30. 03. 2007

"LOCAL PAPER OFFENDS MUSLIM”

GORNJI MILANOVAC, March 30, 2007 (Beta) - Gornji Milanovac authorities say a local newspaper article discriminates against a state officer on religious and ethnic grounds.

The article in question virtually reads as follows: “A Wahhabi has been seen in the municipality building. He hasn’t been seen only once, rather on a daily basis. He comes to work as everybody else does, the security stands still as he passes by."

"However, he is not a municipal employee, nor does he come from a party or as a citizen. Yet, he does his work there.  Everything around him is green. He carries a laptop, and when he plugs it in, green letters appear on the screen…”

The text, entitled “A Wahhabi”, and subtitled “Uncensored” written by Branka Vuković, was published in Friday’s issue of Takovske Novine.

The article is dedicated to the upcoming religious holiday marking the 192nd anniversary of the start of the Second Serbian Uprising that won the nation independence from the Ottoman Turks.

The article triggered fierce reactions, a state budgetary inspector, currently on a month-long inspection in Gornji Milanovac, happens to be a Muslim.

The municipal council and the mayor issued a joint statement to condemn the article and criticize the author and editor.

“It is absolutely primitive and vulgar to make insulting remarks against a state inspector and stir up ethnic, racial and religious hatred and intolerance,” the statement read.
 
Local branch of the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) lashed out at the text which “discriminated against a state inspector on grounds of religion.”

Text’s author Branka Vuković told Beta agency she rejected all accusations, saying that “arbitrary interpretation of the text and its supposed insinuations came from the municipal authorities’ vivid imagination.”

Dragoljub Petković, the editor of the newspaper said the controversy constituted for yet another attack on free journalism, pressuring against the author.

The state budget inspector who was allegedly portrayed in the text refused to comment on the subject or have his name mentioned, saying he was only “doing his job.”