Serbia’s Culture Ministry condemns attacks on N1

N1 reporters at Belgrade office were branded “traitors” and “anti-Serbs” on social networks and had received threats to their lives, those of their families and a message that their office would be blown up.

The threats came after the regime’s hints that N1 “recognised Kosovo’s independence,” and followed the N1 reporting on anti-government protests happening in Belgrade for two months and spread to over 50 places in Serbia.

“A dialogue with fists and use of force is well behind us. As a state we want to have the rule of law and civilised Serbia in which there won’t be room for such vocabulary,” Aleksandar Gajovic, the state secretary in the Ministry said.

He added that it was “inadmissible to threaten the media people who do their job and their families, while we leave the evaluation of their work to the widest public,” Gajovic said.

The Ministry stressed that the safety of the journalists and their work were the preconditions for the role the media had in any democratic society.

Before Gajovic, media organisation and some political parties condemned the threatening letter N1 journalists received on Monday.

The threats were reported to the police, but so far neither they nor other competent institution have reacted.