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27. 08. 2014

AFTER ATTACK, WEBSITE PEŠČANIK FUNCTIONAL AGAIN

27.8.2014 (B92) - Website "Peščanik" was again targeted by hacking attacks. This time the site was not brought down. Insted, the headline placeholders above the articles featured the statement "Stop the lies". The access to the website was made difficult during a period of two hours, with the website featuring the announcement that the regular maintenance is being performed.

After the access to the website was made possible, the moto "Stop the lies" was featured in the place of all the headlines and section titles.

The website "Peščanik" was subject to hacking attacks in June 2014, after it published articles which claimed that the doctoral theses of the Minister of Interior, Nebojša Stefanović, Mayor of Belgrade, Siniša Mali, and the owner of Megatrend University, Mića Jovanović, were plagiarized.

The police has announced the investigation, and journalists' associations reacted, but so far the public has not been presented with the information on who is to blame for the attack on the website "Peščanik".

UNS: Police and Prosecution to Establish who Hacked "Peščanik"

The Journalists' Association of Serbia (UNS) asks from the police and the Prosecutor's Office for High-Tech Crime to establish who is behind the repeated hacking attacks on the website "Peščanik".

The access to the website was possible in the morning, but in the place of all the headlines and section titles the website featured the statement "Stop the lies". After a while, the website was brought down and it is inaccessible now, UNS stated.

"The website "Peščanik" was attacked again. This time, instead of simple hindrance to its access, for the first time the content of the website was compromised. In the place of deleted articles, the attackers left a political message "Stop the lies", thus qualifying themselves as the absolute owners and defenders of truth. The media must be protected from such attacks - not by technology, but by the understanding that in a civilized society the freedom of public speech should not be infringed upon", UNS carried the statement from the "Peščanik" Facebook page.

UNS called on the police and the Prosecutor's Office to establish as soon as possible who the masterminds and perpetrators of these attacks are and to publicize the results of the investigation.

UNS also asked that the police and the Prosecutor's Office publicly announce the results of the investigations of previous attacks on the website "Peščanik", and also on all other websites attacked and brought down lately.