Serbian Tabloid Accused of Risking Journalist's Life

Serbia's pro-government tabloid Informer on Thursday accused KRIK journalist Stevan Dojcinovic of planning to publish a false article about Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic, alleging he had concealed ownership of millions-worth of assets.

Informer said KRIK planned to publish an article accusing Vucic of hiding his ownership of major assets in Belgrade through members of his family.

The claim was backed by a blurred photograph of KRIK's leading journalist and details of the as yet unpublished investigative report.

Dojcinovic told BIRN that it was clear that someone was following journalists like him, as there was no other way Informer could have obtained such information.

"The most problematic things is that Informer had information that only someone who is systematically monitoring our work could have obtained," he said. "The real question in Serbia today is who is monitoring journalists," Dojcinovic added.

Informer has attacked KRIK in the past, after it published investigative articles, but this is the first time it was doing so in advance, he noted. "This is the first time they are attacking preventively, which is very indicative," Dojcinovic said.

Informer put Dojcinovic on the front page with the title "The mafia strikes Vucic family" and the subheading - "Exclusive: How media-politics-tycoon racketeers are planning to destroy the State".

Informer suggested that KRIK was inventing an alleged scandal in cooperation with "drug dealers, criminals, corrupt cops, but also agents of some of the foreign intelligence services" in order to force Vucic to give up the Prime Minister's position in the next government.

The tabloid claims that...