Serbian Press Council Warning over attack on N1 journalist

The Press Council’s Appeals Commission issued the warning over the article by Belgrade city assembly member Nebojsa Bakarec of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) which include a number of untruths and insults against Sikimic, a statement said.  

It said that a number of articles of the Code of Journalists of Serbia had been violated by Bakarec and the portal, including truth in reporting and respect of privacy.  

Sikimic filed a complaint with the Press council because of the inaccuracies and insults in Bakarec’s article, part of which was about her father who was sentenced in a staged trial by the Milosevic regime late in the 1990s and was rehabilitated after the fall of Slobodan Milosevic.

“The article by Nebojsa Bakarec included a series of inaccurate pieces of information about my father and, completely inappropriately, linked his name and mine as well as the name of the author of a documentary film to “political cross-overs” and “dishonourable behaviour”, Sikimic said in her complaint.  

The Novi Standard portal did not respond to the complaint, the Press Council said, adding that it is unacceptable for Bakarec to attack the N1 journalist and her father because he is dissatisfied with a show authored by another N1 journalist. “That led to the unanimous decision to issue a public warning to Novi Standard,” the statement said.