Serbia: CFWIJ Concerned For Isidora Kovacevic’s Safety As “Wanted” Posters Threatening Her Life Spring Up Across City
Location: Serbia, Sabac
Date: January 6, 2022
Editor in chief of the Serbian daily “Podrinske”, Isidora Kovacevic was a target of threatening “wanted” posters that appeared in several locations in the city of Sabac last month, saying that the reward for the journalist’s head was “a peaceful dream of the people of Sabac”. The Coalition For Women In Journalism is deeply concerned for Isidora’s life and safety and calls on authorities to work on the case and find those who are behind this serious act.
Threatening posters appeared starting on December 17, 2021 at multiple locations in the city of Sabac in Serbia. Posters displaying Isidora’s image and full name were placed on cars, mailboxes, buildings and poles around the city by unknown people, dubbing her the ‘media patron of thugs' “.
She told CFWIJ that local activists of the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) were behind the attack.
“Well, officials and criminals of the Serbian Progressive Party [are behind the attack], because I have been writing about what they are doing for years, and my last report - from the blockade of the bridge. I publicly stated the names and functions of those who trampled people with an excavator, beat them with hammers and sticks,” she said.
More than two weeks after the attack, Isidora told CFWIJ she did not receive any information from authorities whether someone gave a statement, or if someone was prosecuted. However, unofficially she was told that the posters were printed in a printing house owned by a local member of the SNS. She added that about 20 people took part in this act.
“The police stopped this case because they are aware of who is behind this. That is why they must not do or say anything. The question is when something will happen again, because they are aware that they will not bear the consequences,” she adds.
CFWIJ is very concerned for Isidora’s safety and calls on Serbian authorities to take the necessary acts on solving the issue and bring the perpetrators to justice.
“I still ask myself which people in Sabac do not have a peaceful dream because of me?,” Isidora told CFWIJ.
On December 20, IsidoratoldN1 she fears for her safety. “You see a poster with your name on it and the words Wanted and Reward… I am not prepared to face the fact that there is a wanted poster with my name on it in this town,” she said.
The CFWIJ strongly condemns the police brutality against journalists. We demand the immediate return of the press cards seized from the security forces. Policies to intimidate journalists should be abandoned, and journalism should be practiced under the criteria of freedom of the press.
If you have been harassed or abused in any way, and please report the incident by using the following form.