The media on media: About the attack on Teofil Pancic

Attack on the journalist and columnist of the Vreme weekly magazine, Teofil Pancic, who was beaten with a metal club in a public transport bus, is the latest proof that the freedom of the media and expression in Serbia has been threatened in the last few years. After the attack, Pancic had to call the police himself because all the passengers, including the driver, immediately escaped from the bus. Pancic was diagnosed with non-life threatening skull contusion and injuries of the right arm. He believes his work is the main motive behind the attack.

Teofil Pancic was born in 1965 in Skoplje. He lived in Pirot until the age of seven, later moved to Zagreb, and today lives in Belgrade. Since 1999 he has worked as a political commentator for the Radio Free Europe, and in the same year he won the journalistic award Jug Grizelj. He has published articles and columns in various magazines, among them Nasa Borba, Republika, Feral Tribjun, Globus, Dani, Sarajevske sveske, Dnevnik, Nezavisne, Vojvodina, Pobjeda, Monitor, as well as in publications in the USA, Russia and several European countries.

Pancic writes the column "Side-effects" for the weekly magazine Vreme, analyzing social and political events. It is interesting to note that Pancic writes his columns in the editorial office in the evening, when there is no one else around. At home he has his own archive of journalistic columns and magazines that is necessary for his work.

Due to his wit and critique of nationalism as well as the prevailing policy, he is often the target of the criticism of "right-wing Serbia", and has found himself at the center of polemics with holders of opposing views.

He has published several collections of essays and columns, among them "Urban Bushmen", "Keepers of the Bengal Fire", "On Assignment", "Personal Features", "The Famous 400 Kilometers", "Carma Coma" and "A Stone In Search of Window – Rende". Pancic has recently written a collection of articles written for the newspaper Pobjeda from Podgorica to be entitled "Silly Singer". As he once explained, he strives to achieve "a kind of an inner logic in each book that makes them more than a collection of randomly selected texts placed between the same covers", always trying to make them "have their own special story and a background that connects them". He likes to call himsef a journalistic writer, and points out that otner journalistic writers – Igor Mandic, Veselko Tenzera, Bogdan Tirnanic and Milan Vlajcic – have influenced his work, each in his own way. Vreme's journalist, Milos Vasic, says in his column that "Teofil Pancic writes the way he writes: he is sharp, witty and reasoned – unlike some who are not the target of beatings and bombs".

Author: Bojan Cvejic
Source: Danas, 27.07.2010; page 7.

Ozren Milanovic

Violence against journalists in Serbia has become a routine, a profession in and of itself... None of the attacks were fully investigated, processed, brought to a conclusion...

It began with Dusan Reljic, the editor of the foreign affairs section of the "Vreme" weekly magazine. He was kidnapped on September 21, 1993 in front of the building where he lived. Three men approached him, put a bag on his head and took him to an unknown location where they held and investigated him... They tortured him for nine days and then let him go. The kidnapping has remained unsolved to this day.

Journalist of the "Duga" magazine, Dada Vujasinovic, was found dead on April 8, 1994 in her apartment. Her death had been classified as a suicide for a long time, and only after persistent efforts of her family the case was reclassified as murder. The murderers have not been found.

Slavko Curuvija was murdered on April 11, 1999 in downtown Belgrade. Names of possible murderers have often been mentioned, but it has not been precisely established who they were nor who were their possible political masters.

Milan Pantic, a journalist for "Vecernje Novosti" was murdered on June 11, 2001 in front of his house in Jagodina. No one was held responsible for this crime.

On April 13, 2007, a bomb was thrown at the window of the apartment of Dejan Anastasijevic, a journalist writing for "Vreme". The motive and names of the attackers have remained unknown to this day.

Threats to Brankica Stankovic, the author of the "Insider" programme aired on TV B92 – "You are dangerous as a snake, you'll end up like Curuvija" – were characterized by a judge as a personal insult. The judge advised her to initiate civil proceedings if she wanted satisfaction. Stankovic is now protected by the police.

The trial of the three attackers who attacked B92's cameraman, Bosko Brankovic, was brought back to the beginning because of the change in the judicial council. Brankovic was attacked while recording the protest against the arrest of Radovan Karadzic on July 24, 2008. His leg was broken and his camera destroyed.

The attack on a journalist working for weekly magazine "Vreme", Teofil Pancic, occurred on Saturday evening in a bus full of people, according to police announcement. Everyone stood by silently, watching two young man beating Pancic. No one helped him nor called the police, which was eventually called by the journalist himself. He was not robbed, only beaten. He was diagnosed with head contusion and injuries to his right arm.

Predictably, the very next day many people condemned the attack and demanded immediate identification and severe punishment of the attackers and those behind them. Verbal support will not help Teofil and those before him, nor their families.

The only way forward is for the state to finally solve all these cases as a matter of highest priority, sending a strong message that brutal attacks on journalists cannot remain unpunished because they constitute an attack against the fundamental values of the society.

Unfortunately, the atmosphere of impunity has lasted for too long. This is not and cannot be only a police matter, but a concern of all government bodies and political leaders who have any influence on the society.

Journalists are protected – declaratively. Especially when attacked. On the other side, laws and drastic penalties prevent journalists from writing and doing their job!

Author: Ozren Milanovic
Source: Politika, 27.07.2010; page: A23

MC Newsletter, July 30, 2010