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Press release
Brutal assaults at the media in Vojvodina
Belgrade, February 14, 2016 |
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The Human Rights House strongly condemns the smear
campaign two pro-governmental media outlets, Informer and Pink, have
been staging against the Independent Journalists’ Association of
Vojvodina and its president, Dinko Gruhonjic. The methods used
against Gruhonjic have all the elements of fascism and racism: his
ethnic origin is being questioned, while he is being called by a
name the Nazi site Stormfront fabricated and “branded” several years
ago. The Independent Journalists’ Association of Vojvodina is one of
few niches of free and critical thought in Serbia, as well as an
institution renown for its struggle against extremism, hatred and
intolerance. |
In parallel, Minister of the Interior Nebojsa
Stepanovic brutally assaulted Vojvodina’s public broadcasting
service – Radio-Television of Vojvodina /RTV/. All this is obviously
an attempt at censorship: remnants of media freedoms and critical
thoughts are being choked by the use of threats, insults and lynch
calls. Such aggressive assaults at independent and professional
media and journalists indicate that the upcoming elections stand no
chance of being fair and democratic. We remind that Slobodan
Milosevic had also embarked on his nationalistic policy and
authoritarian regime by clamping down on the media and journalists
in Vojvodina, the province that first fell victim of his
belligerency.
We also appeal to the officials of democratic
countries - who often praise Serbia’s movement towards EU - to pay
attention not only to formal characteristics of the society the
incumbent regime and the media loyal to it have been promoting, but
to the substantial ones.
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