Vucic: I am waiting for OSCE’s apology

BELGRADE – Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic has said that neither he nor the government was responsible for the recent removal of a blog from the website of the Belgrade-based Blic daily and shutting down of the radio show Pescanik’s website, stressing that the OSCE mission had not been telling the truth when it had warned about censorship in the country and he was waiting for the organization to apologize.

“It is my duty to protect Serbia from lies and deceit. I am waiting for an apology from the OSCE,” Vucic told Belgrade-based TV Prva on Sunday.

He pointed out that he had not been removing blogs from the Blic website, and fortunately, the people of Ringier, owner of the daily, had informed the international community about it.

When it comes to Pesscanik, Vucic said he was awaiting the police to finally shed light on who was behind the taking down of the website.

He agreed with the opinion by journalists that such things were bad for Serbia, but stressed that it was not his responsibility, as it were those who launched such lies that were responsible for creating a bad image of the country.

Vucic said that he knew that those had been deliberately planted lies, and that people from Serbia had been involved.

The prime minister said that he had told all about it to German Chancellor Angela Merkel during their recent talks in Berlin, despite her not even raising the issue, because he thought it was important for everyone to know that it was possible to exert pressure on Serbia, but lies should not be part of it.

At the same time, Vucic expressed his gratitude to ambassadors in Serbia, such as U.S. Ambassador Michael Kirby, who had had a balanced approach to the issue and had...