Marko Vidojkovic, Serbian journalist, writer and tv host of “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”, received a death threat, on 20 June, after midnight, via Instagram, in his inbox.

“I know where you live, I will slaughter you son of bitch… I will slaughter you first and then I have to cut you to pieces stupid fool… I will slaughter you, I swear”, it says in the message that Vidojkovic received in the Instagram inbox.

Vidojkovic said that he reported threats to his company United Media that he received.

“I have zero tolerance for things like this. They insult me ​​every day and talk about everything, but when they start with physical threats, slaughter and chopping, I have zero tolerance. Obviously it’s a monster, because whoever writes things like this is really not normal”, Vidojkovic said.

This is not the first time that Vidojkovic has received threats. He is often exposed to them; however, the last case that was also prosecuted was when someone wrote to him and his colleague Kulacin on their Youtube channel where they upload their episodes: “There will be a chant when Vucic catches you.”

Zeljko Bodrozic, president of the Independent Journalists’ Association of Serbia, said that the anger and intolerance have multiplied in the public space.

“Primarily thanks to state officials, we are not surprised that individuals unfit for the regime, like Marko, are left at the mercy of various disturbed perpetrators. Unfortunately, I can be sure that this is not the last threat to Marko and many who are critical towards the ruling party, because thanks to the aggressive narrative from politicians, our society is full of more and angrier people who want to beat, rape and lynch. However, we are not withdrawing and we are not silent, and we will do everything to protect our members such as  Vidojkovic, Kulacin and many others, as well as to make a pressure on the institutions to find  all those who attack journalists”, he said.

SafeJournalists Network, representing more than 8,200 media professionals in the Western Balkans joins its member Independent Journalists’ Association of Serbia in strongly condemning death threats. Our Network requests that the person who threatened have to be prosecuted and arrested as soon as possible. We expect an adequate sanction that will have a clear deterring effect. Also, we call on Serbian authorities to secure the work of journalists in this country, because Serbia is a country in our region which reported the largest numbers of attacks and threats to journalists in recent years and it is important for the whole region to stop with this trend in the future.

We will inform relevant national and international stakeholders about this new case.

Each attack on journalists is an attack on public interest, democracy and rights of all citizens.

Belgrade – Podgorica – Pristina – Sarajevo – Skopje – Zagreb, 21.06.2021.

Association of Journalists of Kosovo

Association of Journalists of Macedonia

BH Journalists Association

Croatian Journalists’ Association

Independent Journalists Association of Serbia

Trade Union of Media of Montenegro