B92 reporter wants her police protection revoked

B92 reporter wants her police protection revoked

BELGRADE -- Brankica Stankovic has asked the Interior Ministry to as soon as possible revoke her police protection, and took personal responsibility for the move.

The author of B92 TV's investigative program Insajder was given police protection in 2009 by a decision of the competent institutions.

The reason for her letter was, among other things, a negative campaign started after the first episode of a new series, Reporter, was broadcast this week. The series deals with football clubs and leading people from those clubs and some media have been questioning the decision to assign security to the reporter.

The daily Informer, owned by Dragan J. Vucicevic, has been at the forefront of the campaign that also includes Nebojsa Covic and Milorad Vucelic, who earlier this week appeared on Pink TV to mock and challenged the state's decision to place the journalist under 24-hour protection, which can effectively be considered as an open invitation to lynch.

In the explanation of her request, Stankovic noted that this is a country where journalists Slavko Curuvija, Milan Pantic and Dada Vujasinovi have been murdered, as was Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic, and that for that reason, as a journalist whose safety is endangered according to official data, she considers it unacceptable that state representatives are not responding to numerous falsehoods in a campaign led by those who have already done something similar in 2002.

"Everyone knows, and you do as well, according to available news archives, that precisely some journalists and tabloids led a similar campaign before the assassination of the Serbian prime minister. Their papers were at the time filled...