Politika

Veran Matic, the president of the Commission Investigating Murders of Journalists, has been an inevitable target over the past month and a half in a special war of sorts, that weekly Ilustrovana Politika has been waging.

Such a cover story, she said, invites violence.

At the same time, Mihajlovic denied the allegation that top state officials supports the publication of such content in the media.

For a month now the campaign of Ilustrovana Politika, adviser to editor-in-chief Goran Kozic and outside collaborator Djordje Martic has been underway, proclaiming as innocent the defendants in case of murder Slavko Curuvija, claiming that there is not enough evidence against them, which would probably mean that the court should released those accused.

After the front page in the weekly Ilustrovana Politika "The Hounds Have Been Released," and the offensive mention of US Ambassador in Belgrade Kyle Scott, this weekly has taken Ljiljana Smajlovic, a journalist, in its sights, while sanctions by the authorities are missing now, as had been the case the last week.

In a press release on Tuesday signed by the Commission's president, Veran Matic, it is added that the practice commenced with the article "Curuvija welcomed bombs" in Politika Ekspres several days prior to the killing of Slavko Curuvija (in 1999).

The front page, that features an image of a growling dog and the heading, "The Hounds Are Unleashed," has caused President Vucic's media adviser Suzana Vasiljevic to resign from the supervisory board of Politika AD, the publisher of the weekly.

A press release signed by the Commission's president, Veran Matic, added that these developments are seen as a continuation of the bad conduct of this procedure, which is especially noticeable when it comes to avoiding presenting all evidence.

The Commission recalls that November 2 is International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists.

It featured the picture of a growling dog and covers of certain domestic printed media and the heading "The Hounds Are Unleashed," Beta agency reported.

The Serbian Information Ministry's draft media strategy, which was criticised by media and journalists' associations before it was discarded this week, controversially proposed establishing new state-run media through public-private partnerships.

Moscow and Belgrade oppose the "vicious practice" of imposing the choice of "you are either with us or against us" on states, the top diplomats of Russia and Serbia said in a joint article published on Wednesday.