24. 09. 2008

“BETA” REPORTER THREATENED

New pressure on Serbian journalists

Belgrade, September 24, 2008 (Danas) – An anonymous man seriously threatened Ljiljana Stupar, a “Beta” reporter from Zrenjanin, because of her reporting. Ljiljana Stupar told the police that an unknown man had threatened her on Monday evening, saying that he “had a photograph” of her daughter and that she should not “stick her nose where it did not belong any more”. Also, he informed her that “he had been paid” for that. The call was received from a 065 number, of which Ljiljana Stupar also notified the police.

She had received threats last year as well, because of her articles on controversial privatization printed in local press. At that time an unknown man had also warned her that he “knew which school here daughter was going to”, and that she should stop writing articles by which she “ruined people’s business”.

The Independent Association of Journalists of Serbia (NUNS), the Association of Journalists of Serbia, the Independent Association of Journalists of Vojvodina (NDNV ) and the Union of Journalists of Serbia have all strongly condemned the anonymous threats to the “Beta” agency reporter and demanded urgent action by the police in order to discover the culprit. NUNS and NDNV have warned the public and state authorities that threats to journalists in Serbia have become rather regular, and that the wrongdoers are not discovered in the majority of cases.