21. 12. 2004

STATE INVESTIGATES B92 PROGRAM

BELGRADE, December 21, 2004 – Belgrade weekly Nedeljni Telegraf claimed today that an investigation of journalists on B92’s program Insider has been launched. Six days after B92’s Insider team reported sources as claiming a witness had named the murderer of publisher Slavko Curuvija as Montenegrin gang figure Luka Pejovic, and that police had failed to publish this information for more than a year, there has still been no official statement from either the Ministry of Internal Affairs or the prosecutor’s office. Nedeljni Telegraf claims unofficial reports as saying that the Special Organised Crime Prosecutor and the Council for Combatting Organised Crime have begun an investigation of the publishing of information on Curuvija’s death. The weekly’s source says that the publication of the name of Pejovic has endangered the entire investigation and put his family into danger. The source also says that Pejovic, who has since been murdered himself, was not the only suspect in the killing of Curuvija. The source also says that the information was not published because it is connected to organised political murders which involve more than one person and that the publishing of such information can be seen as breaching national secrecy which is a crime punishable by extended imprisonment.