Serbia: State response to harassment of journalist Bojana Pavlović passes the ball to public prosecutor’s court

August 3, 2020, Belgrade, Serbia -- Permanent Representation of Serbia to the Council of Europe responded to the alert by the Council of Europe concerning the harassment of KRIK reporter Bojana Pavlović today.

Bojana was manhandled and her equipment was illegally confiscated on June 12, when she was filming son of Aleksandar Vucic, President of Serbia, sitting in a café with Aleksandar Vidojevic, who is currently on trial for participating in organized crime.

As Bojana was leaving the venue, three men stopped her stating they were police officers. They however did not present her with a police badge. She showed them her press ID card, explaining that she was on duty. Bojana was then told the police would be arriving at the scene. 

Upon the police’s arrival the men then requested her to delete the footage “if she did not want to have any problems”, when Bojana told them she already had, one of the two men approached her and forcibly removed her phone from her hands. The police didn’t react to the illegal confiscation which at one point left Bojana surrounded by five men who made her feel endangered. 

The Council of Europe issued a level 2 alert concerning the incident on June 12. Meanwhile, The Independent Journalists’ Association of Serbia condemned the harassment and asked the authorities to act responsibly.

In a letter submitted to the Council today, the Ministry of Interior affairs stated that the jurisdiction and duty to initiate an investigative proceeding was up to the public prosecutor and that no order or warrant of arrest was received by the police forces.

The Coalition For Women In Journalism reminds the authorities that the impunity of attacks on journalists leads to new attacks, and leaves Serbian citizens without information of public interest and contributes to the collapse of a democratic society. We demand from the prosecution to start an investigation urgently on those who confiscated Bojana’s equipment as well as determining who the unresponsive police officers were. We appeal to the authorities to enable journalists who are increasingly exposed to pressure, to do their job unhindered.