If you have information that journalists are part of criminal groups or the mafia, or that the activities of a certain media are aimed at complicity and protection of criminal groups or the mafia, then it’s your obligation, especially as a senior government official to coordinate all security services in the country, to substantiate this with evidence and report it to the prosecuting authorities. Otherwise, such claims represent pressure which is obviously only a matter of politics and by which you damage someone’s business reputation, says lawyer Nikola Martinović in his interview for Pobjeda.
The coordinator of all security services, Mr Dritan Abazović, said on Friday night, as a guest on the national broadcaster RTCG, that the government had already filed criminal charges against one media outlet for the texts published, and blamed media companies that aren’t close to the regime for cooperation with mafia and organized crime, threatening that they would be prosecuted.
Mr Martinović recalls that the protection of sources is an indispensable tool of investigative journalism and that many truths have come to light thanks to this institute.
Executive secretary of the Media Council for Self-Regulation, Mr Ranko Vujović, stresses that in the media law, which was in force until the middle of last year, the protection of journalistic sources was treated as an absolute right, which is not the case anywhere in Europe.
Mr Vujović notes that it’s noticeable that the new ruling majority has less and less sensibility and understanding for different opinions and editorial policies.
