MJB attorneys filed a complaint in the name of TV hosts Zoran Kesic and Ivan Ivanovic to the Commission for Complaints of the Press Council for the violation of the Code of Ethics of Serbian Journalists by the daily paper Serbian Telegraph (Nezavisne dnevne novine Srpski telegraf) and the news portal republika.rs. The complaint concerns articles published in the referenced media in which the signer Aleksandar Vuksanovic, better known as Aca Lukas, “threatened” to “kill” Ivanovic and Kesic if his “mother dies” because “they were calling on people to come out to the streets and disregard self-isolation measures”. The complaint points out that the singer’s “threat” is based on “inaccurate information,” which the journalists failed to verify. Also, the second article complained of, in addition to the above statements, contains several assertions that can be characterized as hate speech and incitement to violence towards Kesic and Ivanovic.

The Commission determined that the referenced articles violate the provisions of the Code of Conduct concerning the journalists’ “obligation to uphold the culture and ethics of the public word” and “the dignity and integrity of the people they write about”. “It remained unknown to their readers that Kesic and Ivanovic, not only denied having called on people not to respect the measures during the state of emergency but provided evidence that, to the contrary, they continuously invited people to stay home”, the Commission’s decision states.

You can read more on the n1info.rs portal, and the Press Council web page.