SEEMO Interview with Olivera Lakić

September 10, 2020 • • disabled comments

Olivera Lakić has been a journalist with the independent daily newspaper Vijesti since 2002. She is Montenegrin, married and the mother of two children. This interview is from 2015, three years after we published it, in May 2018, Olivera was wounded by a gunman in Podgorica after investigating corruption

SEEMO: Could you tell us about your case? When did it occur, and what happened?

Olivera Lakić: The most dramatic events escalated in early 2011. After many threats aimed at stopping me from performing my work in a professional manner, I received the most serious and terrible threat that someone can receive. I was threatened that my daughter, who was studying in Rome at the time, would be raped. A few days prior to receiving a threat, while I was conducting my journalistic work, my security was jeopardized. A year later I was physically assaulted outside my home.

SEEMO: Have you experienced any additional threats during your career?

Olivera Lakić: Yes. Throughout my journalistic career I have dealt with subjects concerning organized crime, corruption, unresolved unsolved murders and related issues, I was always confronted with threats. However, prior to this threat, I have rarely attached any significance to these “warnings” and threats. I think threats are, unfortunately, an integral part of the journalistic profession.

SEEMO: In your opinion, what is the reason behind the assault?

Olivera Lakić: The reason is because I have dealt with the cases concerning organized crime, illegal production and smuggling of cigarettes involving some people from the government and security services. All the cases I have cited, as the most drastic ones, have occurred because of this research. Obviously, state institutions have failed both in protecting me and taking my side. They have taken the side of the criminals.

SEEMO: What is the epilogue of your case?

Olivera Lakić: A worker at the tobacco production plant was sentenced to four months in prison for endangering safety there. A man who threatened that my child would be raped, a police officer and head of security of the police director at the time and a member of his family, were recently acquitted based on the decision of the first instance court. A man who turned himself in, he confessed, was acquitted of responsibility. There were three judicial processes that were initiated on this occasion. A judge sentenced a volunteer to the maximum sentence for this criminal offence. In the third trial, another elected judge has released him. A man who physically assaulted me in front of the apartment building where I live with my family, has a criminal record and was previously sentenced for drug trafficking and violent behaviour, was sentenced to nine months in prison.

SEEMO: Have you experienced fear? Are you still afraid?

Olivera Lakić: Yes. I am afraid every day, mainly for my family. I’m particularly scared because the attitude of state institutions is worrying to say the least.

The fact that there was an attempt to obstruct the investigation into the threats against my child. The president of the Supreme Court and the head of the criminal police directly pressured the Basic State Prosecutor not to pursue the case, might make you understand. The police officer who was charged with the criminal offense is now released, and you may well understand why I’m so afraid.

No one deals with the persons who orchestrated the attack. I had to make a research on my own, to find and prosecute a man who threatened to attack my child. Although the prosecution accused the head of the criminal police for the crime of ‘illegal influence’, as he directly ‘warned’ the prosecutor that he will lose his position as a head of prosecution if he did not drop the charges and stop the investigation, the court dismissed the indictment. Moreover, the court dismissed the indictment issued last year by the prosecution against several people, including a man who attacked me physically, because I was indirectly threatened. I’m emphasizing as an important fact that at that moment I was under police protection, but it was not enough for the court.

SEEMO: How has this affected you your family and your private life?

Olivera Lakić: I’m afraid that my family will never be the same. When I say this I mean that we have lost our sense of peace and security forever. In 2011, when the safety of my children was threatened due to my profession, they had to stop their studies for a short time They are suffering the consequences of this attack even today. For more than half a year, we had uniformed policemen in front of our apartment for 24 hours a day to ensure our safety. In addition, I had personal police security for two years and seven months. It was abolished at my request. For the entire time I was totally unable to live and work normally. I had a hard time with being escorted by the police and I was rarely leaving the apartment. My family and I have not had any joint activities outside our home, not even once. Friends of my children avoided visiting us, and even some of my friends because they were bothered by the police checks that were carried out when they visited.

I had to go to a trial almost every other week for the last four years. All my activities were subordinated to that. I often jokingly say that I visit a courtroom more often than a hairdresser.

Regardless of the difficult situations and how they were almost unbearable, I will persevere in making every detail clear, and in making sure that the persons who endanger our peace and security are brought to justice. I will not let them go unpunished.

SEEMO: Have you considered changing your profession because of your experiences?

Olivera Lakić: Yes. Many times. Primarily because I fear for the safety of my children. After I was physically assaulted in front of my home, I quit. I thought that I had no right to endanger my family, and I was devastated by the fact that I did so. I felt guilty for years. On a daily basis, that is very intense. The director of the newspaper and editor-in-chief understood, because they themselves were victims of physical assaults and threats. They did not accept my resignation. They gave me the maximum amount of help and support, freed me from all obligations in the newsroom and told me that my job was waiting for me when I decided to come back. In addition, I was received a salary every month as if I served in full capacity. I came back to work ten months later, the same day the prosecutor’s office filed charges against the police officers who threatened to attack my child. Only with the support of my family, especially the children, could I afford to reassume the role of journalists, in addition to my role as a mother.

SEEMO: How important was the support provided by international organizations, such as SEEMO, in your case?

Olivera Lakić: It means a lot to me and I’m grateful for it. It shows that we care for each other, and that we fight for each other … Regardless of the troubles a journalist is confronted with, if his colleagues are with him, he feels stronger. SEEMO fought for me in public on several occasions. It certainly helped to resolve some cases or caused competent authorities to pay more attention to them. So please bear in mind that I’m still in need of your help.

SEEMO: Who else provided you with support and assistance? What was the support of state authorities of Montenegro – i.e. police, prosecutors and others?

Olivera Lakić: I have primarily received support and assistance from my editorial office and the owner of the newspapers where I work, which was sometimes touching. That showed me that my sacrifice was not in vain and that my work is valued appropriately. It is a privilege to be part of such editorial office. In addition, I was also touched by the support I received from the colleagues of other media in Montenegro, who protested for several days after I was assaulted, and who reported on the investigations and trials with special care. I was particularly touched by, and I highly appreciate, the support of my colleague Veran Matić from RTV B92 in Belgrade. I had never met him, and he called me and gave me advice about how to live with a police escort. He understood what I was going though and offered his assistance. The support of state authorities in my country began and ended with statements condemning threats and assaults. I will not forget what was, in my opinion, the ugly attitude of the regime’s newspaper Pobjeda, which made fun of my struggles in the newspapers during the days when my family and I were most vulnerable.

Although I am dissatisfied with the pace at which my cases have been resolved I must point out that the prosecution was the only authority that I could count on.

The fact that I had to turn to the Protector of Human Rights and Freedoms because the Ministry of Interior did not want to answer me about the status of my safety, or to inform me about how long I would have to be under the police protection, says enough about the attitude of the police. I have waited for the answer the Protector of Human Rights and Freedoms for several months. There are countless examples of their unprofessional behaviour and it would be a never-ending story. The fact that I had to end my police security myself after almost three years, without a reaction from them, says enough about the seriousness of police concerns and attitudes towards a journalist and citizen.

SEEMO: Finally, how do you assess the media situation in Montenegro?

Olivera Lakić: After the last in a series of attacks on our editorial office, when a bomb was placed under the window of the editor-in-chief Mihailo Jovović, my colleague from the editorial office Balša Brković wrote: ‘A journalist servant perceives any journalist who is not a servant as an existential threat, an attack on him and his “work” as a shameful reminder of who he and what he is, a mirror that he fears to look in, because he knows what kind of ugliness he will see in it instead of his character’. I could humbly add to this that it hurts the most when someone who calls himself a journalist, who knows or should know the sacred duty of journalists and what is his role in society is, turns his head and stays silent because he is separating the journalists into ‘us’ and ‘them’. As if the truth that we jointly pursue may be segregated into ‘ours’ and ‘theirs’. As long as we are divided by such a media situation, the safety of journalists in Montenegro will be as it is now. Now a journalist in Montenegro is a clay pigeon that any scoundrel may label as he pleases, threaten, intimidate and beat. The environment in which the journalists of Vijesti are working in and survive, gives me the right to say that we are the champions.

SEEMO Interview with Nedim Şener

September 10, 2020 • • disabled comments

Nedim Şener is a journalist for dailies Milliyet and Posta. In 2009 he published a book on the 2007 murder of journalist Hrant Dink. In The Dink Murder and Intelligence Lies, he alleged that the police officers responsible for the Ergenekon investigation were behind the murder. In 2011, he was arrested and charged with collaboration with Ergenekon network. The Ergenekon network is, according to officials, a secularist ultra-nationalist organization with possible ties to members of Turkey’s military-security groups. Nearly 300 persons have been formally charged with membership of what prosecutors described ‘the Ergenekon terrorist organization’. Şener was released in March 2012 pending trial.

SEEMO: How you see the press freedom situation in Turkey in the year 2015?

Nedim Şener: While speaking at the Ambassadors’ Conference on Jan. 6, President Erdoğan said ‘I’m talking assertively: Neither in Europe nor in other countries is the media as free as the Turkish press’. Moments afterward, we learned that Diyarbakır-based Dutch journalist Frederike Geerding was detained by police at her home with allegations that she was ‘engaging in propaganda for a terrorist organization’. This is the clearest picture for freedom of the press in Turkey. The rough practice of the Anti-Terror Law turns the press freedom issue in Turkey into an ever-deeper problem of free speech at all levels for the society. Before the rise of new media, we were talking about press freedom issues. As more members of the society become able to participate in the practice of free speech through Twitter, Facebook and other social media platforms, now we see more examples of legal pressure. A tweet can send you in front of a prosecutor, and it is now seen as normal to be put on trial due to such causes. These are manifestations of a society of fear, which is created by the ruling Justice and Development Party that received a strong electoral backing.

SEEMO: How important is for you the support SEEMO and other international human rights and press freedom organisations gave you?

Nedim Şener: The book that I wrote in prison was titled The Truth Cannot Be Jailed. I resisted all the injustice and difficulties by the power of writing. It made me stronger toward myself. Meanwhile, the support of my colleagues in Turkey and international organizations kept my hope alive. The prison taught me the importance of telling the truth to the public at all costs, as well as the honour of resistance and solidarity.

SEEMO Interview with Helena Puljiz

September 10, 2020 • • disabled comments

Croatian journalist Helena Puljiz is a commentator for Tportal. She previously worked as a journalist and editor for Tportal, Jutarnji list, Glas Slavonije, Globus, Banka magazine and Varaždinske vijesti. She established journalist’s trade union at the daily Jutarnji list and co-founded the Association of Croatian Investigative Journalists. She co-edited the White Book-A Chronicle of Threats and Assaults on Journalists 1990-2011. Puljiz was awarded the Aleksandra Zec’ Charter in 2004. In 2004, she accused Croatian Counterintelligence Agency (Protuobavještajna agencija – POA) of unauthorized and illegal questioning, and initiated court proceedings against the Republic of Croatia. The court ruled in 2014 that agents had violated journalist her rights when they took her in for unauthorised questioning and threatening her in 2004.

SEEMO: You experienced serious threats as a journalist in 2004 from the Croatian Counterintelligence Agency (Protuobavještajna agencija – POA), an agency that is currently part of Security and Intelligence Agency (SOA). Can you please tell us what happened?

Helena Puljiz: Members of the then-POA, and today’s SOA tried all the methods available to them – threats, bribery and blackmail, physical abuse – to get me, as a journalist, to spy on colleagues, politicians, heads of political parties, foreign diplomats, intellectuals in the country and abroad, and to publish dirty stories in the media for them. Even though I was worried for the safety of my own life and the lives of my family members, I reported them to the parliamentary Council for the supervision of security services, The Croatian journalistic association and the Croatian Helsinki Committee.

But instead of protection, the only thing I got from the parliamentary Board was a continuation of torture through interrogations, during which I was treated like a state enemy. Instead it was the agents that were breaking the laws and Constitution of Croatia. The only support I got was from the Council for national minorities and human rights. After they ruled that the POA agents endangered my basic human rights, then-President of Croatia Stipe Mesić decided to remove Joško Podbevšek from his position as the head of POA. But this was objected to by PM Ivo Sanader. After local and international pressure Sanader signed his annulment.

In those three months I was subjected to an attempted media lynch, political pressures, and after I reported that the agents questioned me about President Mesić to the Council, Prime Minister Sanader stated during a Parliamentary session that my case had nothing to do with media freedom and President Mesić, but rather that it was due to my connections to organized crime. This was an attempt to discredit me, and unfortunately it wasn’t the only time that happened. I was falsely connected to the case of Ante Gotovina, a war general that was on the wanted list at that time.

SEEMO: Why did POA decided to target you? You were a young journalist. Why were you so important to the POA?

Helena Puljiz: Up to this day I have still not received any information about why I was harassed by the POA agents. In 2004, I already had 10 years of journalistic experience, and as a media worker had been following the work of the President, the government and Parliament, so I had already researched the Croatia ruling elites. As a journalist I had many international contacts, was on the payroll of different media institutions and organizations. I also founded the first journalistic organization in Europapress Holding (EPH), the trade union of journalists from the daily Jutarnji list.

SEEMO: Then what happened to you?

Helena Puljiz: Then suddenly in 2004, I had no job, no income or possibility to publish under my own name in any media outlet in the country. The harassment I went through was by three POA agents, one of them being the head of POA for Zagreb at the time.

SEEMO: Threats by intelligence services often make people very scared. Were you afraid?

Helena Puljiz: Of course I was scared, like anyone would be, but I still chose to live as a free human being, as much as it’s possible today. Along with the threats, bribery and blackmail attempts, the secret service agents assured me that I had no choice, that I would never find a job in Croatia because I was not covertly working for them. They even threatened the safety of my younger brother, and the endangerment of not only my reputation, but also my mother‘s. I did not succumb to pressures at any point, or have any doubts about reporting them to the authorities. For me, this was a battle for life or death.

I would have rather died than worked secretly for this service against my own profession and against the people. I was afraid they’d kill me when I reported them, and this fear only grew when the PM Ivo Sanader and his spokesperson Ratko Maček falsely accused me of being connected to organized crime.

SEEMO: Are you aware of cases where POA was actively connected to other journalists? Did you get any feedback from colleagues who experienced similar problems with intelligence services?

Helena Puljiz: I don’t know. No one except me reported that they were approached for this reason as a journalist. But, from my own difficult experience I can say with certainty that these people have many accomplices in the media. A number of people who present themselves as journalists disseminated misinformation from the secret services about my case and tried to discredit me as a person and as a reporter.

It is common knowledge that during the 1990s in Croatia secret services abused their powers to covertly follow journalists, but unfortunately all of these cases remained unpunished.

SEEMO: Ten years after this case you got a positive ruling by the court. Are you satisfied with the decision?

Helena Puljiz: I’m satisfied to have proven in court what I claimed from the first day; they were trying to force me to be an accomplice for the secret services, and they broke many Constitutional and legislative rules.

I’m not satisfied that the Municipal State’s Attorney offices was against me, instead of prosecuting my attackers. It’s shameful that I had to make a private lawsuit against them, instead of this state institution which should have indicted them. The Attorney offices eventually filed a complaint against my verdict, which I see only as a continuation of the abuse.

I’m sorry they endangered my health and professional reputation, that they took ten years of my life and for not being able to leave all this in the past, but I was never sorry for confronting them.

SEEMO: What would your advice be to journalists who experience a similar situation?

Helena Puljiz: Be brave and wise.

SEEMO: Who supported you in 2004?

Helena Puljiz: Without the support of my family and friends I would never have been able to survive that period. The support of the Croatian Journalist Association was important too, as was the support from some NGO’s, like Udruga B.a.b.e. There was also the support of parliamentary representatives of national minorities, colleagues, the general public and the international institutions that protect human and journalists ‘rights.

SEEMO: How important was the international support from different press freedom organisations, including SEEMO?

Helena Puljiz: In 2004, the support from international human rights and press freedom organizations helped end the case with the removal of the head of POA from his position. Some of these organizations were IFJ/EFJ, CPJ, IWPR, HRW, Freedom Forum, and of course SEEMO. I must mention a special help of CPJ as well.

SEEMO: How did this case affect your life?

Helena Puljiz: This case influenced my personal and professional life in a big way, and it still does, considering the fact that even after 10 years, I haven’t received a final judgment.

SEEMO Interview with Gordana Igric, BIRN

September 10, 2020 • • disabled comments

Gordana Igric has been active in journalism for 34 years, starting as a journalist in 1981.for Belgrade based Politika and Borba dailies, covering the whole territory of former Yugoslavia. During the war years she reported on the fighting and ethnic cleansing in Bosnia and Croatia in places such as Banja Luka, Zvornik and Foca. Marked as a traitor, during 1999 she was forced to leave Serbia traveling in secret to Sarajevo and then on to London where she began working as an editor for the Institute for War and Peace Reporting and manager of the Balkans project. The need for continued impact in the Balkans inspired Gordana Igric to localize the IWPR Balkans Project in 2005. establishing new regional organisation – Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, BIRN. Ten years later, BIRN, with a pool of close to 500 journalists, has offices in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Romania and Serbia, with editorial presence in Bulgaria, Croatia, and Montenegro, is one of the biggest media networks in the South Eastern Europe.

SEEMO: How often BIRN journalists are target of a threat? Can you give us some examples, please?

BIRN is celebrating decade of its existence and occasionally our investigations were cause for attacks, mostly threatening emails or phone calls. Some of the attacks were seriously vicious. Our editor in BIRN Albania, Besar Likmeta has been physically attacked by an Albanian politician, while the director of BIRN Kosovo, Jeta Xharra, has had several government campaigns orchestrated against her, branding her as “Serbian spy”. Currently, against BIRN Serbia, the government and allied media have launched smear campaign, branding us as liars, spies, mercenaries and lobbyists for some companies. The main accusation is that we are trying to overthrow the Government, being paid for that by the EU. All that for raising legitimate concerns about public interest and validity of Government spending. The proportion of latest smear campaign is beyond anything seen on media scene in Serbia.

SEEMO: It is very hard to be an investigative journalist…

Professional investigative reporting rarely receives plaudits from politicians or states, since in most cases it exposes corruption or malfunctioning of the state institutions. In its ten years of work, BIRN was exposed to different kind of reactions from the states in the Balkans. Control over the media is such that investigative reporting is limited mainly to non-governmental organisations, with rare access to mainstream media. Usually, this means the media, deeply dependent financially and politically on authorities are forbidden to carry sensitive stories, compromising for the governments.

SEEMO: How you see the media situation in the region BIRN covers?

Macedonia is for years a trouble spot, with the closure of independent media, arrest and conviction of investigative journalist Tomislav Kezarovski while the Government is one of the main media advertisers. The situation in Serbia is quickly deteriorating, with numerous complains about censorship and self-censorship. Shutting down of programmes, and increased government pressure on media outlets, with some TV stations and tabloids tasked to perform smear campaigns against political opponents, or anyone with different opinion is happening as we speak.

SEEMO: Your comment about the critics from the Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic – he spoke about BIRN.

How does one respond to allegations that we are liars, undermining Serbian reforms on EU orders, lobbying for some international companies, etc? The prime minister keeps going out on TV and repeating outrageous accusations against BIRN. This in turn is then carried on all media in the country without anyone even approaching BIRN for response. We have no intention to get into a shouting match with the ones screaming “traitors!” but rather participate in a quality debate about the issues have raised on misuse of public spending.

The unprecedented reaction of the Serbian government to our latest story sends two fold message, both to the journalists in Serbia and to the EU. One, that anyone who dares to dig into the topics the Government deems inappropriate will have end up in a similar fashion. At the same time, the PM has used this case to test the limits of EU’s patience, in a situation when Brussels is rarely interested in developments beyond relations between Serbia and Kosovo.

SEEMO Interview with Esad Hećimović

September 10, 2020 • • disabled comments

Esad Hećimović is a Bosnian and Herzegovinian investigative journalist. He is editor at OBN TV, based in Sarajevo. He was given an award for his contribution to investigative journalism by SEEMO and Central European Initiative in 2009, and was the Journalist of the Year in Bosnia and Hercegovina in 2011. He is an author, notably of the book Garibi mujahideens in Bosnia 1992-1999. Mr. Hećimović has worked with a number of international journalists and media outlets, including some Pulitzer Prize winners on cross-border investigations through the past 20 years.

SEEMO: How often have you had problems in your career as a journalist?

Esad Hećimović: Unfortunately, threats have been my constant companion. In the beginning I learned what repression by the state, influential politicians or criminals is like, but in time there were more and more threats that came directly from the street. From 1987 till 1989 I was under investigation by the intelligence service in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). In the protocol of the chief of State Security I was filed under number 6007. I was aware of the secret investigation and the pressure because one of the intelligence agents declined the orders to follow me. His task was to accompany me to cafés and talk to me, provoking me until I would say something that would be punishable as a verbal/speech crime or an insult to state bodies. Then I was sent to the obligatory military service, but I had to spend it in a group of soldiers that had an average of five years of incarceration for rape, murder and other crimes.

Safety officers eventually revealed to me that they were waiting for me to begin rallying people so they could arrest me. Of course, all of this was caused by my articles.

It was difficult to go through all of this; I faced political and nationalist pressures because of my work in the 1990s. I was asked to declare myself as Bosnian or Serbian, and write in the context of those historical and political boundaries. I was almost fired for not following that norm, but I was saved by the trade union. Then I went through everything that happened on my side of the war. Sometimes armed men would ask me if I knew the author of certain texts that were actually published by me under pseudonym. When the war was over, I was left without employment and was still targeted. I was accused by a brigade of falsifying a report about the hate speech they chanted, and I was only able to return to my job after I found a video recording that proved that the incident I described was true.

Afterwards I was attacked as traitor for publishing details about the involvement of Muslim politicians in the fall of Srebrenica. I had to leave BiH when this was published in a special edition of the magazine. It sold up to 75 000 copies back then. People prefer their own illusions over some else’s truth, and they will use force against whoever tries to prove them wrong. This is what happened to me. It was because I do not write black and white truths, I write about those things that are not one-sided.

On one occasion as journalist, I was hit on the head with a club. When I got to the hospital the doctor told me she had been waiting on me for six years, because of something I wrote once that she was displeased with. She knew that sooner or later I would end up in the emergency room in her hospital.

Then I experienced actual threats on the street, when people walked up to me and verbally attacked or threatened me, or when a criminal and tycoon called me and told me ‘his people’ wanted to see me in a black body bag.

One time I received a message on Facebook saying they wanted to ‘beat me up like a dog’. I reported this to the police, but they told me the profile was fake and this person doesn’t exist. However he did exist, and was arrested after the attacks on the American Embassy in Sarajevo. He stated in court that he didn’t intend to actually kill me. After that he organised a suicide bombing in Iraq and died.

I was pressured by the marketing and media mafia in a cross-border investigation I did. Unfortunately, when you live in a constrained society, most of your life and work energy goes into the fight for survival, instead of professional work.

SEEMO: Who is behind these threats?

Esad Hećimović: Behind the threats are always the interests of those that feel endangered by what a journalist can discover about them. These are political, ideological and other power sources of high-ranked individuals and those close to them. During my entire career, government structures posed a serious threat. On one occasion, I saw an intelligence service agent in our newsroom and my colleagues asked me what he was doing there. They told me he came to copy all of my articles. Years later, I found out that FBI agents had found about the existence of a file with my articles in the dossier of a prohibited Islamist humanitarian organization. I was informed by two NATO investigators about the existence of such a dossier in an office led by a contributor to Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan. For a journalist, the key to survival is to recognize who is his friend, and who is his foe at a certain moment. I often found out that I was surrounded by those that were trying to interfere with my work and wanted to stop it for personal motives, but I also encountered those that wanted to be my allies and protectors.

SEEMO: Have these problems caused a strain on your personal life? How has your family been affected by your work?

Esad Hećimović: My family has been through a lot the whole time. On one occasion, I was being harassed through threats over the phone early each morning. First my wife Selma thought it was a wake up service, and she answered every morning with thanks. Then I received a threatening letter that said they knew I was ‘crazy’, but that I have a wife and something might happen to her. This is a serious attack for a journalist, because by endangering his family, you rupture his stability. My wife reacted differently. She analysed my articles and identified a potential sender of that letter, so when the phone rang at four in the morning, she called his number. The calls stopped. Pressures and problems at work were often connected to the objectives of those I criticized and their allies.

My daughter was also subject to threats and was attacked by peers because of my articles. What is your father writing, they would tell her, and what is he saying on TV? Even if a journalist’s work is doing something good for the society, he often harms himself and those closest to him. I’m aware of the problems my wife and daughter face because of me.

SEEMO: Some web portals created entire campaigns against you. What was the cause of that?

Esad Hećimović: Such campaigns are meant to publically discredit and intimidate. In my experience, these attacks were not coincidental. In some cases, they include the work of PR and marketing agencies that led secret campaigns to protect the interests of their clients. They usually do it during pre-election periods, but also as crisis management when their client’s objectives are endangered. It is not impossible to identify those that lead these campaigns. On one occasion, after receiving threats, we located the culprit in Florida, thanks to an IP address we got. Of course, it was a person from BiH, connected to the reports I had, who was living out of the country.

SEEMO: You’ve done several important research and investigation projects. Please tell us what you are working on right now.

Esad Hećimović: I’m currently preparing a research project with my colleagues that will be done in a series of EU countries, but I cannot go into more detail yet. Last year, we published cross-border research in BiH, Slovenia and Austria about marketing mafia. This is a regional model for taking money out of public institutions to finance political parties and individuals, through the use of off-shore companies, firms and bank accounts in different countries. The research caused a big stir, and was presented by the Slovenian journalist Blaž Žgaga and myself on Dataharvest 2014, which is the leading annual journalistic gathering of investigative journalists in Europe. Our colleague Herwig Hoeller wasn’t present because he was reporting from the Ukraine. Court institutions in BiH took charge and arrested nine heads of marketing agencies and television stations. I’m very proud of these types of collaborations with different journalists from Europe and the USA. I also worked with Saša Leković from Croatia on a research about gun smuggling in Slovenia and over to the Balkan wars in the 1990s, published later in a book by Matej Šurc and Blaž Žgaga. Saša helped with the research in Croatia and I did the same in BiH.

Some of my research projects I decided not to publish under my own name, for the safety and security of my family and myself. This happened when Pulitzer Prize winner David Rhode wrote about the fall of Srebrenica, which I was the source for, but not by name. I worked with colleagues from ABC TV, NRK, Fuji TV, but I always strived to publish the stories ‘at home’ as well, sooner or later. The biggest research project I had was about the local and foreign Islam volunteers in BiH between 1992-1999. This led to the publishing of the book Garibi- mujahideens in BiH from 1992 until 1999. The first edition of the book was published by me in 2006 in Sarajevo, and the second was published by SEEMO and Dan Graf in 2009, in Belgrade.

SEEMO: Do you have any plans for a new book?

Esad Hećimović: Yes I do, especially considering everything that has happened in the last few years. The public is more sensitized to the topic, in BiH and in the region as well. I collaborate with many colleagues from Vienna to Istanbul so we could aid each other in our research. But, now I work as the editor on OBN TV and daily TV journalism has a different rhythm and demands.

SEEMO: Who or what are the main threats for journalists in Bosnia and Herzegovina today?

Esad Hećimović: Esad Hećimović: Main threats for journalists come from state structures and ‘dark parts’ of the internet. The events in Paris showed how much hatred there is for Bosnian journalists, through anonymous comments on forums and portals.

SEEMO: How significant do you find the support of SEEMO and other international press freedom organizations?

Esad Hećimović: SEEMO has been a very significant institution for me and has helped me with additional professionalization. It has also been a platform that helped connect me with colleagues in the region, and for sharing experiences and data with others. It was also helpful for me when I needed help the most, during my sickness. It was a place for work when the pressure of my surroundings was too intense and dangerous. Oliver Vujovic and his team from SEEMO have always had enough personal interest and energy to develop new forms and content that helped me and my colleagues to persist in our job and continue it. I’m particularly proud of the journalistic award I received in 2009, in Warsaw, by SEEMO and CEI. This has been an important source of help.

SEEMO Interview with Drago Hedl

September 10, 2020 • • disabled comments

Dragutin Drago Hedl has worked as a professional journalist for Croatian newspapers Glas Slavonije, Slobodna Dalmacija, Feral Tribune and Novi list. He is currently a reporter of Jutarnji list. Mr. Drago was the editor of London-based paper War Report for one year. He has been a correspondent for many renewed global media and has received several international journalistic awards. Besides journalism, he also does literary work, and is the author of several documentary films. He lives and works in Osijek and Zagreb.

SEEMO:As a journalist, you’ve experienced serious threats several times. Please tell us about your experiences.

Drago Hedl: Luckily, the threats I’ve received were more verbal. Two times I found these threats to be very serious: once during the 1990’s when Branimir Glavaš, a powerful Croatian politician at the time, said that he would turn me ‘into dust’ because of articles I published about his involvement in war crimes in Osijek.

The other serious threat came from Davor Boras in 2006, when he attacked me verbally and very vulgarly in a public place, threating to kill me ‘like a dog’. At the time, Boras was the youth president of the Croat Democratic Alliance of Slavonija and Baranja (HDSSB), a political party formed by Branimir Glavaš. Boras received a probation sentence for these threats. I also took a statement by General Mladen Kruljć seriously, when he said in an interview that General Slavko Barić tried to talk him into killing me after I wrote several articles about him. I was also threatened several times by mail. I received the latest one two days after the terrorist attack on Charlie Hebdo magazine.

SEEMO:What is it like to live with threats? Did they affect your life personally or as a journalist?

Drago Hedl: Threats are uncomfortable and always cause commotion. I find it particularly problematic that my also family had to go through hard times because of them. Especially my mother, later in her life. She died last year. I tried to keep these threats from affecting my personal life, so I never stopped appearing publically or visiting places I’d been to before I was threatened.

SEEMO:Have threats caused you to consider not writing about certain topics, or to censor yourself?

Drago Hedl: I’m sure the threats haven’t affected my journalistic work in the sense of self-censorship, or avoiding complex topics which could result in threats by the people depicted in my articles.

SEEMO:To what extent did the state protect you?

Drago Hedl: I reported all the threats I received to the police. They conducted their work professionally. On two occasions, when they assumed the threats were extremely dangerous, I was put under 24-hour police protection. When I reported the anonymous letter I received after the attack on Charlie Hebdo magazine, the police reacted promptly, sending a forensic expert to search for fingerprints on my mailbox, and they began a very intense criminal investigation.

SEEMO:How significant was SEEMO support to you?

Drago Hedl: SEEMO reactions and support were very significant to me, not only in a moral sense, but they also contributed to quicker reactions by state institutions. That type of pressure from international organizations towards Croatian authorities is very important because it shows that the case is being followed outside of Croatia. That’s why I’m always thankful to SEEMO and other organizations that protect media freedom and human rights for always reacting quickly when I was endangered for doing my job as a journalist.

SEEMO:What is your advice to younger colleagues who may experience threats? What should they do?

Drago Hedl: It is important to report every threat. Even though the aim of these threats is usually to scare the journalist and stop him from further investigation, we still can’t be sure that those who are issuing the threats aren’t serious. Besides the police, it is important to report them to organizations that deal with media freedom, such as SEEMO, because their reactions help to ensure a more efficient investigation by authorities in Croatia.

SEEMO Interview with Dragana Sotirovski

September 10, 2020 • • disabled comments

Dragana Sotirovski is a correspondent for the Serbian public broadcaster RTS, as well as editor-in-chief of their branch offices centre in Nis. She has worked as a journalist for Radio Novosti, channel RTS 3 and the RTS Informative programme in Belgrade. Sotirovski is the author of many investigative articles, documentary films and travel shows made both locally and abroad. She has received multiple journalistic awards and accolades.

SEEMO:Please tell us how the threats you experienced have affected your life? Tell us about what happened.

Dragana Sotirovski: The only thing that has changed is that I’ve become more persistent about the research I’m doing. In November last year, after a cover story about the Special hospital on the public broadcaster RTS, the director of the hospital called me and offended me repeatedly. She told me I would “remember her”. She was displeased by the facts and parts of the statement she gave me.

SEEMO:What you did after this call?

Dragana Sotirovski: When the hospital director called me, I contacted the police and filed a complaint for the threats I received. The police forwarded the case to the Prosecutor’s office in Nis. For unknown reasons, the case went missing, but later appeared at the Public Court in Aleksinac. The prosecutor rejected my case as being unfounded, which I filed a complaint against, and the initial decision was confirmed by the Higher Public Court in Nis.

After that I had no right for another complaint. I continued my research while the management of the hospital continued with threats and pressures. I was then contacted by numerous hospital employees who had previously helped me with my research. They asked me to stop my investigation and not publish any more information. They justified this sudden change with personal interests. Some were promised jobs for their children, others were afraid for their own employment and potential consequences. I continued publishing the irregularities I found, and they continued their denials, calling for my expulsion from the correspondent’s office, so that I would be prevented from coming to Sokobanja, where the hospital is, to continue my research. The director and three out of the existing seven syndicates called for the discontinuation of my investigation.

SEEMO:Do you have any advice for journalists who might experience verbal threats or physical attack? What should they do in such a situation?

Dragana Sotirovski:They should immediately contact the police and journalistic associations, raising their case to a certain level so that the authorities can finally help all of us in the journalistic profession, protect us, allow us to work professionally and without pressure.

SEEMO:What advice would you give to your colleagues about how to protect themselves from verbal threats and other forms of attack?

Dragana Sotirovski: Real protection is virtually non-existent, but it is relevant that they do their job professionally, have data to back up everything they’ve stated, prove to their editorial staff that they are doing the right thing, to fight against self -censorship and persist in their research. It is also important for journalists to display solidarity among themselves, so that they can promote the idea to authorities, state institutions and the general public that when an issue arises in the society, it has to be dealt with.

I believe that media workers and the authorities have the same mission. If you have a Prime Minister who stands out against crime and corruption, and you have media workers who investigate crime or corruption and publish it at the risk of their own lives and the lives of their families, then state institutions should look into these matters and resolve them quickly. In the case of the Special hospital for example, my research was published and sent to the anti-corruption agency. The hospital employees sent denials of all the information to the same agency, but despite that they issued a recommendation that the director should be removed from her position. So in my case after I reported, the public reacted, the anti-corruption agency reacted as a state institution, but the Ministry of Health stayed quiet.

SEEMO:Is it harder to be a local journalist than to work in the capital? What additional safety concerns affect local journalists?

Dragana Sotirovski: It is harder on local level, but you must stay a professional. Sometimes the risk you invest pays off. Serious media companies respect persistent, courageous journalists. Journalists that receive some type of bribe do exist. They are on the payrolls of certain individuals and institutions, so it’s impossible for them to report about any subject without being biased. Some journalists often don’t write about problems that exist in their society, because they do not want to see the problems. Journalists who work in the capital are usually divided by the topics they cover, they’ve survived all governmental changes. There are many examples of journalists making a transition from their profession into PR jobs, working for government, institutions or establishments. Local journalists who cover many different topics and don’t have a specific area of reporting have many interests. They do research, put the puzzle together and get results.

SEEMO Interview with Davor Pašalić

September 10, 2020 • • disabled comments

Davor Pašalić , journalist, working for FoNeT news agency in Belgrade, Serbia.

SEEMO:Please tell us, how has the attack you experienced affected your life? Tell us about what happened.

Davor Pašalić: I was at the American Embassy reception on 2 July 2014. I met up with my friends later, and in the evening I went home by foot across Branko’s Bridge (the bridge over river Sava) and bought some food in New Belgrade around 2am. I sat down on a bench, and three very young men approached me. They told me, ‘Now you’ll give us all your money’. I responded that I won’t, when one of them said he has a gun. I told him I don’t care about your gun, thinking that he doesn’t really have one. Then the other one asked me ‘Are you a Croat?’ No one has ever asked me this in my 55 years of life. I was born in Belgrade and have spent my entire life here, and consider myself to look like an average Serb. How did he recognize me as Croatian? It can’t be that only Croats in Belgrade refuse to be robbed. I told them ‘Even if I were, I won’t give you anything’. They called me ‘ustaša’ and began hitting me. Ten minutes later, they ran into me again some 300 meters away, and when I told them once more that I won’t give them any money, they responded, ‘We don’t want your money’, using the pejorative term for Croat again.

SEEMO:Have the culprits been caught? Have you received any information from state authorities about the investigation?

Davor Pašalić: The perpetrators haven’t been caught, and the police informed me that they are searching for them. Since a month ago, they have a special team working on this case.

SEEMO:Do you know who is behind your attack?

Davor Pašalić: I do not know who is behind my attack. Rather than ‘who?’ I am more curious to know ‘why?’ I don’t know if money was the reason, or because I wasn’t a Serb in their opinion. It’s been more than two years since I’ve worked for any foreign media, and FoNet is a news agency that doesn’t deal with affairs, only daily events. I don’t owe anybody money, nor does anybody owe me. Friends told me not to mention this, but I also don’t cheat, so that couldn’t have been the reason. Maybe they were irritated by my suit and tie, or because I had badges with flags of SFRJ (Former Yugoslavia) and the USA?

SEEMO:Is it possible to work normally, without fear of another attack? Does it affect the work of a journalist?

Davor Pašalić: The attack had no influence on my work whatsoever. I’ve began writing for the Zagreb daily ‘Nacional’ since it is being published again.

SEEMO:Has it affected your personal life, and the life of your family?

Davor Pašalić: When I leave the house after dark, my father sends me off as if I were going to war.

SEEMO:What’s your advice to colleagues who find themselves in a similar situation?

Don’t eat out late at night.

SEEMO Interview with Dan Constantin

September 10, 2020 • • disabled comments

Dan Constantin is an editor-in-chief at the daily newspaper Jurnalul National in Bucharest, Romania. He was attacked in June 2014. Constantin continues to appear on television and write articles and op-eds. He is a well-known critic of Romanian President Traian Basescu, and has expressed his critical views many times in writing and on television. Constantin’s assailant said he wanted to ‘change his editorial views’, but the attack did not have the intended effect of censoring Constantin’s reporting. The case was recently closed, and the assailant went unpunished.

SEEMO:In June 2014 you were attacked in front of a supermarket in Bucharest. What happened?

Dan Constantin: I was in the parking lot of the supermarket, loading the shopping into my car. A very aggressive young man approached me and asked, ‘What would you think if I hit you in your mouth? I know what you do, I know you from [TV news channel] Antena3 ‘. My wife was with me. I tried to settle down, but my wife got scared, called 112, said that we were being assaulted by a young man, and the police came. They took our data and also the attacker’s information.

SEEMO:Why you think you were attacked?

Dan Constantin: What my assailant said was very similar to the propaganda coming from President Traian Basescu’s supporters. I was used to the words, but the aggressive young man was different. The physical aggression is another step. He said he wanted to call another television team to come there. I didn’t know the guy, it was the first time I saw him. I was surprised with his very virulent attitude. The young man didn’t want to hide, on the contrary. He wanted to stay, he wanted to be identified. I did not have the impression at any time that he wanted to leave. He wanted to appear as a ‘man’ to fulfil his mission. He gave all this information and acknowledged the fact that was associated with a politician, but he did not name this politician.

SEEMO:Do you have a message for people who could repeat this gesture by making threats against journalists like yourself?

Dan Constantin: Freedom of expression is guaranteed by the Constitution, and this is what everyone has to keep in mind. Those who like this kind of attitude should recall that freedom of expression and the right to an opinion is guaranteed by the Constitution. If you do not agree with another person’s opinion, you can avoid it, but you have to let journalists to do their job. Without freedom of expression there is no rule of law! This man had this attitude not only against me, but against the many people who agree with us and support our ideas.

SEEMO:Did this attack affect your life?

Dan Constantin: I will continue to express my views and express myself freely, in a democratic manner. My wife was scared for a longer period of time, and still fears similar situations. But this didn’t change my reporting.

SEEMO Interview with Brankica Stanković

September 10, 2020 • • disabled comments

Brankica Stanković is a Serbian investigative journalist. She is the main author of Insajder, broadcast on B92 television in Belgrade, Serbia, since 2004. Her reports have led to much controversy, and she routinely receives death threats in connection with her work. For that reason, she has been placed under 24-hour police protection since 2009

SEEMO: As a journalist, you’ve experienced threats many times. Please tell us about the ones you consider to be the most extreme, and what were you investigating at the time?

Brankica Stanković: After the serial I did on hooligans in 2009 and 2010, I experienced a culmination of threats that were public, via social networks, on stadiums, by mail… I was put under 24-hour police protection by the Ministry of Interior Affairs, based on the assessment of my security. I was told that my security was endangered not only by hooligans, but also by many others that I investigated in previous years. This came as a shock to me, because I never thought that something like this could happen just because I was doing my job in the fairest way possible.

SEEMO: What is it like living with threats? Did it affect your life, both publically and privately?

Brankica Stanković: The threats had no effect on me because they’re a part of the job. Of course, the people whose misdeeds you report about are bothered, but the problem was that living under police protection affected my private and professional life. That year, I decided I wouldn’t do the show, in the sense of going to meetings and interviewing people. But I was aware that in those circumstances, the best answer would be to continue. That’s why we expanded our team of journalists. I became the editor, and Insajder kept playing on air.

SEEMO: Have you ever thought about not covering certain topics, or not publishing something because it could lead to potential threats?

Brankica Stanković: Never. That couldn’t happen at any cost.

SEEMO: You’re often seen as a very courageous woman. What is it besides courage that you need to do your profession?

Brankica Stanković: I don’t like being told that I’m brave because I think it diminishes the importance of everything we’ve done. You don’t need courage for that, you need to abide to the rules of the journalistic profession, to be committed. I think I’m doing my job the best I can, not that I’m brave.

SEEMO: You are very professional in your work. What are, in general, your sources for information that you present to the audience?

Brankica Stanković: The rule is that for every piece of information we publish, we have to have evidence. When you put things that way, sources are important in the sense of hearing about something, and then investigating and proving that by yourself. We always have official confirmation for our information, we don’t just rely on sources.

SEEMO: Is it always possible to verify a source’s information?

Brankica Stanković: In cases when it is not possible, we don’t publish the story.

SEEMO: Please give advice to your younger colleagues who may experience threats.

Brankica Stanković: My advice is to never give up. Journalism is not a profession, it’s a lifestyle and there is no room for fear.

SEEMO: You’ve received two SEEMO Awards, the SEEMO Busek and the SEEMO CEI in previous years. How much does this SEEMO support mean to you?

Brankica Stanković: Of course the awards mean a lot because they are a confirmation that we’ve done our job in a professional and responsible way. They are confirmation that we’re doing the right thing.

SEEMO: Does SEEMO support generally mean anything, more particularly, in cases of threats and SEEMO reactions?

Brankica Stanković: There is commonly no solidarity among journalists, and this is exactly why the support of journalistic associations, international organizations and others is relevant. As for SEEMO, I can only say that it is always active in supporting journalists.

SEEMO: Lately you’ve stepped back from the public eye, perhaps because of the birth of your daughter. What are your future plans? Do you intend to continue the same profession in the future?

Brankica Stanković: Well, I have withdrawn in the sense that I don’t go to meet my sources and record them anymore, because I could reveal them by showing up with police escort. But I haven’t pulled back from my job, because Insajder is still airing. In the meantime, I decided to say everything I was quiet about in a book, because I was sure that would finally change this situation in which I am, still living under police protection. I was sure someone would solve my problem…

SEEMO: Does this mean Insajder will keep on existing?

Brankica Stanković: Of course.