Veran Matić, president of the Board of Directors of the Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM), spoke to "Vreme" about the safety of female journalists and the activities of the Permanent Working Group for the Safety of Journalists (SRG) in this regard.
WEATHER: I read the news that at the end of September last year you said that the SRG will deal with the safety of female journalists at the next meeting. What has been done about it since then??
VERAN MATIC: Then I noticed that, according to all records, the number of attacks on female journalists had increased and that, in percentage terms, for the first time, it exceeded half of all attacks. That's why I suggested that it be the topic of the meeting that was held in Prijepolje, where TV Forum works - a media outlet founded by women and which is the first media outlet of civil society in Serbia. At that meeting, we identified the problems faced by female journalists and tried to make this new trend public. We spoke on the same topic at the final meeting of the SRG at the end of December, but due to numerous topics and unresolved cases, we could not dwell on this topic. After that, the activity of SRG was frozen and the debate did not continue within the group, but it did in the public and the media community itself. Especially within the projects and activities that ANEM works on.
Last year, out of 62 open cases in the VJT, in 56 percent of the cases female journalists were attacked or threatened. When it comes to threats on social networks, that percentage was almost 70 percent. That trend continues this year: by the end of July, the same number of cases as in the whole of last year was registered in the database of the Supreme Public Prosecutor's Office, while in the database of NUNS, by the end of August, the number for the entire previous year had already been reached. And that number is growing month by month - in August alone, 46 cases were recorded, of which 14 were police attacks on journalists. It is worth mentioning that the database maintained by the Supreme Public Prosecutor's Office contains a categorization of attacks by gender as well, which is the result of the work of the SRG.
What is the position of female journalists today in times of crisis reporting? First of all, I am thinking of the protests...
Already in March, during civil protests in Novi Sad, we had a series of incidents in which journalists were targeted. This coincided with the targeting of journalist Ana Lalić Hegediš in the tabloids and by certain politicians, which turned into an incredible number of threats and disturbing messages - several hundred. We visited Novi Sad then, and I saw for myself how terrifying the messages that were coming to her were minute by minute. Ksenia Pavkov experienced the same. We demanded quick investigations from the prosecutor's office and the police. In one case, the perpetrator was identified, who was later arrested and admitted that, reading "Informer", he "went mad" and sent threatening messages from Paris, where he lives. He later managed to escape - I believe with the help of people from the system. Journalists were regularly attacked, mostly at protests, but also through social networks, often under the perpetrators' real names. Impunity clearly encourages abusers. Violence against women, which is often not punishable in principle, is also at the core of violence against female journalists, who are a special target because of their integrity, courage, professionalism and steadfastness.
Female journalists are often exposed to mobbing. We see that more female journalists than male journalists have been fired in the last few months. That is why it is crucial that newsrooms protect female journalists in the first place - that they undergo mandatory training for safe reporting before going to the field, that they are equipped with protective equipment, that they are not sent to places where they may be at risk, and that they are provided with legal, psychological and medical support when needed. It is also necessary for the entire public to understand the safety problem of female journalists in a much more empathetic and solidarity way.
You also said that most threats and threats to security are not covered by the criminal law. What exactly did you mean??
On two occasions, we had initiatives and proposals for changes to the Criminal Code. For example, today we have the paradox that prosecutors' offices do not file charges ex officio for attacks on journalists that they estimate resulted in minor physical injuries. Thus, the criminal charges against Vuk Cvijić, Uglješa Bokić and several other current cases awaiting the same fate were dismissed. Journalists are then referred to private lawsuits, which are often avoided due to lengthy processes and the certainty that the judge will rule in favor of the abuser. It is paradoxical that a threat via social networks is prosecuted ex officio and punished more severely than a physical attack with minor injuries.
There is much room to broaden the scope of security threats and define threats more precisely. Now we have in practice a very strict interpretation of the threat through social networks - that it must be directly targeted and realistically achievable. However, there are a number of very dangerous threats and disturbing messages that are formulated to circumvent this practice.
Gross insults, insolent and reckless behavior towards journalists, indirect threats to attack life and limb, hate speech towards journalists... - all of this is currently not covered by the existing provisions. For example, hate speech is a criminal offense if it is directed at a person who advocates for human rights, but not if it is directed at journalists. To conclude - the existing legal framework gives too much room for arbitrary and ill-intentioned interpretation of the law, which results in those who harm or intimidate journalists not being held accountable. This is unacceptable, and SRG and I will continue to advocate for changes to the Criminal Code that will enable more comprehensive and effective protection of all media workers.
Of course, it is important to point out that the legal system is quite broken and that the legislative framework does not guarantee anything. The practice of protecting freedom of speech is becoming weaker among prosecutors and judges. And the president of the state completely makes no sense of the legal order with amnesties. That is why substantive changes are important in order for any other changes, including the Criminal Code, to make sense. In any case, we should not give up because it is very important to record all cases of endangering the safety of journalists, to react publicly and to protect journalists as much as we can. Solidarity in the profession and with citizens is very important.
How do you rate the success of the SRG for the safety of journalists since its establishment until today??
SRG is quite limited by the agreement when it comes to operational activities. With the great support of the OSCE, which has its representative in the SRG, we managed to expand the activities to various trainings for prosecutors, police and journalists, as well as organize useful study visits and improve the visibility of the work of this body. Thanks to the support of the OSCE, the SRG has survived to this day despite the numerous challenges we faced. As for the functioning mechanism of this body, the prosecution has established contact points in all prosecution offices in Serbia, and the police in all police departments and cities. Contact point phones are publicly available to journalists.
We from the media community are also contact points. ANEM has established an SOS phone for reporting attacks and threats, and NUNS and UNS also have such phones. We all share information together. For several years, we have held local meetings with journalists, prosecutors and the police, where we discuss open cases and the reasons why they have not been solved, as well as preventive measures. For the third year, ANEM has been organizing trainings for safe reporting, through which more than 350 journalists have gone.
A lot has been done since January 2017 when the SRG was created and it is all transparently presented in annual reports that can be easily found and read. However, for such an initiative to be completely successful, good will, knowledge and unwavering determination to fight for a better position of journalists are not enough. A clear political will is also needed, as well as the readiness of the police, prosecutor's office and courts to prosecute those responsible for each individual attack or threat in accordance with the laws of this country. Unfortunately, this is not always the case.
During 2024, we noticed the obstruction of the police - in more than half of the open cases in the prosecutor's offices, there was no response to the request to collect information, so the cases were not resolved. That is why ANEM froze the activity in SRG. Before that, other journalist associations and associations did the same, except UNS. Nevertheless, we still maintain regular communication with contact points in the prosecutor's office and the police when we report threats and attacks or when we announce possible problems seeking preventive action. We also continued regular local meetings, especially in cities where violence against journalists is more common or where there are unsolved cases. In the last month, we were in Vranje, Leskovac and Novi Pazar.
I have been advocating for a long time the greater institutionalization of the SRG to make it more efficient and operational, but until now there has been no understanding of the idea. We should definitely think about some more efficient form of organization, because we are seeing a noticeable increase in threats, attacks and other forms
jeopardizing the safety of female journalists and
journalist.
This text was created with the financial support of the European Union. The weekly "Vreme" is solely responsible for the content of this text and under no circumstances can it be considered to reflect the views of the European Union. The project - Women Journalists Are Not Alone: Information, Protection and Resilience - is supported within the support program "Safejournalists.net"
