Izvor: N1 televizija, 01.Nov.2018, 18:26 (ažurirano 02.Apr.2020.)
Vucic's media advisor quits Belgrade Politika company board
Suzana Vasiljevic, Serbia’s President media advisor, resigned as a member of the Supervision Board of the Politika media company, following a cover page of one of its editions which some media organisations described as a call for lynching independent media and journalists, N1 reported on Thursday.
The last issue of the Belgrade Ilustrovana Politika weekly triggered reactions from home and abroad on Wednesday, after the independent unions of journalists in Serbia and Vojvodina >> Pročitaj celu vest na sajtu N1 televizija << (NUNS and NDNV) said that the weekly headline “Dogs are unleashed” and the following article were equivalent to an open hunt season on independent media.
“I resign as a member of the Supervision Board of the Politika AD because I don’t want to support such editorial policy which I, unfortunately, do not have any influence on according to law,” Vasiljevic said in a letter to media organisations.
She added that another reason for her resignation was to avoid “giving you (media organisations) an argument for attacks on the President,” Aleksandar Vucic.
NUNS and NDNV have mentioned Vasiljevic as a member of the Board, adding that was even more worrying since Politika is a state-owned company.
Vasiljevic described the cover page and the article as “scandalous”, but said she did not see any link it had with either her or Vucic.
Speaking to the Prva TV earlier on Thursday, Vucic said he saw the front page “and as president of Serbia and an ordinary man I condemn it. That is not the public discourse that we want, and I hope this won’t be repeated, at least not in those media in which the government has a share.”
In her letter Vasiljevic accused media organisations of “politicising the case, deliberately ignoring the law and demanding from the state to violate it,” referring to a legal provision saying the Supervising Board “does not have any power over editorial policy.”
