We Must Unite to Stop Them Insulting Us

A sexist approach to our work has been most prominent in the pro-government newspaper Pobjeda, which at that time was run by the current head of the government's bureau.

Women journalists from the weekly Monitor, whose critical comments on the government's work and the governing parties irritated some members of the ruling elite, were scorned by this newspaper in a very insulting manner.

The crude comments were not directed at their standpoints or at the factual accounts of these reporters. They were insulted as women, as "media bullies in skirts", as "dumb as a dumbbell", as "ballbusters", or as "protesters' dogs in skirts". The beach photos of one reporter were published along with one such text.

The victims of these insults got some satisfaction in court after eight long years, receiving around 2,000 euros in compensation each. But no apologies came, even after the court ruling, from either the paper or from the government, which was then the majority owner of the paper. On the contrary, the editor-in-chief Srdjan Kusovac was promoted to the post of chief media adviser to the Prime Minister.

The most brutal recent attack on freedom of expression in recent years was against a Vanja Calovic woman activist from the NGO MANS whose public image was deliberately sabotaged in 2014 by the release of a video allegedly featuring her in pornographic scenes.

It all happened while she was one of the most vocal critics of the ruling elite.

It was, perhaps, the first open case of online violence because the compromising "videos" were sent out to many email addresses. After the court refused to rule in this case ex officio, the victim had to file a lawsuit herself and go through the "public shaming" all over again.

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