15. 10. 2004

Journalists under threat again

NOVI SAD, October 15, 2004 (Danas) – The Independent Association of Vojvodina Journalists is extremely concerned at pressure applied by the Serbian Radical Party on the management policy of weekly Zrenjanin. The association also described the role of certain journalist associations in the case as shameful. The local committee of the Serbian Radical Party in Zrenjanin has criticised the weekly for publishing articles on war crimes committed on the territory of the former Yugoslavia over the last decade. The party says that a regional weekly has no right to deal with state politics and devote two thirds of a page to vilification. The Radicals have also accused the weekly of satanising the majority population of Serbia with its articles. The author of the articles, Zrenjanin civic education teacher Edi Darusi, has received threatening phone calls and other threats through “mediators” in which he has been warned to “be careful”, the Independent Association of Vojvodina Journalists said in a statement. However the association also “advised” the weekly in its statement of the new direction its management policy should take in the light of political directions and the possible consequences for international relations in the region. The association also criticises the author of the articles for not reporting on the tragic occurrences in Kosovo this March. Instead, it says, he writes accounts of politicians and intellectuals “from twenty years ago”.