, if they are unable to act according to the order, must have “a valid and legally-based reason” for doing so.
Source: Vreme
