October 2, 2023
Police have arrested one M.S., with the prosecution requesting detention after this individual was suspected of endangering the safety of employees in the newsroom of daily national newspaper Danas.
M.S. was previously identified as the individual who commented on a Facebook post featuring the Danas article headlined ’What Kind of Role is Played by the SPC (Serbian Orthodox Church) in the Tragic Events in Kosovo’, with the comment reading “After burning, there won’t even be a mention left of them (in reference to the Danas newsroom)”.
Furthermore, flyers were strewn in front of the entrance to the building housing the newspaper’s editorial department, depicting Danas editor-in-chief Dragoljub Draža Petrović wearing a traditional Albanian cap and pictured alongside murdered KLA (Kosovo Liberation Army) founder and member Adem Jashari. In the background is the image of Serbian WWII Royalist Army leader Draža Mihailović, with the words: “You aren’t Draža, you’re Adem”.
The flyers were signed by the ultra-right-wing Conservative Movement Naši [Ours], which also signed leaflets distributed in May that declared media companies Danas and TV N1, alongside members of the political opposition, as belonging to the “fifth column”. This movement has also targeted the Independent Journalists’ Association of Vojvodina, NDNV, on multiple occasions.
Interestingly, on the evening before the leaflets appeared in front of the Danas offices, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić had made a guest appearance on national public service broadcaster Radio-Television of Serbia and stated that the journalists of Danas “want to destroy Serbia”.
