Serbian president’s advisor says Vucic never aggressive towards media

Speaking during an Insajder debate on the state of the Media, Vasiljevic said that the president reacts temperamentally sometimes but added that there are journalists who behave passionately.

“The president was never aggressive towards journalists. Were his words sometimes stronger than they should have been, it’s possible. He reacts temperamentally but he does answer every question,” she said.

Vasiljevic said that some journalists do not abide by the Serbian Journalists Code and behave like political opponents. “There are journalists today who are so enflamed when they speak about the authorities, President Vucic for example over the past year or two. This has nothing to do with criticism and is so impassioned that they often appear like political opponents, not journalists who should be criticizing and analyzing someone's work," she said.

She produced a list of media when asked about freedom of the media and the lack of criticism of the authorities in the tabloid press and some media with national frequencies, saying that she can’t tell people what to buy. “I can only talk about what is on offer,” she said.

According to Vasiljevic the media freedom problem appeared “before Vucic”. “This is not a problem which appeared under President Vucic, I have known about since I joined the ruling structures in 2004. We have been trying to explain to the authorities since then that they should treat journalists as a factor of correction in society and that is the only thing journalists should be doing,” she said.