07. 09. 2004

Election candidate insults journalist

JAGODINA, September 6, 2004 (Politika) – As the campaign for local government elections in Jagodina steps up, journalists have become involved. There has been a spirited defence for a journalist on local daily Novi List who has been fined 250,000 dinars after being convicted of libelling former Jagodina Brewery director Jovan Stojanovic, now nominated as president of the Jagodina Municipal Council. However another candidate, Desimir Milenkovic, has described statements defending the journalist as inappropriate pressure on the judiciary. And while many candidates are complaining of not being given equal representation in local media including Radio Jagodina, Television Jagodina and the local newspaper, Novi Put, the Serbian Renewal Movement’s candidate for president of the municipal council, Slavoljub Filipovic, has gone to war with the local media. At his last press conference, Filipovic was harshly critical of local media, going so far as to say that journalists should not put their articles into the hands of “editor-vandals”. Local editors reacted immediately in a statement issued on behalf of the broadcasters and newspaper by the publishing company Novi Put, saying that press conferences held by the Serbian Renewal Movement and Slavoljub “Boban” Filipovic will no longer be covered.