May 31, 2017
After being sacked as defence minister following sexist comments directed towards a female journalist, Bratislav Gašić, a senior official of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party, has returned to public office – having been appointed as the new director of the Security-Information Agency (BIA).
It was in late 2015 that Gašić said of a B92 TV journalist, who had crouched in front of him so as not to obscure the cameraman, “How I like these lady journalists who kneel so easily”.
This statement resulted in public condemnation and led to Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić announcing that Gašić would be replaced. This was quickly followed by protests of journalists in several cities in Serbia under the slogan “Journalists do not kneel”, demanding that Vučić keep his word.
He was replaced at the beginning of February 2016 and has not appeared in public since.
Vučić has now said that Gašić “held out for a year and a half without a single function” and that he paid “a very high price for that incident”, after which he said that he believes he can perform professionally in the position of BIA Director.
Foto: FoNet / Ministarstvo odbrane Srbije
